Matariki - social studies activities

Matariki, the Maori New Year, is an important festival that reflects our bi-cultural heritage. This page outlines how a study of Matariki can be used by teachers and students of social studies. Matariki can also be a springboard into further topics associated with the different ways the passage of time is celebrated and measured.

It is not our intention to provide an exhaustive list of teaching activities, but rather to offer ideas to help the busy teacher get started.

NZhistory.net.nz has some general information on the measurement of time in different cultures. A fuller account of Matariki is on Te Ara - the encyclopedia of New Zealand.

The Maori Language Commission (pdf) has excellent material  for studying the significance of Matariki to New Zealand society.

Introduction

For many New Zealanders, 31 December means parties and celebrations to welcome the New Year. These celebrations are an important way of marking the passage of time as well as heralding new beginnings. New Zealanders celebrate many New Years. Depending on your religion or ethnicity, New Year can come at different times of the year and be celebrated in many ways. For example, there is the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, the Muslim month of Muharram, and Rosh Hashanah, one of the most important religious holidays in the Jewish calendar. In Hebrew, Rosh Hashanah means the ‘head of the year’.

Matariki - the Pleiades (Te Ara)

Maori also have their own New Year, which is marked by the rise of Matariki (the group of stars also known as the Pleiades star cluster or The Seven Sisters) and the sighting of the next new moon. Like Chinese New Year (and the Christian festival of Easter), its exact timing varies from year to year, but it usually occurs during the month of June. Traditionally, Matariki was used to determine the coming season's crop. A warmer season, and therefore a more productive crop yield, was indicated by how bright the stars were.

In recent years Matariki has been celebrated by many New Zealanders, Maori and non-Maori alike. It is becoming an increasingly important part of the New Zealand calendar. Matariki in 2008 begins on 5 June.

Social studies

The current 'Culture and heritage' strand in the social studies curriculum is an ideal place for teachers to start incorporating Matariki into their programmes. The emphasis on customs and traditions and how they are retained and developed makes Matariki an excellent case study. Matariki could become a school-wide focus for its duration.

Matariki can be a springboard into further topics associated with the customs and practices of New Zealand’s first settlers. How do the customs and practices of tangata whenua compare with the experiences of other people who have settled in New Zealand?

Teachers and students at Level 5 might want to look at Matariki from the perspective of 'Place and environment' and the consequences of the migration of people and ideas. How has New Zealand's social and cultural calendar changed as a result of Maori settlement?

Matariki is a good time to consider how different cultures measure time. How and why we mark days, months and years is something we often take for granted. But they are all important aspects of cultural identity and history.