Happy New Year

Matariki, the Maori New Year

Matariki is the Maori name referring to the Pleiades star cluster (also known as the Seven Sisters) and is synonymous with the Maori New Year. Traditionally, the holiday has centred around harvests, community and song, and the modern version follows suit. Te Papa Tongarewa, the National Museum of New Zealand here in Wellington, celebrated Matariki with a series of special events and presentations.

We were treated to a performance of Maori music utilising traditional instruments, set in the museum's amazing meeting house, Te Hono ki Hawaiki., The last word refers to Maori origin stories that tie to the ancestral homeland, Hawaiki. As you can see from the photos, the meeting house is a stylised, contemporary treatment of the carvings usually seen on wharenui. (Editor's note: My cousin Gina took a very similar photo of the meeting house, and a Maori hangi, during her visit to New Zealand in early 2006).

The musical instruments included carved wooden flutes, percussion and string instruments of various sorts, and wind instruments made from gourds and shells. The artists explained the ways the instruments were used. In some cases, the sounds made from the devices are so subtle and light that it was clear they were intended to be played alone. Without the microphone, you couldn't have heard them. Their purpose was almost certainly individualistic.

An artist crafts a flute using only traditional tools & techniques

Other events included a Haka (warrior dance) and a hangi food competition. The Hangi is a feast which is prepared in an underground earthen oven. The food can include anything from pork, lamb, chicken as well as favourite Maori root veggies like kumara, potato, onions, carrots and pumpkin. Four local restaurants competed in the competition: Logan-Brown, Sweet Mother's Kitchen, Oriental Thai and Kai in the City.

At least two of the restaurants we had been to before since arriving in Wellington. Sweet Mother's Kitchen is an old favourite of ours, one that has been mentioned before on the blog (they were the restaurant that made American-style pumpkin pie). Kai in the City is a local restaurant that specialises in native New Zealand cooking using 'native' ingredients. The menu was not extensive, but you got the sense that a real chef was putting together the meals based on the complexity of the ingredients. The food looked great, but more importantly it also tasted great. I thought KITC's food was exceptional and would recommend it. Just be sure to book a spot, as the restaurant is quite cozy.

I'd love to create some Maori dishes of my own. I have watched a couple of television programmes on Maori cooking that really fascinated me, and also spied some of the ingredients on Kai's table at the contest. Some of them I have seen before in supermarkets, most notably a line of products by Kinaki. I think it would be really cool to learn to cook using native plants like kawakawa, horopito, piripiri, kelp and fern fronds as ingredients. I just have to be careful I don't inadvertently poison anyone. Fortunately, Marco and Anita recently gave me a great book on 'native edible plants' (thanks guys!) which I will be sure to consult.