Witi Ihimaera: 'The concept of time now has an indigenous alternative'

With the first public holiday celebration of Matariki just weeks away, one of Aotearoa's most prominent writers, Witi Ihimaera, has written a new children's book about Matariki: Te Kōkōrangi, The Astromancer.

"For me, what is happening this year is the concept of time for New Zealanders now has an indigenous alternative, with the Māori lunar calendar," Ihimaera says.

Ihimaera was nine years old when he first became aware of Matariki.

"I was staying with my nan at Waituhi [near Gisborne], and she said to me: 'Wake up... we have to get going,' because outside our window there were all these people carrying lamps and walking up the hill opposite, where Takitimu marae was.

"I was a townie boy and loved my sleep and said: "Can't this wait until morning', but I come from a place, Waituhi, that was a Ringatū stronghold, ... and so we went outside and I followed these lights going up towards the Takitimu marae, and then suddenly a deep sigh went up and the villagers began to chant.

"It was a really reverent welcoming chant, and the words were to that group of stars that we are going to be celebrating soon - and they had magically appeared in the canopy of heaven, and then nan... said: 'Now tomorrow, we can begin to plant kūmara.'"

Ihimaera said reflecting on the first Matariki public holiday, more than 70 years on, those words from his nan come back to him.

"For me what is happening this year is that the concept of time for New Zealanders now has an indigenous alternative - while New Year may well occur for New Zealanders in January, the government has recognised that the Māori lunar calendar begins in late June with Matariki.

"And so time can be set - not according to the Pākehā Gregorian calendar - but also the Māori calendar."

The two New Year commemorations each have their own distinctive and different tone, he says.

While the January New Year is celebrated as a holiday and time to relax and for indulgence, Matariki is a time of emerging reinvigoration.

"Matariki is regarded as a time to work, to get our hands dirty, to think industriously, to do the mahi; and that's why I'm looking forward so much to doing the mahi this year."

Enriching work by refocusing on the purpose, the processes, tools and methods can help our labours to be more meaningful, and give them deeper effect and impact, he says.

"When I write, first of all I think of the kaupapa - what is it going to be about? I think of tikanga principles; how I'm going to do it - the thought, hinengaro, has to be important, and clearly the work ethic.

"The tools that I use to write, even though I write in English, are the same as we would do when we utter karakia or when we create a waiata or when we create kapa haka, and they are te ihi, te wehi, te mana and te wero, and especially te wero, because if you don't have that te wero then you do not challenge yourself and you do not challenge others to think differently - so always I've really tried to make sure that the wero is there - and that we can change the world."

He recalls a saying from an Inuit architect friend:

"He says: 'When we change the world a little now, in the future it will have changed a lot.'"

"And Matariki is one of those indicators that if we change the world a little now, it will be changed a lot. I like to call what I do: 'working for the tribe, and my role - all of our roles, is to protect the Māori DNA, and the tribe is my matrix.

"There's a saying: E kore au e ngaro He kākano i ruia mai i Rangiātea - we shall never be lost, for we are from the seeds sown as Rangiātea. But we can't leave that to chance, and that's why I am always so on the front foot about doing the mahi, always making sure that we carry on, that we push forwards, because we can't leave anything to chance."

Part of that mahi for Ihimaera is communicating for young and for old that all of te ao Māori can't be found on devices, that it's a rich and deep source to unlock, full of wonderful mysteries, sciences and new worlds, which he attempts to explore in his new book.

"Delve into our pūrākau, what Pākehā would call our ur-text, our ancient text - release the taniwha, or release the Titan within you.

"There is more to Māori mythology than there is in fact to Greek mythology, and to Roman mythology, and to Norse mythology.

"This is Maōri Earth, this is not Middle Earth, and this is not a Marvel universe, this is a Māori universe, and it's out there for you to play with."