E oho! How to celebrate Matariki as a community: Learning from Featherston

Speakers

Warren Maxwell, Tanja Schubert-McArthur

Mihimihi and welcome

Warren Maxwell: Kia ora tātou, tēnā tātou kua huihui mai nei kua tae mai ki tēnei ah- um kaupapa hei whakawhitiwhiti whakaaro waiata hoki, katakata hoki so

Tēnei te mihi ki a koutou kua tae mai nei

Me mihi tuatahi ki te haukāinga o Te Whanganui-ā-Tara – Te Ātiawa, Taranaki whānau whānui tēnei te mihi ki a koutou. Hei kāhutia ki a mātou mai ngā hau e whā

Nō reira, tēnei te mihi, tēnei te mihi

Ki a koe Tanja, tēnei te mihi ki a koe, hei tūwhera te kōrero nei o te ahiahi

Nō reira, tēnei te mihi ki a koe my Featherston neighbour – kia ora!

Ki a hapori - tira, tino reka te waiata nei hei whakatūhono tātou i a tātou

Koinei ngā mahi o ngā pūoro te reo o te wao o Tāne

Nō reira tēnei te mihi ki a koutou kua waiata mai**

Kia ora, everybody. Great to see you all here. Some friends and whānau reconnecting. It feels like ages since we've been able to do the “oo kia ora, wow far! We'll catch up later.” But yeah, this feels like a novelty. Over the last couple of years we've been a bit lonely, a bit mokemoke to connect face to face. Tinana-ā-tinana, to be able-- a real person.

Whakapapa and whānau background

So yeah, just a real privilege to be invited here to Te Puna Mātauranga, hei whakawhiti kōrero e pā ana Matariki. So um āe, ko wai au? Ko Warren Maxwell ahau. I thought I'd just tell a little bit of who I am, and where-- my background just to contextualize a little bit. I won't-- I'll try not to ramble on. Ehara te kūmara e kōrero ki tōna reka So yeah, ko Warren Maxwell ahau, my hapū, my iwi; Ngāti Whare, Ngāi Te Riu, Ngāti Rakaipaaka, Ngāi Tukairangi.

So I'm on the journey-- I was of the era where mum didn't teach us te reo. Didn't really pass on who we are, where we're from. It was that generation where our mums and dads, or grandfathers, grandmothers were smacked for speaking te reo, and yeah. So I'm on the journey of re-connection. Reconnecting with my taha Māori. I’m very proud of all of the whakapapa I have here.

My mum says we’re a fruit salad, got a bit of Scandinavian, and a bit of English, and a bit of Scottish, and a bit of Māori, and a bit of—we’ve had a little bit of German. Did a DNA test, kia ora cousin. But I love that, celebrating all of the threads that make up who we are. So yeah. So I’ve got Tūhoetanga in there and Kahungunutanga as well. And kia ora bro, kia ora brother

I wanted to talk a little bit about here, I guess, where I came from. So I grew up in Whangārei. But my mum's from Ruatāhuna. Anyone know where Ruatāhuna is? Yeah, right in the middle of Te Urewera aye. Right in the bush. Now, I think I can use the point here. There. But apparently people on Zoom can't really see the laser thing. So right in the middle of Te Urewera mum grew up with Nanny Teia Kutia. Not far down the road from Tātāhoata marae ka nui te mihi ki te haukāinga kei reira i Ruatāhuna.

And my dad grew up on the Hokianga. Way up there. So how they got together you ask? Well, that's a kōrero anō. That's another story. But it was love. It was aroha Dad was working in Rotorua and mum was working at the restaurant there as a waitress, and eyes met, and sparks flew, and all that stuff.

So because dad was from Hokianga, we grew up in Whangārei. I grew up away from my Tūhoetana, my Tūhoe side. Although we had lots of cousins, and aunties come up and visit us, it wasn't really spoken about a lot-- where we come from. So yeah, grew up in Whangārei. I did my trade as a builder, because music wasn't really a real job back in the '80s. Unless you're going to join the Symphony Orchestra or something. So yeah, yeah.

It was suggested and highly encouraged that I take up a trade. And it was a good trade. I was a terrible builder. But I'm really thankful that I've got those skills now. Builders are expensive these days. So it's nice being able to whip up a wonky kind of deck or something a bit creative, shall we say.

1989 I moved to Wellington. I had a few friends down in Wellington who were studying at the Polytech down here. And they were just raving about Wellington. They said, oh, it's the-- it's an awesome city, bright lights. I remember driving down the Ngauranga gorge (I can’t quite tell which gorge this is). I think we came down-- we must have got into town about 5 o'clock in the evening. The sun was just going down. And it's just the classic scene that you come down around that bend and there's all these beautiful lights of the big city. Came from Whangārei. Big city lights. And I was like, wow. So that was me. Fell in love instantly with Wellington. And yeah, haven't really-- it's my second home really.

Music background

Studied jazz. Back then it was the Polytech, Wellington Polytech. And then towards the end of the Millennium I finished my degree in jazz. Yeah, I'll just talk a little bit about that period. Oh, can you spot me? When I talk about music as being deeply embedded in myself and my family, mum and dad were very encouraging of our musical upbringing.

So we didn't have a TV really. We used to rent a TV in the winter for a few months, but then it went back to the rental shop and music was our entertainment. So that's me in the middle there. Haven't changed much. But I started learning saxophone when I was 11 years old. And by the time I got to high school, apparently, they thought I was good enough to be first lead alto saxophonist in Whangārei boys and girl’s big band. I have really, really fond wonderful memories of that band. A bunch of young rangatahi swinging like Glenn Miller.

It was like, wow, a String of pearls, In the mood, all of those old wartime big band dance songs. And it's the luxury of hindsight that I look back and go, far out. That band could swing. That band was-- and I've got to say it's testament to our bandleader Jim Thorne. I mate ia, so ka mihi ki a ia.

But he was just such a-- he was one of those really, really supportive music teachers.

He'd pick you up in the morning to take you to school if it's raining. He'd ring up and say, “oh, do you need a lift.” He used to play me Grover Washington, and Marcus Miller, and Steve Gade. And all of those kind of really hot LA session musicians. That was the kind of music I was listening to in my teenage years. And I think that fed into that whole band. So the groove of that band is still with me.

And I think it's the-- the thing about music, and just when you were singing before, it has this ability to connect people with singing together, something intangible. It's an ancient, ancient practice. So when you're getting a group of young rangatahi playing in a big band like this. And there's the discipline of playing in a groove within 1/1,000 of a second. Really nailing the groove, that's a really good skill to have. Yeah. So yeah, fond memories of Whangārei Boys and Girl’s home.

So I moved to Wellington, studied jazz. When I finished my undergrad, that was about '93, I reckon. I got a call from South Side of Bombay. And their saxophonist was leaving the band and they called me and said, hey do you want to join? I was like, oh. And I've got to say that South Side of Bombay, my time with them, I was probably with them for about three or four years. That was the first time that I'd really experienced whānaungatanga through a Māori lens.

Experiencing whānaungatanga in Fat Freddy’s Drop

I'd grown up quite Pākehā, which is really amazing, awesome. And I'd never really experienced whānaungatanga. I hadn't gone to the marae much. I hadn't been in kapa haka. And so when I started touring with South side they were all about that. All about te ao Māori. All about whānaungatanga connection, aroha. And it was a really influential time for me.

And I think when I formed Trinity roots a few years later the influence of South side actually informed how Trinity Roots wanted to be. At that time, it was Ricky Gooch, and Rio Hemopo and myself and the band. And we were all similar.

Rio had had quite a strong upbringing in Del Mar, coming from Taumaranui. But none of us had Te Reo. None of us had karakia or that kind of knowledge. So we signed up with the Wellington Polytechnic to study Te Reo for a year. Rio did two years. And that was one of the best things I've ever done, I reckon, just that one year of full-immersion study. It just flipped my mindset and opened up who I am, you know? And that was it. So, for 20-odd years, but you know, whakapapa, it's a lifetime thing. It's not a three-year diploma or something. It's a lifetime thing. So I feel like that time that I went in to study, that was the springboard, that was the spark, it was like, Wow, this is stunning. And I still remember karakia and waiata from that time and I want to mihi to my kaiako from that time as well. A couple have passed on. Ka nui te mihi ki a rātou, kua whakaako ki a au.

And at the same time or just not long after Trinity formed in 1998, I joined this bunch of misfits, Fat Freddy's Drop. There's a few people out here who I reckon they will remember [LAUGHS] this amazing halcyon decade of just incredible music that was going on. I want to say the mid-90s through the mid-2000s, '95, I don't-- we were just getting a fusion of incredible music. You know, DJ Mur would be playing down at Metal Horn and I'd turn up with my saxophone, Dallas would turn up and get on the mic and you'd just have an amazing jam.

And then people started taking notice and going, hey, this is really cool. This is different, you know. Just that no fear of fusing different styles of music together, getting jazz musicians coming together with roots, djs.

So yeah, that's where that band came out of, really, Fat Freddy's Drop. And of course, has gone on to do some pretty incredible things and still is to this day, yeah. I left Freddy's oh, what? 2005, that's when we had our first bubba, so it was that really difficult choice of, OK, I want to tour over to Europe, to Germany, and Spain, or do I stay home and be a dad? And so I chose the latter.

But I've got to say, I get green with envy when I see some of the festivals that they play at. It's like, Oh! But, yeah, they're amazing whānau. So, yeah, Southside Bombay, Trinity Roots, Fat Freddy's Drop, and of course Little Bushmen is another group that I'm still engaged with, which is a bit more psychedelic blues experimental music.

Whānau life and moving to the Wairarapa

So, in 2006, a year after we had our first bubba, Lily Raukura, we thought, oh, we were renting in Laurel Bay and we thought, geez, we'd better grow up and buy a whare. Couldn't afford a whare in Wellington on a musician's wage so we looked around. We were thinking Kāpiti Coast or out towards the Wairarapa. And I was very keen to move over to the Wairarapa because I thought I could just feel Kāpiti growing, developing, like almost becoming like Gold Coast in Queensland or something. Because everyone wants to live by the sea, although I'm not sure any more with climate change.

So Wairarapa came calling. We went out there and we just found our dream home. We just found a two-acre section with two relocated houses on it, old 1950s weatherboard houses. No trees, but, yeah ka karanga mai te whare and ka karanga mai te Wairarapa and we've been there for 16 years since. Absolutely love it. Much like Tanja, we just, it's-- got that village mentality I was talking before. There's a beautiful vibe out there.

I remember the first day we went for a walk on a Saturday morning and this big, big fellow was walking down the road. I was like, Oh, here we go. And he got closer and he put his hand out and he's like, Oh, good day, mate. And I was all, good day. Yeah, nice day today. Yeah, great day for drinking pilsners It's a lot like 8:00 on a Saturday morning. I was like, Oh, I'm home. [CHUCKLES] Not so much for that kind of thing, but I think just the openness, the fact that he reached out his hand and looked you in the eye and was like, Wow, this is awesome.

History of Wairarapa

Yeah, so it's got that beautiful country feel about it. One hour from Wellington. [EXHALES] Love it. Yeah. So I've got these images up here. Beautiful Kohunui Marae out towards Pirinoa and Papawai Marae over in Greytown. And this is sort of heading into our Matariki kōrero.

So I'm not from the Wairarapa. Ehara i te mana whenua kei reira,

So I'm what's known as taura here you know, someone who comes from a different kinship, a different tribe, a different hapū. But I am living in a place where I'm connecting and supporting and I want to connect with mana whenua over there with are Rangitāne and Kahungnunu.

And we also have a good connection with Te Ātiawa and Taranaki Whānui and the Tararua Range in the Remutaka Hills are known as a tatau pounamu and that is in Māori terms as a doorway, a Greenstone doorway. And the metaphor of that is that there will always be peace between Wairarapa Iwi and Te Āti Awa iwi. And that started that tatau pounamu was formed back in the 1830s, I think, between Te Whare Pouri and Nukupewapewa. So yeah, when you think of those hills, the tatau pounamu is a sign of peace between iwi on that side and iwi on this side and it stands till this day.

So yeah, I'm considered taura here or mātāwai, a different face from another place.

And one of the-- when I was asked to come on and be lead coordinator for Matariki, one of the first things I wanted to do was reach out to Kohunui marae and Papawai marae as well, at least let them know that this is what we're wanting to do. There isn't a traditional Māori in Featherston. These are our Māori, really. So if you think Featherston, back in 1855, and I reckon there's some geo-historians here. We had a big earthquake out there, 1855. Raised the lakebed up some places 6 meters.

So that's why it was never settled by hapū and iwi previously because it was swampy. Featherston used to be a riverbed, used to be swamp. But it was known as a place of abundant kai and I've been told by Ra Smith (Ngāti Muretu) out there, he's a local legend, historian, educator, just amazing kaumātua that Featherston was known as a taupahi, a place of abundant kai. So it's a seasonal place of gathering kai.

So since I've moved out there, I'm just like, I'm so in love with Featherston. I want to find out everything about it, right from mai rā anō, right from way back. I'm trying to find out the history of it right back to, I'm going to go right back to 950 AD when Kupe came. And even before then there's rumors of Ui-te-Rangiora who went down to Antarctica in 650 AD.

So wanting to collect all of those morsels of our little town and put them together. I'm rambling, I'm going off. Come back, waza. Come back bro.

[LAUGHTER]

I'm just sharing my love for our little town, you know. Yeah, so 1855 it will swamp. Earthquake raised it. Henry Burling came to town and thought, let's start a town here. And then not long after that, Dr. Isaac Featherston took over. I think he was a policeman, hence Featherston. Yeah but they our Matariki conversation-- am I getting time soon? Am I getting time? Really wanted to reach out to mana whenua and make sure that we have their support.

And it's been really great. I was out at Papawai. That photo was taken last week when we had our Featherston Book Town. And we took Witi Ihimaera, and Patricia Grace and a number of writers out to Papawai just to whānaungatanga you know? And it was beautiful. We had these double rainbows. And you know tohu pai. And one of our Matariki events is we're having a noho marae out at Kohunui, Kohunui Marae, overnight stay.

Matariki in Featherston

So yeah, when I got asked to lead this kaupapa, I also want to acknowledge the people who had been involved two years prior to this because we've been having Matariki, well, celebrating Matariki two years beforehand. So, yeah, 2020, I think, was our first one. Might have even been 2019. And it was just a small celebration. We had a little karakia down at the lake and then a kai.

And then the year after that, got a little bit bigger. We had some kids coming along and playing some Bach on strings or something. And yeah, so this year is just growing. And we thought because it's the first time that Matariki is a national holiday celebration, we'd put a bit more energy in it.

So we put out a survey to our community to see what they'd be keen to experience or participate in. And we had a few events listed. And I just think it's really exciting to note that the event most in-demand is the kaumātua purākau storytelling. People want to hear our old people tell stories. And that became apparent from this survey that we put out.

There was only 40 responses, I'm going to say, but we're a little town. That's big, that's big news in our town. But yeah, just to know that people want to hear our old people. People want to be connected with our old people telling those stories.

So we put this survey out, and this informed us, this informed our festival. I was talking with Tanja earlier today just-- the great thing about living in a small town is you get to know everyone. And through events like this we realized we've got some amazing people living-- I mean, everyone's amazing, you know. But we have amazing people. And when you put an event together, suddenly they came out of the woodwork, you know? And they just put their hand up to help.

It was a really great example of that with Book Town last weekend, just incredible. Everyone wanted to volunteer. Everyone wanted to help. And the same with this. We've got people wanting to help, wanting to contribute. It's exciting that with New Zealand histories being taught in our schools, (MOCK YELLING) yay! With Matariki being celebrated, (MOCK YELLING) yay! With te reo being supported and resourced. And there's a real groundswell of redress and reconnecting happening and it's really very heart-warming.

I'm just excited for our mokopuna about two or three generations from now. They're all going to be fluent in te reo, in English. They're all got to know their whakapapa wherever they come from. They're all going to celebrate Matariki. Maybe a bit more understanding around rongoā. But mātauranga Māori is going to-- well, I think we're going to see a real rise in mātauranga Māori.

Remembering too, eh, that navigating by the stars and all of this old knowledge. I think it was my friend Ben Lemi who coined the term AI, it's actually ancestral intelligence.

[LAUGHTER]

Yeah! Yeah, love it. You know? They didn't get out a PDF to sail across the Pacifica. Pacific moana or Google Maps. There was some ancient, ancient knowledge here. And a lot of it we've lost, but a lot of it's coming back thanks to the likes of Dr. Rangimatāmua mā. Yeah.

So this is our festival. Ooh, how do I-- I can go back one, actually. That whakatauki down the bottom there, I think it's supposed to be ka muri. Ka muri, ka mua. But that's like walking backwards into the future. So you're always like, oh, sorry, man, sorry. [CHUCKLES] You're always acknowledging your past but moving forward. I like the analogy that it's like when you're driving and you're looking in the rearview mirror and just always acknowledging the past. It informs our future.

Yeah, so this is our schedule. We're going to open on the Thursday night there with our three schools. Our three schools combining to give us a kapa haka performance. We'll open with karakia. Then on the Friday we've got, we're going down to-- well, we're inviting community members to go down to our local Featherston cemetery. A big part of Matariki is remembering our loved ones who have passed on that year. So we've got 1,675 graves at Featherston and all of the schools are going to make harakeke flowers, putiputi. They're going to make 1,675 flowers and put one on every single grave at Featherston Cemetery. Cool, eh? And then we've got our first purākau storytelling. Some of our purākau storytelling are for littlies. Some of them are for us big kids. So we've got a nice variety in there.

We've got a mini train, mini fell train out there and light exhibit. I get jealous of those, those light exhibits so you see up in, what's that? Festival of Light up in Taranaki and down in Christchurch they've got a beautiful festival. So I think eh, we'll be-- we're heading that way, eh, Tanja?

[LAUGHTER]

But what I'd like to think is that we encourage our Featherston makers to make our own light exhibitions and our tamariki to make their own light exhibitions. I just scored some phosphorous paint, though, just to let you know.

[LAUGHTER]

And then on the Saturday morning we're putting down a hāngi, 6:00. And while that's in the ground cooking, we've got a Matariki car boot sale, and then we have a kai, a community kai at the Anzac Hall. More storytelling. And then there's a noho marae starts at 3:00 out at Kohunui where we get pōhiri -ed on to the marae.

In putting this together, you know, it makes me realize how many people have not been on to a marae, eh? So that was a big incentive for organizing this noho. It's just to give people an opportunity, whether you're Māori from wherever, you know? Anywhere. Doesn't matter, just haramai/haere mai. Experience karanga, experience whaikōrero, and then sit with kaumātua out there and listen to their stories.

Time seems to be pretty sparse these days, eh? We filling up our days with mahi. And so it's going to be nice just to sit for an afternoon in a morning and kōrero. Just kōrero. Cup of tea, kōrero. Yeah.

Then on the Sunday, we've got a dawn karakia out there, more storytelling. Sunday afternoon, the Wellington Chamber Orchestra is coming out to play Anzac Hall. And one of the cool things about that is they're going to feature Thomas Nikora who is from the Wairarapa. So he's a young rangatahi. He's probably in his 20s now, though. Sorry, Thomas. But amazing virtuosic pianist. And we've got a beautiful Steinway piano out there, the Anzac Hall. So we're really privileged to have the Wellington Chamber Orchestra come out and perform as part of our Matariki festival.

Then straight after that we've got a DJ Vinyl Club, yeah? Talk about polarizing, eh?

[LAUGHTER]

And then we have a Kai.

On the Monday night we have Te Ataahia Hurihanganui coming down to give us a kōrero on maramataka. And then we finish off the festival on Tuesday night with Under the Stars. Anyone know Under the Stars? They come out and basically give a korero with a laser pointer up, telling us about the stars at night-time. And then we have a karakia to close.

So, yeah, that's our festival. He iti, he pounamu however small, it's a treasure. But I want to say it's been a lot of work, but it's worth it, especially for Featherston. And just lifting whakamana te ao Māori, you know? Yeah.

These are our events. Mānawatia a Matariki. I just want to make it to Dr. Rangi Mātāmua again. Haven't put your name up there, bro, sorry. [LAUGHS] My Tūhoe brother. So I must admit I get it confused sometimes. I haven't completely embedded these, but we've got Matarki there who's the mother of all these stars. We've got Nuku-ā-rangi. Oh, Tupu-ā-rangi, sorry, Tupu-ā-nuku. Pōhutukawa down the bottom. Pōhutukawa is the one who looks after our dead, our passed, the ones who have passed. Waitī, Waitā, saltwater and freshwater. Hiwa-i-te-rangi, anyone know Hiwa-i-te-rangi? Yeah, the wishes, eh? Yeah, that's our wishing star. And then up the top we've got Waipuna-ā-rangi which is all about the rain and Ururangi which about wind, yeah.

Closing

So that's me for whānau. I just thank you again for the invitation to kōrero. I hope you're not all asleep out there. I can't really see that far at the back there, but, yeah ka nui te mihi ki a koutou, I think we're going to have a bit of a kōrero session or something, yeah? Go easy on me, yeah. But no, thank you whānau.

Yeah, we have a kōrero? You are choice.

Ngā pātai | Questions

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: Ngā mihi nui ki a koe e Warren.

Warren Maxwell: Kia ora Tanja (Warren)

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: Beautiful kōrero and images as well. So thank you for that. And I would like to know because 2022 was a historic moment, Matariki being celebrated for the first time as a national holiday, what you think that means for Aotearoa, New Zealand as a nation.

Warren Maxwell: Yeah, yeah. The first word that comes to mind is puāwai. So puāwai is when the flower opens and blossoms. Puāwai - sort of like it feels like the whole nation is just opening up and starting to accept mātauranga Māori as part of all of us. We're a whāriki aye, we're a woven net. We've got whakapapa from Scotland, and England, from all over.

And yeah, for me it's this – it’s an amazing time. I feel like as a nation we've just gone [SINGING] woah [NORMAL VOICE] and starting to embrace how special mātauranga Māori is, yeah? Especially with our kids, aye? You know, you see our kids in school and there's a lot of learning in schools, a lot of work to be done, but a lot of learning in schools now. It's become just omnipresent, you know? Everyone's saying ‘kia ora!’ and so it's like taking that and just growing it one word at a time. Kia ora e hoa, kei te pēhea? 7:00. [CHUCKLES]

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: And it will be a great moment for everyone who just goes to one event, maybe, to celebrate Matariki and does something different to educate themselves what it's all about. So we're looking forward to that.

Warren Maxwell: Yeah, yeah.

What makes Featherston’s celebration of Matariki different to other council-led celebrations around Aotearoa?

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: Now Featherston Matariki is different from council-planned events in that it's community-led and we saw the survey. So it really started with, what does the community want? And kind of co-designing the events, right, Warren?

Warren Maxwell: Yeah.

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: Tell us a bit about how the community came along.

Warren Maxwell: Well one of the great things about Featherston is, yeah, like I've mentioned before, everyone knows everyone pretty much, or it's that one degree of separation. So you know, it feels like as soon as someone even thinks of an idea, it's already out on the Featherston Facebook page and getting lots of rhetoric and lots of contribution, I should say.

So, I mean this festival had been going previously for the last two years, I'm pretty sure. But I think, as things grow, whether it's a festival or an idea or some kind of community initiative, I think when people see the joy and the value of others, that others are having, they're like, Oh, I want to get in on that. I want a piece of that. I mean that sort of felt. It started really small a couple of years ago, literally just with a karakia down at the lake in a coy. And now we've got all this sort of three years later.

I would hope that it wouldn't get much bigger than this. We're not about corporate sponsorship and all that kind of stuff. One of the comments actually on our survey was, keep it small and keep it Featherston-centric, and bring people to Featherston. So yeah, I think just community. There's just a magnetism. There's an attraction to things like this. Yeah.

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: And it might be interesting for people to hear how many others were involved in the committee and like the funding you have.

Warren Maxwell: Yeah, yeah, great call, yeah. So we’ve got Featherston businesses involved, we’ve got local hospitality, local cafes and restaurants. We’ve got all three schools, all three schools have come on board. You know then you get individuals like Tanja comes along. I hadn’t met you before this, had I? Had I?

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: At a cafe and kōrero once.

Warren Maxwell: Oh, that's right, yeah. That's right, yeah. So, yeah, and then we've got councillors involved. Like we've had funding from-- council have been really supportive of this. I think it's also, I've got to say, because South Wairarapa District Council have realized that they're legislated to support cultural events and cultural awareness. They have to do this as part of their mandate, you know? So it's been great having them kia whakapuāwai as well as a council, say, Oh!

But then I also think they've got their work cut out themselves with three waters, and all of these climate change, and all of these other things going on. So I feel like they are really grateful that our community has taken this on and we haven't put all the onus on them to say, hey, you guys need to get us a you know, thing. So it's been a really good partnership, yeah. And we're really supporting local businesses. I mean, who's been through, who's been out to Featherston? Who's been out to Featherston? Yeah, yeah, couple of ya. Couple of ya. So it's a small town, eh? Not many businesses out there, so it's nice to support local, yeah. Yeah.

Have there been any negative responses from the Featherston community about the Matariki celebrations?

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: And has there been any negative response from the community at all?

Warren Maxwell: I'm waiting till after the festival--

[LAUGHTER]

--for that. No, no, no, not that I-- no. I'm sure there's been something but I just sort of Apple delete. No, no, I'm sure, no, nothing really is substantial. No, no. It was-- no.

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: That's good.

Warren Maxwell: No, no, no. It's all been really positive. It has been a bit of flack. So we've got a funding body out there called Fab Feathy. And this is all part of DIA. So we've got a partnership with DIA and we apply for funding through Fab Feathy. And there was a little bit of negative pushback around the name "Feathy."

[CHUCKLES]

Just some, well, you know, I think some people are really proud of Featherston and probably that history that goes with it. And when you sort of truncate or slang something up like "Feathy," you're going to get a bit of pushback. But, oh, you can't please everybody ka pai.

Why do you think it’s taken so long for Matariki to be recognised?

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: So we have a few questions online and just a reminder, if you do have a question on the Zoom, please put it in the Q&A. So someone asks, Why do you think it's taken so long for Matariki to be recognised?

Warren Maxwell: Wow, whoa ho ho. Such a great question. I don't know. [LAUGHS] I think we all get a feeling for how long-- especially when you're talking about central government policy, legislation, how long things take to-- the Titanic is not probably the right metaphor analogy to use, but it just takes a long time to turn this waka, eh? And so if I think back to my schooling, 1970s, there might have been a token waiata that you learn just as a hobby type of thing.

And to think that it's taken 50 years and more. Like, we've had some kaumātua real legions fighting for mātauranga Māori and te reo Māori. I think te reo has been the focus with the Taura Whiri language commission. When-- I think they'd established back in 1975. So I think there's been a lot of focus on te reo and then when you push te reo out to the front, and then everything else follows behind it, you know? I've fallen madly in love with te reo. I just love the poetry of te reo. You know I'm obsessed with te reo. Our ancestors just spoke in metaphors and poetry all the time and it's just lovely.

So I guess Matariki and navigating by the stars and rongoā and you know rāranga and all of these things are just following in behind. It's like the wake at the back of a waka. The waka has been te reo and all of these other things are falling into place behind, I'm thinking. I'm no anthropologist or anything like that. I'm just making it all up, to be honest. But these are just my thoughts why it's taken so long for Matariki.

And also I've got to say for somebody like Rangi Mātāmua who has been given all of this knowledge from, I think, one of his uncles or his great uncle who my mum knew back in school. You know, it took that time. It’s happened at the right time for the right reasons with the right people. And it’s just the universe at work, I suppose. Yeah.

How do you feel about the commercialisation of Matariki?

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: And with public holidays there's always the danger, I guess, or the risk that it becomes commercialized. And I've already seen the first Matariki chocolate. [LAUGHS] So how do you feel about it?

Warren Maxwell: Yeah, I'm really on the fence about that one, aye? I mean, yeah, you know I really support business and entrepreneurship, absolutely, but I think there is a line. There is a line. The big thing for me and it goes back to Kohonui and Papawai is you've got to ask. You know? You've got to ask people for if you're using a certain design for a chocolate. You know, you've got to make sure that that's not some ancestor's moko (tā moko, moko kauae) you're using and things like that. And just even be cognisant and aware of those kinds of things. Yeah, I mean, that's a reality. Business is business. We all got bills to pay.

But I think something I'm really an advocate of is he aha te kaupapa? what's the kaupapa behind it? If it's purely just to make a whole heap of money, if there was maybe a bit of a sort of, some kind of feedback into the community off the back of your profiting, something like that, circular economy, green economy, goes back into-- some profits go back to schools or something, eh, to our tamariki or something, then, yeah, yeah.

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: And I'm going to open up for questions from the floor soon, but one little story I wanted to relay about the community input in Featherston and how people are wanting to be really helpful is that, on our Facebook page, we said for the hāngi we're looking for someone with a digger, who has a digger to dig the hāngi pit and Warren can finish off.

[LAUGHS]

Warren Maxwell: Yeah, so we're very contemporary. I'd love to say we all get out there at 4:00 in the morning with shovels and spades, but OK, so Featherston is a riverbed and we have rocks the size of Kansas on underneath. And I swear I've planted so many trees out there and every single hole is with a big bar that you've got to dig with, so yeah. So we put the pānui out, the pātai out. Anyone got a digger?

And we got a digger now.

[LAUGHTER]

But then it just kept going, you know? Oh, has anyone got stones, hāngi stones in there? Yep, yep, we've got hāngi stones. Has anyone got crates? Yeah, we got crates. It just keeps coming, and coming, and coming. And yeah so it's just the great thing about that community out there, like many other communities. Yeah, I don't think we're the only community with this kind of thing going on, but it feels special. Featherston's has had a rough time, I want to say, in the '80s, and like a lot of small towns, industries shut down. But it's really on the rise. It's a cool little town, yeah. So please stop in when you can. Have a coffee. Or got a great cheese shop and really cool restaurants out there.

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: And next we'll put out a pānui for peeling the potatoes.

[LAUGHTER]

Warren Maxwell: Yeah.

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: So it's great to see communities coming together for Matariki because I think that's what it was all about, really, was--

Warren Maxwell: Yeah.

Tanja Schubert-McArthur:--gathering your harvest, and celebrating together, and sharing stories, and huddling around a fire, and all that. So I think that's a great tribute to exactly that. So are there any questions in the audience? Right there.

Comment from audience member

Audience member Ray: Ngā mihi nui ki a koe, mō tō kōrero ki a mātou i tēnei ahiahi – tūmuaki tāne [INAUDIBLE] kōrero wahine Hemena kei kōnei, nau mai, haere mai ki a koutou katoa [INAUDIBLE]

Thank you, Warren, for and Tanja for organizing and accommodating us and giving us an insight into this interesting array of events. And in particular your role, which is clear to me in this. Some of us the years gone by while others of us Featherston-ites. Someone new and fresh, relatively new, coming in to just give things a bit of a boot along with your friends and local people. It's wonderful.

Warren Maxwell: Kia ora e hoa

So I wish you and your committee may perform your festival your best.

Warren Maxwell: Thank you, Ray.

Audience member Ray: And I've got the calendar here, [INAUDIBLE].

Warren Maxwell: Oy, oy, no nau mai, haere mai have a look for that little cottage I used to live in there.

Audience member Ray: Yeah, so Warren was talking about my mother, mother's old cottage doesn't belong to our family anymore. It was an old 1910 forty and so I've talked to Warren about that already, I won't talk today about that. But yes, so a few of us [INAUDIBLE] can come over and partake of honey.

Warren Maxwell: Oh, yeah. Oh yeah.

[LAUGHTER]

Warren Maxwell: Might be a big line.

Audience member Ray: Probably going to the cheese shop.

Yeah.

[LAUGHTER]

What is the meaning of ‘mōkai’ in the name of Pae Tū Mōkai (one of the original Māori names for Featherston)?

Audience member: Tēnā koe e te rangatira, nei rā te mihi ki a koe. Kia ora bro. Tēnā kōrua, ngā mihi mō tēnei kōrero – he pātai iti.

I'm a keen language learner and I also came late. Did you explain on your poster I think it says Pae Tū Mōkai.

Warren Maxwell: Oh, yes, yeah.

Audience member: The only meaning I know for mōkai is slave and it's always been a very controversial word and so, did I miss an explanation as to the words on the poster or could you?

Warren Maxwell: He pātai tino reka e hoa So no, I hadn't actually talked about Pae Tū Mōkai. So again, when I moved out there, it wasn't a name that was really well-known and possibly for that very reason that mōkai is one term for slave, but it can also be an endearing term for like a pet. So mōkai, the term mōkai is pet. Yeah. And I've researched, I've asked, I've gone to kaumātua from puta noa te Wairarapa and there are a few different stories where that came from.

So one story is that a chief out there used to have a bird, a pet bird, and the bird went missing one day and was found caught in a pae-- so P-A-E is a snare, is one name for a snare. It's also the name for a horizontal surface like a pae, the pae on your marae or a branch, a horizontal branch. But, yes, so there's one kōrero that was Pae Tū Mōkai was a chief who lost his pet bird and it was found in a snare.

Another one from one of the Kaumātua there was Pae Tū Mokai o Tauira. So Tauira, one kōrero was their Tauira was the name of one of Kupe's dogs. So when Kupe came down to Palliser, down to Wairarapa, went walking up around our area and asked his dog to sit and look after the place. So Pae Tū Mōkai o Tauira. So the sitting place of Tauira was his name.

Another korero was around the sister of Te Rerewa and her name was Hine Tauira and there's one kōrero there, there was possibly a whare wānanga for wāhine out there. But Hine Tauira was the mother of Te Rangitawhanga who came down to Wairarapa. Kahungunu came down and Te Rerewa was living out Lake Ferry - Onoke and Te Rangitawhanga asked his uncle if he could

And then so Te Rangitawhanga did it, built four waka and Te Rerewa then took his hapū over to Blenheim. So that's the connection there between Wairarapa and Rangitāne down in Blenheim, yeah.

Yeah, there's lots of kōrero around that. And I love that. It's not the idea of looking for the one true explanation, it's like they're all right. All of these stories are-- they came from somewhere. Yeah. But the full name of Featherston, the old name of Featherston, is Pae Tū Mōkai o Tauira. Yeah.

Kia ora for that pātai - Yeah, I'd forgotten that kōrero. Naughty me. Yeah, thank you.

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: Do we have any more questions?

Warren Maxwell: Do we need to get back to our office, back to work, back to mahi? We love our mahi, though, eh? Eh?

Closing comments

Tanja Schubert-McArthur: So it's just to thank Warren for his amazing kōrero and I've experienced your hospitality, manaakitanga, and being inclusive on the Pae Tū Mōkai Matariki Committee. So, Warren is someone who brings people along on the journey and I'm really thankful for that. And I hope that whatever you do on Matariki that you enjoy yourself, that you open the pathway for mātauranga Māori and just have a really amazing time. And maybe you come to Pae Tū Mōkai.

So we'd love to finish off with a waiata. It's called Waiata Matariki and some of you might know it. Warren will grab his guitar. And we have the words up as well, so another community engagement.

Warren Maxwell: Now I just learnt this morning, so you might have to remind me how it goes, actually. We've got those kupu up there? Ooh, I've already forgotten-- what's Oh yeah cool.

Waiata

[GUITAR STRUMMING]

Warren Maxwell: Oh, yeah, cool.

Matariki, Matariki
E Ara E

Te matahi o te tau
Te kohinga whetū
I te uma o Ranginui

E piataata mai ana
Whakaataata i te rangi
E tohu ana
I te tau hou Māori e

Ko Tupuānuku
Ko Tupuārangi
Ko Waitī, Waitā
Waipuna a Rangi
Ururangi e

Ko Tupuānuku
Ko Tupuārangi
Ko Waitī, Waitā
Waipuna a Rangi
Ururangi e

Te matahi o te tau
Te kohinga whetū
I te uma o Ranginui

E piataata mai ana
Whakaataata i te rangi
E tohu ana
I te tau hou Māori e

Matariki, Matariki
E Ara E

[MUSIC ENDS]

(Waiata composed by Rahera Davies)