As political fervor for New Zealand's Maori resurgence wanes, a new Indigenous holiday comes of age

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — When Ngarauru Mako told her family she was calling off Christmas festivities in favor of celebrating Matariki, the Maori new year holiday that's experiencing a renaissance in New Zealand, her children didn’t believe her.

“We grew up with Christmas because it was just what you did, but I realized it wasn’t my thing,” said Mako, who is Maori, a member of New Zealand’s Indigenous people. “I just decided myself to cancel Christmas, be the Grinch, and take on Matariki.”

Now in its third year as a nationwide public holiday in New Zealand, Matariki marks the lunar new year by the rise of the star cluster known in the Northern Hemisphere as the Pleiades. The holiday is seeing a surge in popularity, even as political debates about race in New Zealand have grown more divisive. Accompanying the holiday's rise is a tension between those embracing Indigenous language and culture, and a vocal minority who wish to see less of it.

“For much of our past, since the arrival of settlers to this land, mostly out of Great Britain, we’ve really looked to mimic and build our identity off Great Britain,” said Rangi Matamua, professor of Matauranga Maori -– Maori knowledge — at Massey University and an adviser to the government on Matariki.

“But I think as we’ve moved a number of generations on, Aotearoa New Zealand is starting to come of age in terms of our understanding of our identity," he added, using both the Maori and English names for the country.

When New Zealand established the national day in 2022, it became the first nation in the world to recognize an Indigenous-minority holiday, scholars including Matamua believe. But many did not know what it was. Even so, 51% of people did something to mark the day, official figures show, and that number grew to 60% in 2023. Matariki falls on a different midwinter date each year based on the Maori lunar calendar; in 2024 it is officially celebrated on June 28.

A 700-year-old tradition that fell out of observance in modern times — even among the 1 million Maori who make up New Zealand’s population of 5 million -– the fortunes of Matariki changed over the past few decades, as Maori language, culture and traditions saw a passionate resurgence.

“Maori culture has been oppressed for a long, long time. We lost our reo — our language — nearly, we nearly lost our identity,” said Poropiti Rangitaawa, a musician who performed Maori songs this month at a family Matariki celebration outside of Wellington, the capital city. “But with the hope of our people, our old people, our ancestors, they have brought it up and now it’s really strong.”

The carnival day at Wainuiomata where Rangitaawa played was one of many events New Zealanders of all ethnicities attended to mark Matariki. Some attended predawn ceremonies where steam from food is released to “feed the stars” and lists of names are read remembering the dead and those born since the last celebration.

Dotted around Wellington were remembrance spots — in the back room of a church, in a garden -– where visitors displayed notes to those they had lost: a dad, an aunt, a cat.

“It’s only just now that I’m realizing Matariki is about the stars, and I love the fact that they’ve got a star for the ones we’ve lost in the year,” said Casey Wick, attending a celebration with her family.

For many, a growing knowledge of the holiday has come through their children, which is typical of New Zealand's Indigenous movement. Protests in the 1970s seeking recognition of the language gave rise to Maori language pre-schools whose first generation of graduates are fluent speakers.

Every elementary school in New Zealand now recognizes Matariki, and many this month hosted shared meals for families to celebrate. Children come home singing the names of the nine Matariki stars to the tune of the Macarena.

“I learn more from her about Matariki than I could ever give to her,” said Liana Childs, whose daughter Akaylia, 9, recited the stars of the cluster perfectly. The family is not Maori, Childs said, but they studied the Maori seasons, which guide the planting of crops and when to hunt.

“I think it’s just brought us closer together as a family,” she said.

The political climate for Maori language and culture, however, is complicated.

Words in the language are now commonplace in conversations, but Maori has its detractors, too. Matariki was established as a national day under New Zealand’s previous center-left government, which urged the country to embrace Maori culture. The government, however, was often decried for doing little to address woeful economic, health and justice issues for Maori that became entrenched after New Zealand was colonized in the 19th century.

A change of government last October meant a new era for Matariki. The party leading the current center-right coalition supports the day, but one of its coalition partners does not. The government has also pledged to scrap some policies recognizing Maori that were passed by its predecessors, getting rid of a Maori health agency that prioritized Indigenous New Zealanders, who die younger than people of non-Maori descent; reversing a movement to grant Maori names to government agencies, some of which have already reverted to their English titles; and halting plans for shared management of public utilities with Maori tribes.

One of the governing parties has provoked a fresh debate about New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi -– signed between Maori tribes and the British Crown in 1840 -– with the suggestion that modern interpretations have given Maori too many rights. The rumblings about a revisited treaty have prompted protest marches.

“Governments will come and governments will go,” said Matamua, the professor. “Matariki existed before government, and it will continue to exist after the current government.”

Maori language and culture almost died out when earlier politicians opposed their expression, Matamua said, but in a nation where many are now enthusiastic about it, any government trying to curtail the celebration would learn “that perhaps trying to put this genie back in the bottle would be very, very difficult."

At the Matariki celebration in Wainuiomata, Tash Simpson stood with friends at a stall that fused Maori and Kenyan crafts.

“We’re stronger now. Our people are more knowledgeable now,” she said of political threats to Maori. “But now we know what’s coming and we’re ready.”