Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hilda.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. Unity is
the theme for this year's Masoiki. Today is the fourth
year of the public holiday marking the Mali New Year.
It's the first holiday to recognize molding and the first
(00:28):
new public holiday introduced since Why Tungi Day became a
holiday in nineteen seventy four. Today on the front page,
Professor Rangi Matamua, the chief advisor for Maturiki, is with
us to take us through what the holiday means.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
First off, Rangi, what is Matariki.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
So Matariki is a cluster of stars, most commonly known
as play and so it's in the constellation of Taurus.
And it's actually there are a few hundred stars in
that cluster, but there's only a handful that are visible
to the naked eye. So Maturik is the Mali name
(01:12):
that's given to.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
That group of stars.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
And in terms of martaiqui, what's the law there if
people don't know?
Speaker 4 (01:20):
So, stars rise four minutes earlier every day. So the
stars you see in the sky, say in the summertime
in the morning, are not the stars that you see
in the sky in the winter time, they change, they
change their positions throughout the year.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
And so what happens is Martariqui will.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Rise on the horizon in the eastern sky just before
the sun rises in the middle of winter. So when
it appears in that position in the middle of winter,
before the sun rises, you knew that you were around
the shortest day of the year. And so that was
a marker for when people begin their New Year celebration.
And most cultures that have a New year, if that's
(01:57):
you know, for want of a better phrase, sell lebraided
it in the winter. You'll see that right across Europe.
You'll see that in many other cultures as well. They'll
wait till the middle of winter and then they knew
that the shortest day had ended and the you know,
somen was coming back and bringing back life and warmth
of the earth.
Speaker 5 (02:12):
Well, Mardi did exactly the same.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
But the marker that we chose to understand and know
when we were in the correct phase of celebration was
the pre dawn rising of Matadiki.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
And I understand that there's a theme this year. What's that?
Speaker 4 (02:25):
So the theme this year is matadi Ki mapuanga that
means mataiki and Puanger.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
So you know, Mahdi, just like any other group of people.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
We have our own you know, you can even though
you're one people, perhaps we have so much diversity within
our within our culture, and different regions have different approaches.
For the vast majority of Maldi, Matadiki is the symbol
that begins the new year, but for some tribes, the
star Puanger or Ridal is actually the star that marks
(02:56):
the beginning of the new year. It's a star that
rises near at the same time of the year, but
it was just a different start that was selected.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
So what we're doing in this year is.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Celebrating mantari qui mar puna, which means celebrate together.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
So we're saying to people, even though you.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Might have perhaps a little bit different approach, or there
are these wonderful nuanced eardiosyncrasies or different characteristics that different
regions have, we should celebrate those, but also come together
to celebrate the Mardi New Year.
Speaker 6 (03:30):
Siniki is representative of the Marii new year, but also
something that was key as part of seasonal recognizing the
change in seasons, and also recognized in different regions of
it sometimes being at different times, but it is unique
to New Zealand. It is something that's unique about our
(03:51):
place in the world, and so it's a real chance
for us to not only mark that in our own calendar,
but to showcase that internationally as well.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
How significant do you think that that theme of unity
is at a time when there's been a lot of
talk about culture wars and of course the Treaty Principal's Bill,
It seems pretty timely to be thinking of togetherness. You know.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
It's we're in a period where there's a lot of division,
and not just in the country but right across the world,
and it's often driven, i think, in many ways at
a political level. And so people become divided because of
their different, diverse practices, or different backgrounds or even different lifestyles,
and so people become isolated and marginalized, and words become weaponized,
(04:41):
and people become politicized and then even radicalized.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
And so the division does that.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
And what we're saying is it's okay to be different,
It's okay, but it's about coming together with our difference,
is to celebrate the things that make us the same.
There isn't a single person who lives in this country
who does not descend from a culture that used that
group of stars Matiqui or plad E's or the Seven
Sisters or the hen in checks, regardless of where you
(05:08):
are in the world, that did not look to those
stars to mark new year, or to mark planting, or
to mark harvest or many other things.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
And so it's saying we're from all.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Of these different, diverse backgrounds, but we come together to
celebrate as one. I think it's such an important message
in the context of where we are in terms of
I guess the climate that is dividing many of us.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Why does the date change every year?
Speaker 5 (05:36):
You do you know why Easter changes every year?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
No?
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Yeah, And you know most people don't know. The reason
Easter changes every year, and it's about a month's difference
is because the Easter celebration is built on a lunar
solar calendar. It's not part of the Gregorian calendar. It
existed well before the three hundred and sixty five and
called a day Gregorian calendar system that we follow today,
(06:04):
and it was based on a particular lunar period of
a particular lunar month, and that's why it shifts because
the lunar months and the solar months are not the
same thing. And that's exactly the reason why Mantadiki shifts,
because it's based on a traditional Mildi lunar calendar system
that re existed here before the arrival of the Gregorian calendar.
(06:24):
So it shifts against the Gregorian calendar, but in terms
of the lunar calendar, it stays the same. Now, lunar
calendars they only have three hundred and fifty four days,
not three hundred and sixty five. So it just don't
want to bore people too much with the kinds of
it all, but fairly much. It means every three years
(06:44):
you need to add an additional lunar month into the
calendar system to make sure that your lunar cycle sinks
into your solar cycle. And so that's the reason why
Easter shifts and the same reason why Mantaiqi shifts.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
So have you viewed the cluster yet?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
No?
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Do you know how to?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
No?
Speaker 7 (07:05):
Okay, wake up? Go outside.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
There's a hard part.
Speaker 7 (07:09):
You're already away before sunrise. Once the sun's up foot
washes out the stars. You don't want to get up
to real leaf because you have to wait for the
cluster to actually rise over the horizon. So between five
thirty and six thirty is a good time of the
morning to see it. You're going to look to the southeast.
You're going to look for Oriyan's bout, which is also
known as the pot.
Speaker 8 (07:29):
Ryan.
Speaker 7 (07:30):
It's also known as Totau, and then you're going to
look straight out from the pot and you'll see Puanga. Yeah,
and then you're going to look lift to the pot.
You're going to see big orange stand and you're going
to look a little for the lift, and then you're
going to see the Matsadiki cluster. So it's just a
cluster of stars and look a little bit hazy, and
between five thirty and six city is the best time
(07:51):
to see it.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, I saw.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
In twenty twenty two, the Matadiki Advisory Committee set out
the Maturiki Public Holiday day.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
For the next thirty years. How does that happen?
Speaker 4 (08:04):
You can actually work out what years will have extra
months and when the particular and correct lunar phases will
be of the correct lunar months. So it's no different
as setting out moving forward Christmas for the next one
hundred years. See Christmas doesn't always fall on the same day.
It doesn't always fall on a Saturday or a Sunday
(08:26):
or a Friday or a Tuesday of changes, but it
will always be on the twenty fifth. That's exactly the
same as we've worked out. We understand that Marta Deque
won't changes against the Western calendar, but it always falls on.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
The correct lunar period of time. So yeah, we just you.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Can project right out for thousands of years if you
really wanted to, what the correct lunar phases of the
correct lunar months will be.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
This is the fourth year celebrating Matauriqua is a public holiday.
Do you think the understanding of Marsadiki has grown over
that time?
Speaker 4 (09:08):
It clearly has, and I mean the Ministry for Culture
and Heritage have put out reports every year showing that
it's increased. It's gone from I think fifty one percent
of the entire population to celebrating it in its first year.
Last year, I think it was sixty two percent or
something like that. I want to be making up numbers.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, I think it was three quarters of Kiwis see
Masadiki as a chance to celebrate the culture, people and
stories of al Tierroa up from seventy percent in twenty
twenty three, So clearly, I mean that's going to be encouraging.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
It is, it is, and I think it's like that
because there is no politics in Matauriki. There isn't There
is no right way or wrong way to celebrate it.
It can be as simple as just sitting down with
loved ones and having a meal, to going out and
watching a rugby match, to spending time going out to
walk the dogs. It's about people reconnecting to their loved
(09:57):
ones and reconnecting to the environment. There are tradition, Maldi
four more ceremonies that are taking place right across the
country at the moment. There are also people just in
their homes spending time with each other. But it's mostly
based on three principles. Number one, it's a period where
we reflect on our loved ones and we honor the
legacy that they've left us. The second thing we do
(10:19):
is we celebrate all of the wonderful things that make
us who we are, all of those wonderful things that
means to be a ki we And the last thing,
as we look to the future and look to a
prosperous here, but also to who we want to be
in the future, and so I think those really core, open,
wonderful values resonate with all people.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
So I'm really stoked that it's growing. I'm really really.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Happy that I get the feeling that people are starting
to embrace it. They're always going to be those groups
of people that will say it's just another day off
for me, or I don't want to celebrate that, and
that's cool, But hoping that as it starts to evolve
and people become more comfortable with it and realize that
there are no month police or no one's being judged,
or it's open to everyone, that will become part of
(11:04):
people's normal yearly cycle and part of our national identity.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
This year, to celebrate Matadiki, we're having a lot of
friends over to our fuddy and we're going to put
down the hangy. I'm calling it Houerdiki. It's like friends
miss but for Martadiki.
Speaker 8 (11:22):
For Martiniqui. This year, I'm going to make some cute
little short bread stars, which may not be successful, and
I'm having some of my best friends over so that
we can share some reflections and some of our goals
for the next year.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Are there any other significant dates or events in the
multi calendar that you would like to see more widely
celebrated as well.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Yeah, there are there are those seasonal celebrations and those
are mildly celebrated at the end of the harvest. So
that was in the autumn, celebrated in the spring, when
we planted, we celebrated in the middle of summer. And
these were like acknowledgments of the seasonal cycles. But the
big one, big one was Mataiki and that was big
community events and feesting and coming together. But all of them,
(12:07):
all of those Mali seasonal celebrations are deeply intertwined with
the environment.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
So there you know.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
The Maldi calendar system is an environmentally driven astronomical calendar
system and so it's people had such intimate connections and
a knowledge of the environment, and it was embedded into
everyday practice. And so I'd love to see more of
that happen and people connecting to our environment and where
we are in this part.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Of the world.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Thanks for joining us today, You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You
can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
at enzadherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is
produced by Ethan Sells and Richard Martin, who is also
our sound engineer.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
I'm Chelsea Daniels.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Subscribe to the Front Page on radio or wherever you
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look behind the headlines.