Despite the best efforts of government funded media initiatives, you really have to wonder just how common that greeting will be in the next few days.
While “Merry Christmas” and “Have a great Easter” have been part of the vernacular for generations, one has the feeling that a salutation for our newest public holiday might be some time away from becoming commonplace.
We’re about to have our fourth Matariki holiday and the most common pushback against it is that it’s made up Maori mythology. Strictly speaking, all mythology is made up by someone and in itself, that’s hardly a rational argument against Matariki because Christmas and Easter are grounded far more in spiritual rather than historical reasons. Some of the provincial anniversary days have a spurious background too – like William Hobson’s arrival in the Bay of Islands in January 1840 being celebrated with a Monday off work in the northern part of the North Island.
Like most public holidays, Matariki will be just another day off for the vast majority of us. Yet in a way that only virtue signaling public servants can, we are being force fed propaganda to make us believe that Matariki is important and worthwhile.
It’s reached such ridiculous heights that an RNZ – where else – article has been headlined “Why Matariki has become one of New Zealand’s most meaningful public holidays.” The author is not identified.
Commercial breaks on TV are studded with Matariki messaging, most of it not translated.
There will no doubt be some – Maori and non-Maori - who do partake in the mythology. That’s just fine. Many others go to church on Christmas Day and at Easter or get up for dawn services on Anzac Day or Waitangi Day.
How you celebrate a public holiday is entirely your decision but it necessary to have annual explainers in the media about why we should regard Matariki as significant?
New Zealand’s most important public holidays are February 6th, April 25th and the 4th Monday in October.
Here’s why. Waitangi Day marks the bringing together of Maori and non-Maori of the time into one people. Anzac Day commemorates wars that New Zealand shouldn’t have been involved in but was, and where Maori and non-Maori fought side by side. Labour Day is when we remember the work of Samuel Parnell in securing fair and reasonable working hours for Maori and non-Maori New Zealanders alike.
Understand the theme? Those days are for all New Zealanders and the country we all call our home, a country where all citizens and residents must be equal before the law and where no ethnic or religious group can be more privileged than any other.
The rationale for our newest public holiday was always sketchy. When another day off in the winter was first suggested during the first term of the Ardern led government the reasoning was the country needed a long weekend in the depths of winter sometime between King’s (then Queen’s) Birthday and Labour Day. A day significant in Maori history seemed fair and reasonable considering the colonial connotations of the provincial anniversary days and the first weekend of June.
A date of a significant Maori victory in the New Zealand Wars was suggested but nothing appropriate could be found in either August or September.
So an idea first proposed in a Members Bill as far back as 2009 by then Maori Party MP Rahui Katene was revived. It became Labour Party policy in 2020 and the legislation was passed into law in 2021 with the first Matariki holiday in 2022. Because it’s based on when the Pleiades constellation appears Matariki can fall any time from June 20th - this year is the earliest till at least 2052 - to July 19.
It takes the number of public holidays each year to 12, including your provincial anniversary day. That’s one more than the US and Canada, two more than the UK and one less than most states in Australia.
But when Matariki became part of mainstream New Zealand life it fitted and continued the then government’s plan to make the country as Maori-centric as possible. Hence the Education and Training Act of 2020 which includes “instilling in each child and young person an appreciation of the importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and te reo Maori.” Hence the Public Service Act of 2020 which requires “recognition of the aims and aspirations of Maori, the employment requirements of Maori and the need for greater involvement of Maori in the public service.” Hence the significant increase in te reo spoken on state owned broadcasting outlets without translation. And so on ..
Each New Zealander is entitled to their own culture and religious beliefs. But at the last census (the final one!) more than half the population stated they had no religion. Yet Matariki embodies spiritual and religious themes more akin to pre-Enlightenment times than the 21st century.
If a section of Maoridom wishes to resurrect a supposedly ancient tradition then fill your boots, but there is no need to inflict some astronomical and astrological mumbo-jumbo upon the rest of us who are just not interested.
We’ll just take another day off.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack - where this article was sourced.
We’re about to have our fourth Matariki holiday and the most common pushback against it is that it’s made up Maori mythology. Strictly speaking, all mythology is made up by someone and in itself, that’s hardly a rational argument against Matariki because Christmas and Easter are grounded far more in spiritual rather than historical reasons. Some of the provincial anniversary days have a spurious background too – like William Hobson’s arrival in the Bay of Islands in January 1840 being celebrated with a Monday off work in the northern part of the North Island.
Like most public holidays, Matariki will be just another day off for the vast majority of us. Yet in a way that only virtue signaling public servants can, we are being force fed propaganda to make us believe that Matariki is important and worthwhile.
It’s reached such ridiculous heights that an RNZ – where else – article has been headlined “Why Matariki has become one of New Zealand’s most meaningful public holidays.” The author is not identified.
Commercial breaks on TV are studded with Matariki messaging, most of it not translated.
There will no doubt be some – Maori and non-Maori - who do partake in the mythology. That’s just fine. Many others go to church on Christmas Day and at Easter or get up for dawn services on Anzac Day or Waitangi Day.
How you celebrate a public holiday is entirely your decision but it necessary to have annual explainers in the media about why we should regard Matariki as significant?
New Zealand’s most important public holidays are February 6th, April 25th and the 4th Monday in October.
Here’s why. Waitangi Day marks the bringing together of Maori and non-Maori of the time into one people. Anzac Day commemorates wars that New Zealand shouldn’t have been involved in but was, and where Maori and non-Maori fought side by side. Labour Day is when we remember the work of Samuel Parnell in securing fair and reasonable working hours for Maori and non-Maori New Zealanders alike.
Understand the theme? Those days are for all New Zealanders and the country we all call our home, a country where all citizens and residents must be equal before the law and where no ethnic or religious group can be more privileged than any other.
The rationale for our newest public holiday was always sketchy. When another day off in the winter was first suggested during the first term of the Ardern led government the reasoning was the country needed a long weekend in the depths of winter sometime between King’s (then Queen’s) Birthday and Labour Day. A day significant in Maori history seemed fair and reasonable considering the colonial connotations of the provincial anniversary days and the first weekend of June.
A date of a significant Maori victory in the New Zealand Wars was suggested but nothing appropriate could be found in either August or September.
So an idea first proposed in a Members Bill as far back as 2009 by then Maori Party MP Rahui Katene was revived. It became Labour Party policy in 2020 and the legislation was passed into law in 2021 with the first Matariki holiday in 2022. Because it’s based on when the Pleiades constellation appears Matariki can fall any time from June 20th - this year is the earliest till at least 2052 - to July 19.
It takes the number of public holidays each year to 12, including your provincial anniversary day. That’s one more than the US and Canada, two more than the UK and one less than most states in Australia.
But when Matariki became part of mainstream New Zealand life it fitted and continued the then government’s plan to make the country as Maori-centric as possible. Hence the Education and Training Act of 2020 which includes “instilling in each child and young person an appreciation of the importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and te reo Maori.” Hence the Public Service Act of 2020 which requires “recognition of the aims and aspirations of Maori, the employment requirements of Maori and the need for greater involvement of Maori in the public service.” Hence the significant increase in te reo spoken on state owned broadcasting outlets without translation. And so on ..
Each New Zealander is entitled to their own culture and religious beliefs. But at the last census (the final one!) more than half the population stated they had no religion. Yet Matariki embodies spiritual and religious themes more akin to pre-Enlightenment times than the 21st century.
If a section of Maoridom wishes to resurrect a supposedly ancient tradition then fill your boots, but there is no need to inflict some astronomical and astrological mumbo-jumbo upon the rest of us who are just not interested.
We’ll just take another day off.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack - where this article was sourced.
No comments:
Post a Comment