What the stars can tell us
Growing up as a New Zealander of European descent usually meant working your way through the horoscope and Greek mythology when staring up at a starry sky.
I remember friends getting caught up on what their star sign predicted for that year, month, week or day depending on their source of “literature”!
Recently I’ve found a new interest in the constellations after a star-gazing tour with Horizon Tours in Dunedin (page 62) and my mind has been opened up learning about Matariki and the Māori New Year. I didn’t realise that each star in the Matariki group represents something unique – food grown in the ground, air (birds) or ocean, and the wind and rain. And the varying brightness of different individual stars provides clues for the year ahead. How’s planting going to be? Will there be enough rain? Do we need to be concentrating on fresh or salt water?
Simply put, as Heeni Hoterene writes in her article on Matariki on page 31, if the stars are shining brightly it’s a sign of a prosperous year ahead, if not, prepare for a hard one and work extremely smart.
The Māori New Year marks the rising of the Matariki star cluster, also known as the Pleiades. This year the new moon Whiro rises on June 21 and it’s a time of reflection, celebration and preparation. It’s something I believe all New Zealanders should embrace. Why not have a Matariki public holiday?
To mark this very special issue celebrating the Māori New Year, Good magazine brought together the work of leading Māori fashion designers from around New Zealand. Our beautiful cover model Hazel Wineera-Ellis of Ataahua Models even drove from Taupō to our location Little Wilderness in Huapai. It was a beautiful day at Little Wilderness, an off-grid event venue with eco principles and backdrops of harakeke, toetoe as well as many introduced
plants gone wild. You can see these stunning images taken by renowned fashion photographer David Shields on pages 30 to 35.
Because Matariki falls in winter it is also a time to hunker down, and reserve your energy. We have a wonderful mindfulness word find puzzle on page 127 where you can take your time searching out the names of native botanicals. You can also find tips for how to “live life in the slow lane” on page 102.
Matariki is also a time for reflection, and in this issue we talk about being “childless/child-free”. A friend of mine suggested an article on this topic would resonate with a lot of people. She had been unsuccessfully trying IVF for years and had to face the hard truth that she was never going to be able to biologically have her own children.
I’m also child-free, and have suffered the grief of loss of what could have been after having a miscarriage. That child, if they had come to be, would now be 7. Yet life takes many twists and turns. I have a rich life filled with a loving partner, friends and family, and the freedom to travel, which is one of my biggest loves. I know that with or without a baby, I’m okay. As Dr Alice Boyes writes in this piece on pages 110 to 113, “there’s no evidence that having a child is essential to having a happy and meaningful life…”.
The message for me is to continue to celebrate life and I’m looking forward to inviting friends round for Matariki dinner and some good kai.