Editorial: Seeing Matariki through faraway eyes

Nan teaches Ururangi about the stars in the Matariki cluster. Illustration / Ben Cummins

Editorial

Sometimes life and all its varied situations can seem hard and insurmountable.

It’s a common device to help people recover some perspective when overwhelmed by life to imagine being on a faraway star and looking back at Earth to consider the significance of challenges being faced.

Out there, in the galaxy, our problems are rendered even smaller than specks of dust.

This Friday, we celebrate Matariki, an abbreviation of Ngā Mata o te Ariki Tāwhirimātea [the eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea]. And what a sight we might seem to be to these lofty eyes, at times.

In this election year, we have made much of debates over the control of water, Government agency names, the name of our nation and even road signs. Steeped in these discussions is the continued renaissance of te reo Māori.

It is now 48 years since the Treaty of Waitangi Act established the Waitangi Tribunal as a permanent commission of inquiry that makes recommendations on claims brought by Māori relating to Crown actions that breach the promises made in Te Tiriti.

This is a forever journey for New Zealand. The tribunal will continue to hear claims and make recommendations.

At times, progress for Māori must have seemed interminably slow. In these past couple of years, change has occurred at a rate that appeared to be much too fast for some New Zealanders.

But out of this renewal of te reo and te ao Māori, all but lost, came the impetus for the first national holiday to recognise and celebrate mātauranga, or the knowledge of Māori.

It will always fall on a Friday, offering a long weekend as a respite at the coldest time of the year. For many of us, that is celebration enough - a mid-winter breather during the shortest days. Others will join the burgeoning roster of events that will grow each year.

As we said in the inaugural year, Matariki will always be Māori in origin and essence, but it can bring us to celebrate as a nation. As we mark this new star on our calendar, it is an exciting moment to relish, to consider the possibilities for how we spend Matariki and, in doing so, reflect on who we were, are, and want to be as a nation.

Aotearoa New Zealand is a young country, the last on Earth to feel the footsteps of people. Our Matariki public holiday is younger still, just in its second year. Each year, Matariki will evolve, cultivated by the people of the motu.

Yes, we have differences. And people continue to come from all parts of the world to become tangata Tiriti, the partners of Māori under the principles of the Treaty. We must strive to celebrate these differences, even more than using them to define what divides us.

Out there, to the eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea as they appear on our horizon, there’s only one type of people on this 5.97 billion trillion metric tonne rock - humankind.

Matariki hunga nui - let Matariki bring us together.