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This is a contemporary myth of love, magic, and adventure that tells the story of how Matariki/the Pleiades star cluster came into being. Recommended for ages 5-9.
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"A fictional retelling of the traditional Matariki story"--Publisher information.
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In this richly illustrated book, Maori scholars and writers share the traditional knowledge passed down the generations by word of mouth. It provides a unique window on the relationship of the people of this land with their environment, as well as the profound knowledge and neces...sary skills they needed to survive here.
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This is a fun picture book that blends English and Maori text and bright illustrations, aimed at 7-12 year-olds and released for Matariki 2016. The Tunnel in our Backyard is the second in the innovative series from Malcolm Paterson's Sharing Our Stories venture, which aims to bri...ng Auckland history to life for young readers.
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An adventurous young man called Mitai lives with his seven handsome brothers in the village of Maketu. He watches his brothers become bewitched by seven beautiful women, and under their spell, the brothers no longer eat, look after themselves, work in their gardens or hunt. Reali...sing the women are patupaiarehe, fairy women, he knows they must be cast far away. They are given to Urutengangana, the god of the stars, and he places the patupaiarehe in the heavens farthest from the earth. Yet once a year, at winter solstice, he allows their beauty to shine in the eastern sky.
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"A fictional retelling of the traditional Matariki story"--Publisher information.
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A family celebrate the Maori New Year and talk about what Matariki means to different people.
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The little Kiwi is fast asleep in her burrow. A beam of moonlight shines right down into her burrow. She wakes, and realises it is time. Hurrying out into the night, she wakes each of her friends from their midwinter slumber.'Kia tere! Hurry!' she urges them. The little Kiwi lead...s her friends through the pingao and onto the beach. It is pre-dawn. They wait, and watch. As the moon slips away behind the hills, the constellation of Matariki rises for the first time, in the northeastern sky. This gentle tale about celebrating Matariki, the Maori New Year, finishes with an explanation of Matariki - it's origins, traditions and how it is celebrated today. The constellation is also shown, with the Maori names for each star. The text contains some simple words in Te Reo Maori alongside the English equivalent.
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This book is an introduction to the star group Matariki. Known in other cultures by names including the Pleiades and the Seven Sisters, Matariki featured strongly in pre-European New Zealand. It marked the beginning of the Maori calendar, and its rising before the sun in late May... or early June was greeted with great festivals.
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Puanga is the star Rigel in Orion. Most of the tribes of the Maori people in Aotearoa observed Puanga to mark the beginning of the Maori New Year. In Maori mythology he was believed to be the older brother of Matariki. His cosmic rising between May and June in the early morning s...ky signalled the beginning of winter. Which is why Maori knew him as the foremost winter star. A practical reason why Maori marked the New Year at this particular time of the year was because Puanga's heliacal rising coincided with the end of the harvest where the first fruits were eaten during a three-day festival of lights. The religious reason why Maori began the New Year in May-June was because it was the only time in the year when all the most significant stars important in Maori mythology rose at the same time at dawn. The kumara had been lifted, pigeons were being stored away in calabash containers and shark had been hung out to dry ready for the winter months. The New Year was a sacred time for Maori when offerings were made to Puanga and laid out by the tohunga priesthood on taahu altar shrines as a gesture of thanksgiving.
Through the study of the oral literature we are able to gaze through a window into the past to understand how Maori perceived the star Puanga in ancient times. In some traditions he is said to be the son of the Goddess of the underworlds and was only born as a result of the shaking of the earth by Ruaumoko the God of earthquakes. He was then pushed up into the sky by the sun. Puanga is known to bring about the autumn rains and cause flooding throughout the country to replenish the land and leave much needed nutrients to fertilise the earth. He is believed to descend from thunder and lightning, which is logical as rain is sometimes accompanied by the elements of lightning and thunder.
The Ngapuhi people saw him in the shape of a Pewa bird snare. Ngapuhi also perceived him in the form of a tuahu altarpiece. Moriori considered Puanga as the pole that held up a wha
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