Mauriceville School students have been casting their eyes skyward during lessons about the Matariki star cluster and the Maori New Year.
Principal Rebecca Stevens said students had been led through lessons built about the rising of the Matariki or Pleiades constellation, which in Maori culture signals a new year and a turning point in the cycle of planting and harvest, death and new life.
The Matariki cluster of about 500 stars rises in late May or early June. Matariki remains in the north-eastern skies through to March, after which the constellation vanishes for two months, during autumn, before rising again and resuming its ancient cycle.
Early Maori used the Matariki system, along with other stars and natural signs, to navigate ocean distances. The constellation on land was linked to the seasons for harvesting and planting, with the months just before its rising a season for Maori to harvest and preserve food for the winter months.
Mrs Stevens said Mauriceville School pupils had been telling Matariki stories and had studied the associated planting, harvest and life cycles of vegetables in New Zealand, as well as creating works of art and completing lessons on the Matariki constellation. "We also had a celebration day and invited friends and whanau, and we learned how to weave paper, flax and wool, made stars, finished our potato art and illustrations of the Rangi and Papa story and made vegetable soup."
