Kāwhia Matariki night market

Waipapa Marae Trust & Marae Committee

Kāwhia Matariki night market will open at 3 pm this Friday with Karakia at the Kāwhia Town Hall to celebrate the rise of Matariki, the Pleiades star cluster that heralds the Māori New Year.  

Trust chair Cath Holland says the theme of Matariki this year is Matariki Kāinga Hokia | Matariki calls you home to your whānau, to your marae and to your respective communities.  In keeping with the theme, Cath says our Waipapa Marae Committee approached the Marae Trust to raise funding to create a local event for the community this year that would heed the call of Matariki and the theme of the Kāwhia Matariki night market was born. 

“We have a lot planned and Waipapa marae is privileged to host this first event.  Our local primary school will decorate the town hall with their artwork depicted here illustrating the Matariki star cluster where space will be set up for our kaumātua, pakeke and elders to be entertained with Karaoke, the Muriwhenua Kapa Haka whānau, the Kāwhia Ukelele Group and local entertainers including Ginny Taylor.  There will also be venues inside the hall for tāmoko, mirimiri and traditional rongoā.  All kai stalls will be outside.  The night markets will close at 9 pm.”   

While Matariki is a public holiday that embraces our distinctive national identity as New Zealanders, Cath says it also provides us with an opportunity to embrace what’s unique about our own relationship with Matariki.

“We have more than 8 marae situated around the Kāwhia harbour entrenched in their own distinctive histories.  However, what unites those marae are the descendants of our ancestors who navigated their way across the South Pacific in the Tainui canoe guided by Matariki and other star clusters.  Matariki is etched in our history; it's very much a part of who we are today.  Local navigator, Hoturoa Kerr has his waka hourua anchored off Maketū marae where the Tainui canoe is buried, laced with its own navigation feats and guided by the very same stars who brought our ancestors to Aotearoa.”      

Cath points out one important note is that while we observe Matariki on one day of the year with a public holiday, it is in fact a period of time over the mid-winter that gives rise to Matariki. Matariki is visible for 11 months of the Māori New Year. 

“Matariki follows the lunar calendar so the exact dates of Matariki rising, change each year.  That means in future we will celebrate the Kāwhia Matariki night market in different ways and at different times,” says Cath. 

Last year marked the first time Matariki had been celebrated as an official public holiday and the first indigenous holiday of its kind in Aotearoa New Zealand. 

“This year Waipapa marae invites everyone to our very first Kāwhia Matariki night market where we will use proceeds to gift books to schools around the harbour.  So come and share food with us and enjoy the local entertainment with family and friends.”

Matariki Hunga Nui            Remembrance - Honouring those who have passed especially those who passed since the last rising of Matariki

Matariki Ahunga Nui         Celebrating the present - Gathering together to give thanks for what we have

Matariki Manako Nui          Looking to the Future - Looking forward to the promise of a new year