Matariki

Matariki is the Māori name for the star cluster known in English as the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters; the first rising of these stars in late May or early June is also the name for the Māori New Year holiday. In the Māori (or te reo) language, Matariki is short for Ngā Mata o te Ariki (meaning the “eyes of god”). The term references the Māori god of wind and weather named Tāwhirimātea. In New Zealand, where the Māori make their home, the months of May and April occur at the end of summer, and as such they represent the harvest season. The sight of Matariki in the night sky signified the time when the Māori would gather food and preserve it for the coming winter. The reappearance of Matariki in the next monthly cycle in June-July was used to predict the success of the next harvest. Clear, bright stars meant a warmer season and a good harvest, while haziness indicated that the winter would bring bad weather.

Beginning in the twenty-first century, Matariki has gained renewed interest as a cultural celebration and has increasingly become linked to Māori cultural pride. Festivals celebrating Matariki have seen enormous growth since the late 1990s. The Hawke’s Bay Matariki festival, for instance, saw attendance rise from 500 people in 2000 to 15,000 by 2003. Because the holiday is linked to the movement of the stars, it is celebrated on different dates every year.

Background

The Matariki, or Pleiades, is a star cluster located in the Taurus constellation. It is composed of more than five hundred stars, though only a few are visible to the naked eye. A star cluster is different from a constellation. Constellations only appear to be moving together because of how they are seen from the Earth’s surface. As a result, over great stretches of time, as stars and the Earth move, constellations may change shape. A star cluster, on the other hand, consists of a group of stars connected by gravitational forces that cause them to rotate together. As such, they remain in the same formation over extended periods of time. This means that the stars making up Matariki appear in exactly the same place every year and look virtually identical to how they were seen by the first humans. Located only 440 light years away, the Matariki cluster is among the closest such sets of stars to Earth.

Beyond its value as a predictor for the harvest season, Matariki also had great importance to both the Māori and other Polynesian cultures as a navigational guide when crossing the ocean. These ancient oceanic travelers would use its position to orient themselves so they could track their location without landmarks. The Matariki was also a vital tool in maintaining the maramataka, the Māori lunar calendar. Tracking the movement, brightness, and color of the cluster was the job of the tohunga kōkōrangi, a revered figure who served to analyze the stars for his clan. From these observations, the tohunga kōkōrangi would make predictions about future harvests, the weather, and coming omens.

Overview

According to one Māori legend, several children of the sky father, Ranginui, and earth mother, Papatūānuku, wanted to separate their parents so they could stop living in eternal darkness. When the god of the forest, Tāne Mahuta, separated Ranginui and Papatūānuku, his brother Tāwhirimātea was so upset that he tore out his own eyes and threw the broken pieces into the sky. The glassy pieces of his eyes became the Matariki star cluster.

Although this cluster comprises seven stars, the Māori believed that it originally consisted of nine stars, but two were lost over time. Each of the nine stars has a special significance representing the different forms of the natural environment as the Māori saw them. Each star is associated with a female identity.

An alternative legend assigns identities to the nine stars. Matariki, a daughter of the earth mother Papatūānuku, is the mother and the remaining eight are identified as her daughters. Matariki represents reflection, hope, and humanity’s connection to their environment. Pōhutukawa symbolizes the link between the living and the dead. Waitī and Waitā each represent a body of water—Waitī to freshwater and Waitā to the ocean—and the bounties that they provide. Waipuna-ā-rangi is linked to the rain. Tupuānuku and Tupuārangi are symbolic of the food provided to people, with Tupuānuku representing foods grown in the soil and Tupuārangi being connected to fruit trees. Ururangi is tied to the winds, while Hiwa-i-te-rangi, the youngest and the last, serves as the wishing star. Hiwa-i-te-rangi was the most important in some ways, because she has associations with the ambitions and hopes that people carry into the new year. The brightness of each individual star was believed to demonstrate how strong that force would be in the coming year. For example, if Waipuna-ā-rangi was brightest, it meant that the year would bring strong rains, while if Waitā was particularly dim, it meant a poor fish harvest.

The traditional celebration of Matariki included preparing the ground for the coming year. The Māori would also make offerings to various gods, including Rongo, the god of agriculture. Typically, once the agriculture harvesting and preparation for the next season had been completed, the Māori would celebrate Matariki by gathering with family and enjoying large feasts, songs, and dance. Some clans would use this time to call out the names of the recently deceased in the pre-dawn hours when the stars were brightest. Kite flying was similarly used by some clans as a means of creating a connection between Earth and the sky.

The Māori celebrated Matariki for centuries. However, the growing cultural integration of the Māori, a movement away from traditional rituals, and forced abandonment of religious practices deemed by Westerners to be pagan led to a slow decline in the celebration of Matariki. By the 1940s, it had become largely forgotten. In the 1990s, it was revitalized when Rangi Matamua, later a professor of indigenous studies at the University of Waikato, rediscovered an old manuscript written by his great grandfather detailing the Māori astronomical record and the celebration of Matariki.

In its modern form, Matariki is intended as a time of remembrance when the living honor the deceased and plan ahead for the coming year. Many New Zealand communities have started their own Matariki traditions, although festivals typically include Māori storytelling, kite and balloon flying, and fireworks displays. A movement to make Matariki a national holiday was working. Advocates hoped to establish a celebration that showcases the country’s unique identity and cultural history.

Bibliography

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