Speaker 1: Hilda.
Speaker 2: I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
Speaker 2: daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. Unity is
Speaker 2: the theme for this year's Masoiki. Today is the fourth
Speaker 2: year of the public holiday marking the Mali New Year.
Speaker 2: It's the first holiday to recognize molding and the first
Speaker 2: new public holiday introduced since Why Tungi Day became a
Speaker 2: holiday in nineteen seventy four. Today on the front page,
Speaker 2: Professor Rangi Matamua, the chief advisor for Maturiki, is with
Speaker 2: us to take us through what the holiday means.
Speaker 3: First off, Rangi, what is Matariki.
Speaker 4: So Matariki is a cluster of stars, most commonly known
Speaker 4: as play and so it's in the constellation of Taurus.
Speaker 4: And it's actually there are a few hundred stars in
Speaker 4: that cluster, but there's only a handful that are visible
Speaker 4: to the naked eye. So Maturik is the Mali name
Speaker 4: that's given to.
Speaker 5: That group of stars.
Speaker 2: And in terms of martaiqui, what's the law there if
Speaker 2: people don't know?
Speaker 4: So, stars rise four minutes earlier every day. So the
Speaker 4: stars you see in the sky, say in the summertime
Speaker 4: in the morning, are not the stars that you see
Speaker 4: in the sky in the winter time, they change, they
Speaker 4: change their positions throughout the year.
Speaker 5: And so what happens is Martariqui will.
Speaker 4: Rise on the horizon in the eastern sky just before
Speaker 4: the sun rises in the middle of winter. So when
Speaker 4: it appears in that position in the middle of winter,
Speaker 4: before the sun rises, you knew that you were around
Speaker 4: the shortest day of the year. And so that was
Speaker 4: a marker for when people begin their New Year celebration.
Speaker 4: And most cultures that have a New year, if that's
Speaker 4: you know, for want of a better phrase, sell lebraided
Speaker 4: it in the winter. You'll see that right across Europe.
Speaker 4: You'll see that in many other cultures as well. They'll
Speaker 4: wait till the middle of winter and then they knew
Speaker 4: that the shortest day had ended and the you know,
Speaker 4: somen was coming back and bringing back life and warmth
Speaker 4: of the earth.
Speaker 5: Well, Mardi did exactly the same.
Speaker 4: But the marker that we chose to understand and know
Speaker 4: when we were in the correct phase of celebration was
Speaker 4: the pre dawn rising of Matadiki.
Speaker 3: And I understand that there's a theme this year. What's that?
Speaker 4: So the theme this year is matadi Ki mapuanga that
Speaker 4: means mataiki and Puanger.
Speaker 5: So you know, Mahdi, just like any other group of people.
Speaker 4: We have our own you know, you can even though
Speaker 4: you're one people, perhaps we have so much diversity within
Speaker 4: our within our culture, and different regions have different approaches.
Speaker 4: For the vast majority of Maldi, Matadiki is the symbol
Speaker 4: that begins the new year, but for some tribes, the
Speaker 4: star Puanger or Ridal is actually the star that marks
Speaker 4: the beginning of the new year. It's a star that
Speaker 4: rises near at the same time of the year, but
Speaker 4: it was just a different start that was selected.
Speaker 5: So what we're doing in this year is.
Speaker 4: Celebrating mantari qui mar puna, which means celebrate together.
Speaker 5: So we're saying to people, even though you.
Speaker 4: Might have perhaps a little bit different approach, or there
Speaker 4: are these wonderful nuanced eardiosyncrasies or different characteristics that different
Speaker 4: regions have, we should celebrate those, but also come together
Speaker 4: to celebrate the Mardi New Year.
Speaker 6: Siniki is representative of the Marii new year, but also
Speaker 6: something that was key as part of seasonal recognizing the
Speaker 6: change in seasons, and also recognized in different regions of
Speaker 6: it sometimes being at different times, but it is unique
Speaker 6: to New Zealand. It is something that's unique about our
Speaker 6: place in the world, and so it's a real chance
Speaker 6: for us to not only mark that in our own calendar,
Speaker 6: but to showcase that internationally as well.
Speaker 2: How significant do you think that that theme of unity
Speaker 2: is at a time when there's been a lot of
Speaker 2: talk about culture wars and of course the Treaty Principal's Bill,
Speaker 2: It seems pretty timely to be thinking of togetherness. You know.
Speaker 4: It's we're in a period where there's a lot of division,
Speaker 4: and not just in the country but right across the world,
Speaker 4: and it's often driven, i think, in many ways at
Speaker 4: a political level. And so people become divided because of
Speaker 4: their different, diverse practices, or different backgrounds or even different lifestyles,
Speaker 4: and so people become isolated and marginalized, and words become weaponized,
Speaker 4: and people become politicized and then even radicalized.
Speaker 5: And so the division does that.
Speaker 4: And what we're saying is it's okay to be different,
Speaker 4: It's okay, but it's about coming together with our difference,
Speaker 4: is to celebrate the things that make us the same.
Speaker 4: There isn't a single person who lives in this country
Speaker 4: who does not descend from a culture that used that
Speaker 4: group of stars Matiqui or plad E's or the Seven
Speaker 4: Sisters or the hen in checks, regardless of where you
Speaker 4: are in the world, that did not look to those
Speaker 4: stars to mark new year, or to mark planting, or
Speaker 4: to mark harvest or many other things.
Speaker 5: And so it's saying we're from all.
Speaker 4: Of these different, diverse backgrounds, but we come together to
Speaker 4: celebrate as one. I think it's such an important message
Speaker 4: in the context of where we are in terms of
Speaker 4: I guess the climate that is dividing many of us.
Speaker 3: Why does the date change every year?
Speaker 5: You do you know why Easter changes every year?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: Yeah, And you know most people don't know. The reason
Speaker 4: Easter changes every year, and it's about a month's difference
Speaker 4: is because the Easter celebration is built on a lunar
Speaker 4: solar calendar. It's not part of the Gregorian calendar. It
Speaker 4: existed well before the three hundred and sixty five and
Speaker 4: called a day Gregorian calendar system that we follow today,
Speaker 4: and it was based on a particular lunar period of
Speaker 4: a particular lunar month, and that's why it shifts because
Speaker 4: the lunar months and the solar months are not the
Speaker 4: same thing. And that's exactly the reason why Mantadiki shifts,
Speaker 4: because it's based on a traditional Mildi lunar calendar system
Speaker 4: that re existed here before the arrival of the Gregorian calendar.
Speaker 4: So it shifts against the Gregorian calendar, but in terms
Speaker 4: of the lunar calendar, it stays the same. Now, lunar
Speaker 4: calendars they only have three hundred and fifty four days,
Speaker 4: not three hundred and sixty five. So it just don't
Speaker 4: want to bore people too much with the kinds of
Speaker 4: it all, but fairly much. It means every three years
Speaker 4: you need to add an additional lunar month into the
Speaker 4: calendar system to make sure that your lunar cycle sinks
Speaker 4: into your solar cycle. And so that's the reason why
Speaker 4: Easter shifts and the same reason why Mantaiqi shifts.
Speaker 5: So have you viewed the cluster yet?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 5: Do you know how to?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 7: Okay, wake up? Go outside.
Speaker 5: There's a hard part.
Speaker 7: You're already away before sunrise. Once the sun's up foot
Speaker 7: washes out the stars. You don't want to get up
Speaker 7: to real leaf because you have to wait for the
Speaker 7: cluster to actually rise over the horizon. So between five
Speaker 7: thirty and six thirty is a good time of the
Speaker 7: morning to see it. You're going to look to the southeast.
Speaker 7: You're going to look for Oriyan's bout, which is also
Speaker 7: known as the pot.
Speaker 8: Ryan.
Speaker 7: It's also known as Totau, and then you're going to
Speaker 7: look straight out from the pot and you'll see Puanga. Yeah,
Speaker 7: and then you're going to look lift to the pot.
Speaker 7: You're going to see big orange stand and you're going
Speaker 7: to look a little for the lift, and then you're
Speaker 7: going to see the Matsadiki cluster. So it's just a
Speaker 7: cluster of stars and look a little bit hazy, and
Speaker 7: between five thirty and six city is the best time
Speaker 7: to see it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I saw.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty two, the Matadiki Advisory Committee set out
Speaker 2: the Maturiki Public Holiday day.
Speaker 3: For the next thirty years. How does that happen?
Speaker 4: You can actually work out what years will have extra
Speaker 4: months and when the particular and correct lunar phases will
Speaker 4: be of the correct lunar months. So it's no different
Speaker 4: as setting out moving forward Christmas for the next one
Speaker 4: hundred years. See Christmas doesn't always fall on the same day.
Speaker 4: It doesn't always fall on a Saturday or a Sunday
Speaker 4: or a Friday or a Tuesday of changes, but it
Speaker 4: will always be on the twenty fifth. That's exactly the
Speaker 4: same as we've worked out. We understand that Marta Deque
Speaker 4: won't changes against the Western calendar, but it always falls on.
Speaker 5: The correct lunar period of time. So yeah, we just you.
Speaker 4: Can project right out for thousands of years if you
Speaker 4: really wanted to, what the correct lunar phases of the
Speaker 4: correct lunar months will be.
Speaker 2: This is the fourth year celebrating Matauriqua is a public holiday.
Speaker 2: Do you think the understanding of Marsadiki has grown over
Speaker 2: that time?
Speaker 4: It clearly has, and I mean the Ministry for Culture
Speaker 4: and Heritage have put out reports every year showing that
Speaker 4: it's increased. It's gone from I think fifty one percent
Speaker 4: of the entire population to celebrating it in its first year.
Speaker 4: Last year, I think it was sixty two percent or
Speaker 4: something like that. I want to be making up numbers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was three quarters of Kiwis see
Speaker 2: Masadiki as a chance to celebrate the culture, people and
Speaker 2: stories of al Tierroa up from seventy percent in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three, So clearly, I mean that's going to be encouraging.
Speaker 4: It is, it is, and I think it's like that
Speaker 4: because there is no politics in Matauriki. There isn't There
Speaker 4: is no right way or wrong way to celebrate it.
Speaker 4: It can be as simple as just sitting down with
Speaker 4: loved ones and having a meal, to going out and
Speaker 4: watching a rugby match, to spending time going out to
Speaker 4: walk the dogs. It's about people reconnecting to their loved
Speaker 4: ones and reconnecting to the environment. There are tradition, Maldi
Speaker 4: four more ceremonies that are taking place right across the
Speaker 4: country at the moment. There are also people just in
Speaker 4: their homes spending time with each other. But it's mostly
Speaker 4: based on three principles. Number one, it's a period where
Speaker 4: we reflect on our loved ones and we honor the
Speaker 4: legacy that they've left us. The second thing we do
Speaker 4: is we celebrate all of the wonderful things that make
Speaker 4: us who we are, all of those wonderful things that
Speaker 4: means to be a ki we And the last thing,
Speaker 4: as we look to the future and look to a
Speaker 4: prosperous here, but also to who we want to be
Speaker 4: in the future, and so I think those really core, open,
Speaker 4: wonderful values resonate with all people.
Speaker 5: So I'm really stoked that it's growing. I'm really really.
Speaker 4: Happy that I get the feeling that people are starting
Speaker 4: to embrace it. They're always going to be those groups
Speaker 4: of people that will say it's just another day off
Speaker 4: for me, or I don't want to celebrate that, and
Speaker 4: that's cool, But hoping that as it starts to evolve
Speaker 4: and people become more comfortable with it and realize that
Speaker 4: there are no month police or no one's being judged,
Speaker 4: or it's open to everyone, that will become part of
Speaker 4: people's normal yearly cycle and part of our national identity.
Speaker 1: This year, to celebrate Matadiki, we're having a lot of
Speaker 1: friends over to our fuddy and we're going to put
Speaker 1: down the hangy. I'm calling it Houerdiki. It's like friends
Speaker 1: miss but for Martadiki.
Speaker 8: For Martiniqui. This year, I'm going to make some cute
Speaker 8: little short bread stars, which may not be successful, and
Speaker 8: I'm having some of my best friends over so that
Speaker 8: we can share some reflections and some of our goals
Speaker 8: for the next year.
Speaker 2: Are there any other significant dates or events in the
Speaker 2: multi calendar that you would like to see more widely
Speaker 2: celebrated as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there are there are those seasonal celebrations and those
Speaker 4: are mildly celebrated at the end of the harvest. So
Speaker 4: that was in the autumn, celebrated in the spring, when
Speaker 4: we planted, we celebrated in the middle of summer. And
Speaker 4: these were like acknowledgments of the seasonal cycles. But the
Speaker 4: big one, big one was Mataiki and that was big
Speaker 4: community events and feesting and coming together. But all of them,
Speaker 4: all of those Mali seasonal celebrations are deeply intertwined with
Speaker 4: the environment.
Speaker 5: So there you know.
Speaker 4: The Maldi calendar system is an environmentally driven astronomical calendar
Speaker 4: system and so it's people had such intimate connections and
Speaker 4: a knowledge of the environment, and it was embedded into
Speaker 4: everyday practice. And so I'd love to see more of
Speaker 4: that happen and people connecting to our environment and where
Speaker 4: we are in this part.
Speaker 5: Of the world.
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us today, You're welcome.
Speaker 2: That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You
Speaker 2: can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
Speaker 2: at enzadherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is
Speaker 2: produced by Ethan Sells and Richard Martin, who is also
Speaker 2: our sound engineer.
Speaker 3: I'm Chelsea Daniels.
Speaker 2: Subscribe to the Front Page on radio or wherever you
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