Matariki

Ideas for celebrating Matariki in Auckland, the traditional Māori New year, with friends and family.

Matariki is an ideal time to enrich your knowledge of the stars - starting with their names and the stories behind them - and deepen your understanding of its significance within te ao Māori, along with te reo Māori, tikanga Māori and a whole lot else! Matariki Lights at Stardome is on until 25 June featuring an installation of moving pillars of light with the beautiful sounds of taonga pūoro. Or head to the Matariki on the Move shows in later weeks and take a virtual journey to the stars with live music performed by contemporary Māori musicians. In te ao Māori, Matariki is about the reappearance of the constellation to the sky, honouring loved ones who have died in the preceeding year, and blessing the year ahead. Or take the tamariki to the Stardome at Maungakiekie in the evenings. Over the weeks of Matariki Festival, events in each corner of the region will unite Aucklanders in celebration. Here are nine ways you can embrace the kaupapa of the Māori New Year in Tāmaki Makaurau – one for each star in the cluster.

Aotearoa will celebrate its newest public holiday, Matariki, on June 24.

Sunday’s Tamati Rimene-Sproat travelled to the South Island to learn more about the cluster of stars, and its significance. Celebrating it as an official public holiday is an acknowledgement of traditions that were on the brink of being lost forever. When looking to the sky in midwinter, Matariki is the cluster of stars that marks te Mātahi o te Tau/ the Māori New Year.

To honour Matariki in style, Hamilton City Council and Matariki Ki Waikato have a range of events happening across the city. There's something for everyone, ...

This is a free event but booking via the Hamilton Gardens website is essential. Our libraries have partnered with Te Whare o Te Ata – Fairfield Community House, and they’re celebrating Matariki by hosting a range of fun family and child-friendly activities such as stargazing, painting and Maaori kite making. Here’s a breakdown of what’s happening in the city:

Master navigator Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr wants all New Zealanders to take part in this year's Matariki celebrations. His Te Toki Voyaging Trust is holding a ...

“It’s not just Māori people who want to remember their friends so I invite all people in the community in Aoteaeoa to take this time to think about those special people in their lives who have passed on and to think and wish for the good things they want in their lives for the year to come,” Mr Barclay-Kerr says. He says it’s an opportunity to start the Māori new year, and the new public holiday in the right way.. His Te Toki Voyaging Trust is holding a number of activities this week, including sailing at Whaingaroa-Raglan for local kura, and a panel discussion on maramataka at the Kāwhia Town Hall on Saturday.

In a flurry of vegetable peeling, a production line of school children excitedly prepare for what is for most of them their first hāngī.

“Our culture at Turitea is very diverse and for a lot of our whānau this is very new to them, and our way to give them a piece of New Zealand.” “With this year being the first year of Matariki being celebrated as a public holiday, I felt we needed to strengthen our connection with mana whēnua, being Rangitāne, and realised the kids had not had a mārae stay in some time.” It is an altogether new experience for the majority of the pupils at Turitea School, at Linton, and the reason why principal Troy Duckworth encouraged them to engage in the noho mārae at Te Hotu Manawa o Rangitāne o Manawatū on Maxwells Line in Palmerston North.