Opinion: We were in the workshop, developing projects for our Matariki exhibition of the Kāpiti Arts & Crafts Society. Jo was weaving harakeke. I was working on stars for a textile triptych. Dave had made a miniature leather-bound book and Jo suggested he create a Matariki set.
Margaret was thinking about a collage but was concerned about working on a Matariki project as a Pākehā. Was it “cultural appropriation”? Jo was familiar with the issues, as she had studied weaving at Te Wānanga o Raukawa. For her, Matariki has many parallels with pagan midwinter celebrations.
The dark nights are a time of reflection, on what has passed and what is to come in the new year. Dave reflected on the meanings given to the various stars. Dave’s example was Tupuārangi: representing the trees, the fruit of trees and the birds of the trees. These days we eat fruit of many different trees. We do not always have an everyday experience of that intimate connection between birds, fruit and trees. Yet the connections between them are still real: our ignorance does not change that reality.
Margaret was reading out information on the internet about Matariki, something like, this star might inspire you to join the gym, that star to plant a garden. But to me, they seemed to be remarkably individualistic aspirations.
Matariki, like Northern Hemisphere celebrations such as the Scottish Hogmanay, takes place about the time of the winter solstice. As the rising of Matariki is called the Māori New Year, it does seem reasonable for Pākehā to start with New Year traditions that we have imported with us, such as resolutions. I’d say the main reason our New Year resolutions seldom last is that so often they are about individual achievement. Like Sir Edmund Hillary, we all need others alongside us to achieve. We all depend on each other.
We’re familiar enough with the month of January being named after the Roman god Janus, who looks backwards and forwards: learning what we can from the past to take with us into the future. There is a parallel with the Pōhutukawa star, remembering those who have gone before us, and Hiwa-i-te-Rangi, planning for the year ahead.
I did an internet search of my own and found that in ancient Irish, pre-Celtic lore, these stars are known as the Stròilìn. The Matariki or Stròilìn star cluster rises some weeks before the winter solstice. The rising of these stars in November marked the beginning of the dark months. Like so many pagan festivals, it became incorporated into the Christian calendar, into the little-remembered St Martin’s Day, also called “Old Halloween”.
Matariki, the “mother” of the other stars in the cluster, encourages a focus on relationships and connectedness. The insight that Matariki gives us is that when we reflect on the year that’s passed, and think of the year ahead, we need to do this together.
A holiday allows us time outside our everyday routine to be able to share time to do this with those we love, and maybe even some of those it’s a bit of a stretch to love.
For Matariki to be a national celebration in Aotearoa New Zealand, Pākehā need to contribute. As migrants and children of migrants, we all have some experience of adjusting our own cultural heritage to the yearly cycle of life here, but we also have the wisdom and insights of Māori, who collectively have hundreds of years more experience in living with the rhythm of this land that we call home.
Margaret Denton lives in Raumati and has a background in sewing and embroidery and upcycling.
