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National | Te Matatini

Tau Toru Nui o Matariki - a window to the Māori world

The Māori calendar is a window to the Māori world, according to Professor Rangi Matamua, the expert on Matariki and its shining stars.

This week he has launched a three-year cycle Matariki calendar. It supplies the time of day, day, month and seasons through a Māori lens.

With rising use of Te Reo Māori, this Māori calendar can be a great support.

“I want to encourage Māori who are interested to go outside and explore the environment, unravel the signs of the times and be Māori in a Māori world,” Matamua says.

Matamua  says those who follow this calendar will walk with a Māori worldview and all that it has to offer.

The Tau Toru Nui o Matariki calendar follows the sun cycles and teaches what seasons are in. It follows the stars to know which months are in. It also follows the moon phases to know what day it is.

Matamua, of Ngāi Tūhoe, says the calendar is broad and gives space for others to align their understandings to it, especially when aligning regional understandings.

The calendar provides Māori language, the environment and seasonal activities to be undertaken.

But Matamua is adamant there is still space for Gregorian Calendar normally  used.

(The Gregorian calendar is a solar dating system used by most of the world. It is named for Pope Gregory XIII, who issued the papal bull Inter gravissimas in 1582, announcing calendar reforms for all of Catholic Christendom.

“I am not saying don't use the Pākehā calendar. It is entrenched in us and around the world. But I am saying: what is wrong with knowing both?” Matamua says.

Matamua had a hand in the formation of Matariki next year becoming a public holiday. Earlier this year Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that Friday June 24, 2022 would be the first Matariki public holiday.

Matamua is very excited by the prospect and now wants his Tau Toru Nui o Matariki Calendar to span the entire globe so interested people may search beyond the stars with a Māori worldview.