Celebrating Matariki
The stars are aligning for a week of familyfriendly activities this Matariki, with the Ma¯ ori New Year coinciding with the winter school holidays.
Matariki is the Ma¯ ori name for the cluster of stars also known as the Pleiades. The cluster disappears for about 28 days during midwinter and when it reappears on the horizon – this year from 13 to 16 July – the Ma¯ ori New Year begins.
Wha¯ nau and friends use the reappearance to reflect and prepare for the seasons ahead.
Christchurch’s annual children’s festival KidsFest, running for two weeks from July 4, has several Matariki-themed events planned during the school holidays, from July 4 – 19.
For the foodies, traditionally cooked ha¯ ngi, fried bread and boil-up will be served at Matariki in the Zone, an annual event held at Avebury House and the Richmond Community Gardens on July 19.
Richmond Community Garden coordinator Cathy Allden said organising this year’s event was lengthy due to uncertainty over funding because of coronavirus.
Co-organiser Tanya Didham, from Avebury House, said she planned to extend the onenight event into a week of festivities, with live entertainment, sustainable living workshops, wood carving, flax weaving, star gazing and a trail ride under the fairy lights all options.
Christchurch City Council manager of events and arts Lucy Blackmore said Ma¯ ori New Year was becoming more widely celebrated each year, and was a ‘‘great way to teach children about the importance of reflecting, celebrating together and moving forward’’.
Popular events, including guided lantern-lit Matariki Night Walks beside the Styx River, are fully booked, but families can join a Nightlife Lantern Walk through Riccarton
Bush and discover the nocturnal wildlife in the area instead. The self-guided trail runs every evening of KidsFest between 5.30pm and 7.30pm and a printable guide will be available on KidsFest in Parks.
The council’s parks team is also hosting Matariki planting events, including two at the Rongoa¯ Garden on Marshlands Rd on July 12. The dawn planting will be followed by a hui to plan for the year to come. A second familyfriendly planting event will be held at 10am.
Alternatively, join park rangers for a Matariki planting event at the new West Broken Run Reserve in Wigram on July 17.
The KidsFest Matariki Discovery Trail offers free, self-guided trails for children to try at Halswell Quarry Park, Ferrymead Park,
The Botanic Gardens and Radcliffe Rd Reserve throughout the festival. The aim of the trail is to find each of the nine stars of Matariki.
Uncertainty around public gatherings mean the libraries weren’t able to plan their usual programme of Matariki events. Te Iwa o Matariki will go ahead digitally with weekly stories, songs and craft activities on the libraries’ Facebook page.
At the Christchurch Arts Centre, children can make a hanging star containing the Matariki constellation on July 18. A Matariki workshop Wananga Ao Te Ma¯ rama will be held by rongoa¯ (healing) practitioners, and people can write in and describe what Matariki means to them and have it published on the Canterbury Stories digital heritage site.
1. Which Australian state was not used as a site for British penal colonies: Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales or Tasmania?
2. What has a headset, a crank arm and a down tube?
3. What word preceded Blue, Colours and Faith in the titles of hit songs by Madonna, Cyndi Lauper and New Order?
4. What word can follow slack, neap or spring?
5. Name the year in which Apple launched the first iPhone, The Big Bang Theory had its premiere and the documentary An Inconvenient Truth won an Academy Award.
6. Complete the name of the title character in a 19th-century children’s novel: Little Lord . . .
7. In a nursery rhyme, who stole a pig and away did run?
8. What late 20th-century
New Zealand prime minister was the MP for Christchurch Central?
9. Who is the villain in Shakespeare’s play Othello: Desdemona, Iago or Othello?
10. Who was the United States president when the first manned spacecraft landed on the moon: John F Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson or Richard Nixon?