Matariki ma puanga 2025 – Becoming Faithful Convenant Partners
A survey conducted last year delved into New Zealanders’ understanding and relationship with Matariki, our youngest holiday.
It found that 87% of New Zealanders had some knowledge or understanding of Matariki and what it means, and that 63% did something to mark or celebrate Matariki.
But perhaps more telling was that people’s understanding of Matariki continues to deepen as they become more familiar with it.
This is really phenomenal when I know that 10 years ago, I and many around me had never heard of Matariki.
That’s not to say, though, that we know all about Matariki. It’s essential for me and many of us to acknowledge that we are still very much learners of Tikanga Māori or Māori culture and practice. Everything I share has been part of my learning and journey in this respect, and I know there is much more to learn and understand.
But, I think we can see in this rise in the place of Matariki the fingerprints of God and the gospel of reconciliation at work.
Ko he iwi tatou – we are one people
Supposedly, in 1840, when Governor Hobson, the representative of the crown, greeted the Rangatira who signed te tiriti o Waitangi, the Treaty of Waitangi, he shook their hands and said to each. “He iwi tahi tatou.” We are now one people. The evidence that he actually said this isn’t overly reliable. But that hasn’t stopped it from becoming an interpretation, albeit not a very good one, of what the treaty signified.
For Christians, such a statement can remind us of our reading from Galatians chapter 3. That all are one … in Christ Jesus.
This is something that we affirm in our church’s Kupu Whakapono, our words or confession of faith:
In Christ: he iwi kotahi tatou. In Christ, we are one people.
What Paul is talking about in this passage is our status, our place in God’s family. He is not saying that our identity as Christians erases our other human identities.
So often, though, in Church history, deep in the past and even in living memory, we have equated being ‘Christian’ with being ‘Western’. It has not always been voiced, or even thought of consciously. But it’s been there in our collective thought. Implying other cultures or those different from us are inferior.
The problem is that this is making disciples in our image rather than God’s.
Paul is very aware of the cultural differences in the church, including his own identity as a Jewish Christian. He remains very aware that some are free and some are slaves, he is aware of gender and relating to God in these identities we find as part of who we are.
We live our lives to God in and through our ethnicity and our culture. Giving voice to the worship of God in the way that God created us to be. As we learn and participate in this worship of God with others, our image of who God is is enriched and enlarged.
It’s good for us to remember that if at first, something feels strange or even uncomfortable, that’s a cue for us to be a little more curious.
Matariki is deeply intertwined with Māori culture. Māori have been celebrating it for centuries, even though it is relatively new for many of us.
The three main themes of Matariki are:
- Remembrance – remembering those who have passed,
- Celebrating the present – Gathering to celebrate the present with feasting, games, and joyful activities, giving thanks.
- Looking to the future – Traditionally, it was a time to plant new crops. Although some of us are a bit more disconnected from that cycle now, it’s an opportunity to plan for the year ahead.
Matariki is deeply intertwined with Māori culture. Māori have been celebrating it for centuries, even though it is relatively new for many of us.
So what do we do with Matariki?
Our faith has a rich history of people who have sought to find the similarities between cultures to build bridges of peace and friendship.
I think the themes and values of Matariki we talked about are values we embrace in our Christianity.
There are many examples of people in the Bible who honour and remember their ancestors. Even speaking about God as the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob is a form of whakapapa, or genealogy.
We often think of the Old Testament sacrifice system as being all about taking away sin. But a large portion of the sacrifices described in the Old Testament were offerings of thanks. Some of the offerings would be shared with God, and some would be kept to celebrate with family and the community. Celebration was an important part of life.
The Prophets were always thinking of the future, looking for where God was leading the people of Israel.
We even see these themes in our own celebration of communion:
We remember Christ who died for us, and the promises of God, where we’ve come from, our whakapapa, and how we have been included in God’s family.
We give thanks and celebrate what God is doing in our lives here and now to shape us as his beloved children.
We also look ahead to what God is going to do in the future when he comes again to wipe away the tears of pain and injustice.
So this Matariki season can be the time for us to engage with traditions that may be new for us, or build on and cement the celebrations we’ve begun exploring in recent years.
We always hold those who have died in our hearts; their memory never leaves us. In this season of Matariki, we can take time to remember them and the love we shared in a way that is meaningful for us. Perhaps we may visit a special place we shared together, spend some time with photo albums, and share stories about the person with others. We may light a candle or prepare some special flowers, or maybe just simply remember them and hold them in prayer before God.
To celebrate the present, sometimes we think we need to have an occasion to celebrate, like a birthday or an accomplishment. But Matariki is an occasion all of its own. We can gather family and friends together to share some kai, some food. We can do this with our own families and friends, but also with our spiritual family. Next week we have our Fifth Sunday Feast. A time to gather, chat, and share with each other, celebrating the community we have in Christ. That is a way of celebrating Matariki.
In terms of the future, are there new things on the horizon or things that we are longing for? As Abraham could gaze at the sky and remember the promises God made in Genesis 15, that God’s people would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens, that all the earth would be blessed by what God was going to do through his people. We can gaze in wonder at the night sky, searching out Matariki, and ponder the promises of God in our lives. What hopes are you carrying to God in prayer, and what is God inviting you into in this season ahead?
These are just some ways we can celebrate this season of Matariki.
In our observance of Matariki, we do need to be mindful that we don’t want to take over or appropriate Matariki as a Christian event or festival.
Rather, it is something we join in with.
When we consider that Māori have already experienced the trauma of so much loss of their culture and language at the hands of others, we should recognise that sharing the gift of Matariki with all of us is a wonderful act of grace and trust by Māori.
We know this from our own experience, don’t we? When we lend something to someone and it comes back in a sorry state, or we gift something to someone and it’s dismissed or discarded, it breaks trust, it breaks the relationship.
In the face of broken trust, it takes much grace to continue to offer that which is special. But that is what God does for us. That is what Māori do in sharing Matariki with us.
We have to receive this gift with the significance it deserves. Treating it with care and respect.
Matua Wayne Te Kawaa, a Presbyterian minister and former lecturer of mine, likes to point out that there were three parties at Waitangi in 1840: Māori, Pakeha, and God. God was present in Godself, but also in the presence of the church leaders and missionaries.
So we can see why, for many Māori, the Treaty came to be seen as a sacred covenant, similar to Biblical covenants. As a result, the mana of the Treaty and the mana of the missionaries, or the church, were inextricably linked”.
The Presbyterian Church has recognised the covenantal nature of te tiriti, the treaty. We recognise a bicultural partnership between Te Aka Puaho, or Māori Synod, and other church courts. Te Aka Puaho means the “Glowing Vine,” Which means we are in partnership, as a national church with Māori, working together within the mission of God. It is an ongoing and unfinished work. There is much to be done, nationally, locally, and individually, as we work out together what living as faithful covenant partners looks like in Aotearoa.
Matariki is mentioned in our Bibles three times. Twice in Job and once in Amos. Our English Bibles use the name Pleiades, but in the Māori translation of the scriptures, the name Matariki appears.
When the prophet Amos made reference to the stars of Matariki, he was composing a poem of lament for the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the hope they would remember their covenant or promise with God
In our reading, Amos 5:7-8, he says, this time from the NET translation:
7 The Israelites turn justice into bitterness; they throw what is fair and right to the ground.
8 But there is one who made [the constellations] Matariki [Pleiades] and [Orion] Tautoru; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight into night….
The Lord is his name!
There are those who turn justice to bitterness; they throw what is fair and right to the ground.
Amos is levelling a charge at the Northern Kingdom; they have not been faithful covenant partners with God. It is if they have taken God’s wisdom and covenant agreement and trampled them on the ground.
Coming face to face with parts of the history of our country, the injustices against Māori can be uncomfortable for us to face up to.
For Māori, the justice of Te Tiriti, the Treaty, what was meant for good, was turned to bitterness, as its promises, principles, and aims were trampled in the dust.
It’s not just something that happened long ago, either.
I’m a part of that. Every time I ignore, dismiss, or diminish Māori language or culture, a way of being for a people that God created and loves deeply, I’m part of that. We all can be a part of that.
Even when we aim to be bicultural allies, if we just focus on the surface, Te Ao Māori’s ritual aspects of Karakia or prayer, and Waiata or songs, and ignore the need for us to undo unjust power relationships, we perpetuate colonial appropriation.
That is something to lament about.
So this bicultural journey we’re on is bigger than Matariki, it’s bigger than Māori language week when that rolls around. It needs to be seen as a journey in becoming faithful covenant partners, Te Tiriti partners.
There is hope, because there is the God who made Matariki and calls us to peace and wholeness. A God who, through Jesus Christ, rolls back the darkness of our mistakes and brings about dawn, the new day of forgiveness and reconciliation.
A God who not only calls us to honour our promises to God and others, but a God who empowers us to do so through His Holy Spirit.
Let’s be open to the work that God is doing in the season and celebration of Matariki as part of the healing that needs to take place in our beautiful land. The gracious gift of sharing in Matariki is a chance to be a part of the beautiful Korowai cloak that God is weaving together of the people of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Amine