As a Whanau we tried to fill our matariki time with as many activities that helps us feel our Maoritanga. The first was a big Kai with four generations of the Whanau, we talked about what we appreciated over the year and our moemoea for the next year then we finished the evening with fireworks, whakamanatia Te timatatanga o matariki.

Second was having a hikoi on Te Pataka o Rakauhautu, looking out and remembering our Whanau kua wheturangitia. Also as we looked out at the view of our whenua, this reminded us about our amazing and mesmerising purakau and it filled my heart to see my kids in our taiao applying our purakau directly to what we were looking at.

We attended a local art activity making pakoko at the art centre in Otautahi, we made miniatures pataka, kumara, hapunga, riwai, arewhana, ropere Te tino kai o toku tamahine.

We attended a matariki wananga at a marae that we hono to but my tamariki have never been to, Taumutu karanga Mai. The wananga consisted of many traditional activities but the Whanau favourites were mau rakau and kemu tawhito, I personally loved the whanaungatanga and the reo. We had aimed to do more mahinga kai activities but it was too cold.

Lastly we were unfortunate as we had tried to go to several sighting evenings of nga iwa o matariki but the weather had not worked out.

This has now turned out to be our Whanau goal for next year, tokorima of us to learn how to spot all the matariki stars before the end of Next matariki.

Matariki is a special time it is being who we are, learning more about ourselves and remembering our loved ones that have past.