Strong winds at 6am on Friday, July 21, didn’t deter a good turnout from the Carlton School community to celebrate Puanga/Matariki, the Māori New Year, around a bonfire on the playing field.
Mātua Robin Ohia led with a ruruku and then explained that if you get up early in the morning on a clear day, Puanga rises quite high in the sky. As well as the position of the stars, he said some are actually planets, such as Mars.
“Matariki cluster was thought to be seven stars, but with astronomy, you can find something else,” he said. “We had a closer look and found there were nine stars.
“The extra stars are, first: Hiwa-i-te-rangi, known as the wishing star, Māori traditionally would use this star to set their desires and dreams for the year, commonly known now as New Year’s resolutions. Second, Pōhutukawa is connected to the dead and those tīpuna who have passed away in the past year.
“Later in the morning, we revealed and shared our ‘wayfinding’ project, made up of murals to help others navigate around our school,” he said.
