A revival we can be grateful for
How was your first Matariki? Some Pa¯ keha¯ will have been nervous about this one, unsure of the rights and wrongs, or wondering if there was something in particular they should be doing.
That would be understandable. Matariki is the first public holiday to be added to the New Zealand calendar since Waitangi Day in 1974, and that was just the full recognition of a day already observed for 40 years by then.
But for most of us, Matariki has been on the radar only since 2020 when some media companies, including Stuff, promoted a mid-winter celebration and, on the campaign trail, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised a new public holiday.
It made sense for a number of reasons. Northern hemisphere holidays have felt awkward at the bottom of the world, whether setting off fireworks before the evenings are dark or devouring a Christmas roast dinner during the heat of summer.
Like the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, Matariki recognises the beginning of a new cycle or new year, starting when the nights are longest and the days shortest, signalled by the appearance of the Pleiades star cluster.
Other cultures know it under different names, which National MP Simon O’Connor clumsily tried to explain when he said the astronomical name of the cluster, Messier 45, would be more ‘‘neutral’’ than Matariki. That idea of ‘‘neutrality’’ would have defeated the entire purpose of an indigenous holiday.
Besides, Matariki does seem to have been neutral. While we live in fraught times for racial politics, the new holiday has not been caught in the dragnet of reaction against the so-called ‘‘Ma¯ orification’’ of New Zealand that has seen the new history curriculum, the Three Waters reform, Ma¯ tauranga Ma¯ ori and the Ma¯ ori Health Authority as examples of allegedly sinister attempts to remake national identity.
Matariki is a public holiday that ‘‘distinctly recognises and celebrates Te Ao Ma¯ ori’’, as Ardern said in 2020, yet it has passed without divisiveness or rancour. It already seems more meaningful to us in New Zealand than Queen’s Birthday, which it could easily replace as a mid-year day off.
Perhaps it helps that its three themes are easily transferable beyond its immediate cultural context. As in a New Year’s celebration, there is a remembrance of the past and those we have lost, gratitude for the present, and planning for the future. Will Matariki resolutions become a thing?
Beyond those themes, there is the astronomical dimension, which could provide an impetus to the growing field of dark sky tourism. Soon Kiwis will be able to identify more than just the Southern Cross. The nine stars of the cluster are traditionally understood in environmental terms, to represent food, water and other resources. This will soon be identified with contemporary messages about sustainability and stewardship.
These old traditions have modern applicability. But we also have to be clear that all traditions evolve and adapt, and while the Government has been strict about the need to keep Matariki uncommercial, there is no way to control the meanings and actions it might eventually incorporate once the non-Ma¯ ori population adopts or recognises it.
In any event, it will always be understood as something specifically geographical as well as an expression of Ma¯ ori identity more generally. While many countries now celebrate Indigenous People’s Day, often as a direct counter to days which honoured their ‘‘discovery’’, such as Columbus Day in the United States, it is unusual and bold to have precolonial traditions revived as an official public holiday in countries like ours. That is something we can reflect on, and feel grateful for.
Soon Kiwis will be able to identify more than just the Southern Cross.