People gather on Dunedin’s Museum Reserve at dawn yesterday to celebrate the rise of Matariki and welcome the Māori new year.
Hundreds gathered at the Tūhura Otago Museum Reserve in Dunedin before dawn yesterday to celebrate the Māori New Year and remember whānau and family that have died over the past year, John Lewis reports with photographer Stephen Jaquiery.
For iwi, the pre-dawn appearance of the bright blue supergiant star Puaka (known as Rigel in Western astronomy) and the Matariki star cluster (Pleiades) marks the start of the new year.
In collaboration with Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki and Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou, the Dunedin City Council and Tūhura Otago Museum hosted a ceremony. This event featured a whakamaumahara to honor those who passed away in the past year, along with a whakamāramataka discussing the stars and their relevance to the seasonal changes.
Attendees brought printed photos of relatives or friends lost over the past year, raising them and speaking their names aloud during the whakamaumahara as a tribute.
After sunrise, participants enjoyed a free public breakfast, followed by a haka performance from He Waka Kōtuia and a Matariki Community Fun Day.
