Puanga is higher in the sky than Matariki and is seen by the South Island tribes and the far north iwi on the West Coast of Aotearoa. Some iwi celebrate Puanga before Matariki because Matariki cannot be seen as clearly across Aotearoa.
And even here in Tamaki, our western tribes couldn’t see Matariki because of a big dark front.
So when Puanga comes up, all of the East Coast tribes will see that.
Puanga is in our skies for about two to three weeks. In May, you’ll see it disappear on the other side, then it rises back up in the east.
Puanga and Matariki share similar significance, the highest being a time of reflection and a time to plan for the future.
It sets the scene to remember our loved ones who have died in the previous 12 months.
And so when the sun goes down on that last day of the previous year, a new rising of the sun will happen. And with that new day comes new hope and a new future.
It’s usually on the first sighting of those stars that you could forecast the whole year ahead.
So our people would forecast the season of fishing and planting on that very first sighting of Puanga and Matariki. That’s why it is very important for our people.
Iwi would light a fire and celebrate the spiritual realm, to remember those of the past who it’s sort of putting to sleep.
Māori can forecast rain on the first sighting of Puanga and Matariki – and we’ve had so much rain this past summer. So it’ll be interesting to see what the rising of Matariki brings us this year. Hopefully, it’ll be sun.
So that’s our winter star, which is well known for taking a lot of our old people at this time of the year through the cold months, through the winter months.
In the old days, before summer or autumn and before winter, Māori would preserve kai, hang fish to dry, and preserve the birds and goods.
The great thing about Matariki and Puanga is that our kids are now learning about this at school.
The curriculum is awesome, and the more you get into it, the more stories are related to it.
There’s a whole universe of stars out there that have importance to our people.
Our people travelled to Aotearoa following the stars. They were great navigators and knew to follow the direction of the water hitting that particular part of their bow.
Our ancestors were very clever navigators, following these types of stars that would have been right in the middle at that particular time, because you wouldn’t travel in the winter.
The celebration of clay crops in the winter months is very much harvesting, if you like, or getting gardens prepared.
