Dave Mollard's Change is Constant: It's time to create Manawatū Day

An astrophoto of the Matariki star cluster. Photo / Stephen Chadwick

OPINION:

On Friday, June 24, 2022 we can all take the day off (except our essential workers, ka pai to you), gather with the people we love, reflect on the previous lunar year and plan for the next.

We will connect and celebrate the uniqueness of being a Kiwi; no matter what our ethnicity, we all call these beautiful islands home.

Of all our holidays Matariki, along with Waitangi Day, are the only ones we at the bottom right-hand corner of the globe celebrate.

I love that Waitangi Day is a day of conversation, a day of increasing awareness of our own history and the ongoing issues we need to overcome.

It's not a hyper patriotic day, we don't fly flags from every building, we don't loudly announce to the world who we are, our fighter jets don't fly in formation over the Auckland Harbour Bridge (to be honest we don't have any fighter jets), most of us just quietly go about the business of being kind to each other.

The creation of this new holiday has made me reflect on what public holidays are important to me. Christmas is a time of being with the people I love; Waitangi Day, a day of reflection of who we are and where we have come from; Anzac Day, probably our most sacred day, a day of appreciation for the peace we have and remembrance of those that made the ultimate sacrifice so we could voice any opinion we want.

Labour Day reminds me that despite our increasing gap between those that own homes and those that don't, we still live in one of the most egalitarian countries on earth.

The rest of the holidays don't mean that much to me. I don't mind the Queen, but celebrating her birthday (on the wrong day) is nothing I have an emotional connection to. New Year's is okay, but it really is just a reminder I'm not 18 any more and also to change the calendar on the fridge.

The worst day of all is Wellington Anniversary Day, we take a day off in the middle of the summer school holidays just a couple of weeks after we have all returned from our annual pilgrimages to our favourite beaches.

Manawatū is not Wellington - we are our own region with our own culture (well the culture bit may be a stretch). Let's create our own day, a day that fits perfectly with our lifestyle. We could add it on to Waitangi Day or plonk it a couple of weeks later in February when our weather is at its best!

Maybe after we say goodbye to our Queen, we could add that day to our Manawatū Day to form a super weekend!

Let's embrace Matariki as a taonga, a treasure we celebrate to remind ourselves what it means to live in the new New Zealand.

The only constant is change.

• Dave Mollard is a Palmerston North community worker and social commentator.