Talk:Matariki

Matariki/Mātāriki
I think the title of this page should have macrons, Mātāriki, as the Reed Māori dictionary defines that as the Pleiades stars (also micro, minuscule); but I’m not sure about Matariki/Mātāriki for the Māori new year: it would make sense to have macrons, but I can’t find anything else online using them. Anyone with more knowledge of Māori? Barefootguru 19:55, 10 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Nope, it doesn't have macrons. See the Māori Language Commission link - they are the authority for macron use and there are none on their site. Despite what the Reed Dict may say, it is pronounced with short vowels Kahuroa 10:42, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

mata riki is big —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.190.132.124 (talk) 00:06, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

More Refs
Te Ara has this - but it's not used in the article by now: Elsdon Best, The astronomical knowledge of the Maori. Wellington: Government Printer, 1986, p. 47

Rosetta (talk) 05:02, 5 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Are there any references for Matariki before the 1980's? It does seem to be a modern invention, rather than an ancient Maori festival.124.197.15.138 (talk) 05:30, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

Yes there are quotes from Māori dating back to 19th century (early 1800s). I learn Māori as a subject at school and have done several units on Matariki. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 118.93.19.67 (talk) 09:46, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Edit protection
Article is frequently vandalised, most likely due to school pupils being directed to the article as it currently Matariki "season". As Matariki lasts for several weeks, edit semi-protection is advisable until it is finished. Fan |  talk  09:10, 12 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Found where request should go :) - see Requests for page protection Fan |  talk  09:28, 12 June 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified (January 2018)
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Matariki before 2000
has three times added to the article that there is no evidence for Matariki prior to the recent revival. While it is their responsibility to provide evidence to support their edits rather than mine, it took only a minute of searching to find a couple of references: Te Ara says "Matariki, or Māori New Year celebrations were once popular, but stopped in the 1940s."; and Te Ao Hou, 1 December 1967 says "The fact that the appearance of the Pleiades—Matariki—as a notable event in the Maori Year is not now well known, is proof of the fact that when old customs die, they die indeed."- gadfium 02:44, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

Methodology for calculating Matariki public holidays
The final report of the Matariki Advisory Committee that was released on 21 May 2021 and is publicly available from the MBIE website. It gives Matariki Dates 2022 - 2052 and also briefly explains the calculating method of Tangaroa of Pipiri, citing an 1873 source where this method is documented. The article should probably explain how the Matariki celebrations are calculated in modern astronomical terms and how the public holiday dates are then derived. While Matariki, the Jewish Passover and the Christian celebration of Easter are all based on lunar-solar calendar calculations, one cannot be calculated from the other because they use different calendars and different phases of the moon to determine when these celebrations occur. - 203.96.84.33 (talk) 23:05, 1 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for those helpful links; I've added them and some text to the article to summarise them. —Giantflightlessbirds (talk) 04:48, 2 August 2021 (UTC)

Puanga
I've just cleaned out a section on Puanga added to the intro para which was not based on the reference it cited. There may well be scope for an entire article on Puanga and its celebration, with a short summary linked to from this one. —Giantflightlessbirds (talk) 03:00, 20 June 2022 (UTC)

Rigel leading section link?
Would it be appropriate to link Rigel in the leading section again despite already linking it further down in the page that isn't the leading section? Doesn't the leading section have some sort of a presidence or something? MOS:DL seems like it matches my thinking? Qwertyxp2000 (talk &#124; contribs) 09:28, 20 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Yes, I tend to link in the lead, again in the main body, in the caption if the term appears there, and sometimes in a table if it's there as well: I think the idea that wherever someone first encounters the term, it's wikilinked. —Giantflightlessbirds (talk) 20:33, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

Reference time and bigger expansion?
Now that the 2022 Matariki has come, shall we do bigger expansions of the content coverage of Matariki now that we can see cultural significance of this event, particularly in its impact on New Zealand culture and especially Maori culture? Just so that the future won't end up smothering the potentially useful June 2022 sources, I think it's a good idea to stockpile a number of potentially useful reliable sources at around the "optimal" time of the June 2022 period, that being late-June 2022.

I found a decent amount of references that could assist:
 * Explainer: What is Matariki? Star-studded event at Te Papa marks NZ's new holiday (NZ Herald)
 * Matariki: ‘historic’ moment as New Zealand celebrates first Indigenous public holiday (The Guardian)
 * No-one wants to see a ‘Matariki Big Mac’: Māori cultural advisers warn of potential commercialisation of Matariki (Stuff)
 * Matariki 2022: Tuhūratia ngā Mata o te Ariki, story of the stars, chapter 5: Waitī and Waitā
 * Early morning event, PM speech to mark first Matariki holiday (One News)
 * Matariki 2022: Hautapu ceremony marks dawning of a new day (One News)
 * Matariki 2022: Celebrations around the country for the first Matariki public holiday (NZ Herald)
 * PM hails 'first authentically Māori public holiday' (RNZ)

I wasn't sure about reliable sources about New Zealand web sources, nor was I so sure how I would properly implement information from each of the references into this article. I may need some assistance with the implementation of information gathered from the valid reliable sources.

Qwertyxp2000 (talk &#124; contribs) 03:19, 26 June 2022 (UTC)

Also these:
 * PM hails 'first authentically Māori public holiday' (One News)
 * Matariki 2022: Q+A with Matariki expert Dr Rangi Mātāmua (NZ Herald)

If anyone else can gather some useful sources to assist, that would be nice too. Broadness of content coverage would be key more than the number of sources, however, though I believe the sources I have provided may be a good starter.

Qwertyxp2000 (talk &#124; contribs) 03:22, 26 June 2022 (UTC)


 * Those all look like great sources to me! Reliable websites like The Spinoff and Newsroom (website) would also be appropriate. There was a lot of new stuff published about Matariki this year, as one would expect. —Giantflightlessbirds (talk) 23:40, 26 June 2022 (UTC)

There is also some insight on the topic on "cultural appropriation" versus "cultural appreciation" in one of the citations I have used, at least in some of my later edits. If there needs a little more elaboration on the critique on sustaining cultural integrity, we could add it in. Furthermore, I did at least mention about firework commercialization, in which one of the sources did mention fireworks being cultural appropriation rather than appreciation, stating something like "stars are natural beauties, they don't need to be there". It's sort of like how, as listed in a different reference (this one) referring an analogy to Jesus Christ's death and rebirth commercialized into Christmas stuff (Santa, elves, reindeer, Christmas presents, etc.) and Easter stuff (Easter Bunny, chocolate, eggs, etc.), cultural appropriation can distort the cultural perception of an actually significant event at origin. Qwertyxp2000 (talk &#124; contribs) 09:51, 26 June 2022 (UTC)