Te wa hou o Matariki me Puanga – A stellar celebration is born

I greet and acknowledge the Bidjigal and Gadigal people on whose lands and rivers my family and I draw physical and spiritual sustenance from.

Sovereignty on your lands as well as that of my Father’s was never ceded.

I have fond memories of the recognition, resurgence and re-celebrations of te wa o Matariki , the time of Matariki. This includes memories of listening to Sir Pou Temara, a well-respected Ngai Tuhoe Man who was himself educated through Māori whare wananga, a customary education system. He would speak affectionately of his experiences of Tohunga (experts) from Ngati Kahungunu coming across to his tribal lands in Te Urewera to view Matariki and see the light emanating from the constellation to determine what the weather would be like over the forthcoming summer and beyond.

For us Māori, this would have been indicative of the period where we could not only have access to a wide range of sustainable food, which was managed through systems of rahui, a practice summed up as conservation techniques. It would signify the key timing of voyaging to ancestral islands in Te moana nui a Kiwa, the Pacific.

This year, in Aotearoa and in Australia we step up our celebrations with the acknowledgement of the star Puanga or Rigel being recognised as a part of the celebration and public holiday.

Matariki would speak to the ancient scholarship of Māori along with seasonal indicators such as the Puawānanga, or Clematis paniculata, which is a climbing vine and has large fragrant white flowers. The flowers bloom in spring and festoon the canopy of the forests and riverbanks of the three Islands.

Puawānanga is said to be an offspring of the stars with its striking star-like profile and it, along with Puanga, indicates the coming spring and the migration of Eels through waterways and small patches of land.

The First Nations & Pasifika division at the Australian Museum recently engaged in activations of Matariki me Puanga by observing the Hautapu or sacred steam that comes from an earth oven and rises to mingle among the stars.

This is done to remember the loved ones we have lost over the past year and to provide gratitude for the harvest of sustainable foods provided by nature and represented by manifestations and expressed by various elements.

It is a special time of peace and reflection aside from busy lives and responsibilities, curated by Ancestors who lived under southern skies.

Logan Haronga-Metcalfe, Pasifika Collections Officer at the Australian Museum.