Allan Kiritapu; Rurawhe AdrianTE PIRE MŌ TE HARAREI TŪMATANUI O TE KĀHUI O MATARIKI/TE KĀHUI O MATARIKI PUBLIC HOLIDAY BILLFirst ReadingHon KIRITAPU ALLAN (Associate Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage): Tēnei au te tāpae nei ki te aroaro o te Whare te tauākī ā-ture o Te Pire mō te Hararei Tūmatanui o Te Kāhui o Matariki/Te Kāhui o Matariki Public Holiday Bill. [I present a legislative statement on Te Pire mō te Hararei Tūmatanui o Te Kāhui o Matariki/Te Kāhui o Matariki Public Holiday Bill.]SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN: E mōtini Au kia pānui tuatahitia Te Pire mō te Hararei Tūmatanui o Te Kāhui o Matariki Te Kāhui o Matariki Public Holiday Bill i tēnei wā. E tautapa ana au i Te Kōmiti Take Māori kia whakaaroaro i te pire ka whakahoki kōrero mai i mua i te 10 o Poutūterangi i te tau 2022. Nōku te hōnore nui ki te whakatakoto i tētahi pire ki te Whare ka whakatū i tētahi hararei tūmatanui hei whakanui i a Matariki Te Pire mō Te Hararei Tūmatanui o Te Kāhui o Matariki. Kei te taonga ahau i whakairohia e te mātanga nau mai. E haramai koe i te ao o Pūanga. E te huihui o Matariki i a Pareārau i a Poutūterangi ka mutu e hine e tama ngā whetū homai kai ki Aotearoa. E ngākau whakahī ana tātou o Aotearoa i tō tātou mōhio ko wai tātou e tā tātou tū mō tā tātou e whakapono ai me te āhua o tā tātou rārangatahi ētahi ao ētahi ahurea kē ki te waihanga i tō tātou tuakiri ā-motu motuhake. Kei te mārama te pire me ngā tikanga whakatū hararei tūmatanui hou. E kī ana te pire ka tū tētahi hararei tūmatanui mō Matariki. E kī ana āhea tū ai ka whakahou anō i te tikanga o te rā mahi me te rā pakihi rere noa i ētahi ture maha tonu. Heoi ko te mea hiranga katoa ko te poua hōhonutia o ngā kōrero o te pire ki te mātauranga Māori. Nō reira nō mātou te waimārie nui e arahina mātou e te Rōpū Arataki o Matariki tētahi kāhui mātanga rongonui o Aotearoa mō ngā mātauranga e pā ana ki a Matariki me te maramataka Māori.E reo rua ana te katoa o te pire. Kua tuhia ki te reo Māori me te reo Ingarihi. He mea nui tēnei ki te whakamihi i te takea mai o Matariki e te tūāpapa o te reo Māori. Ko te tuarima noa tēnei o ngā ture reo rua o tō tātou whenua me taku ngākau whakahī ki te tāpae ki te aroaro o te Whare i te wā ki a Mahuru Māori. E kore e takoto te pire nei ki te kore Te Rōpū Arataki o Matariki. Ka nui tō mātou waimārie i ngā kupu ārahi a ngā tōhunga Māori rangatira o te kaupapa nei. Ko Rereata Makiha tēnā nō Muriwhenua me Te Arawa. He mahi nui e kitea ai e tētahi nui atu o ngā mātauranga mō te pūnaha maramataka tēnā i a Rereata. Tokorua ngā kaiwhakatere moana e noho kaihautū ana i roto i ēnei mahi ko Jack Thatcher tēnā nō Tauranga Moana rāua ko Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr o Tainui. Inā te nui o ā rāua wheako whakatere i te aumoana. Ka nui tō rāua mōhio ki te rangi i te pō. Ko Victoria Campbell ō kaitau anō tēnā. He kairangahau he mātanga ki te tātai arorangi me ngā maramataka whetū. Ko Tākuta Ruakere Hond o Parihaka hoki tēnā e mārama pū ana ki te mātauranga Māori o nehe. Ko ia hoki tētahi ka kōrero mō te aranga o Pūanga. Ko Tākuta Pauline Harris o Kahungungu tēnā ko ia anake te kaimātai ahupūngao arorangi Māori o te ao. Ka huri ki a Ahorangi Rangi Mātāmua te toihau o te rōpū te tohunga kōkōrangi o te ao Māori. Ka hia tau nei e takahi ana i te motu o Aotearoa ki te kauhau me te tuku i āna mātauranga mō Matariki me te maramataka. Kei aku rangatira ka rere aku mihi nui ki a koutou. He kāhui whetū a Matariki ka noho matua mai i ētahi iwi maha hei tohu i te taka o te wā. He tohu nui hoki a Matariki ki ō tātou tuākana rere i Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa mō te taka o te wā. Ko ētahi o ā rātou kupu mō te kāhui ko Mataliki ko Matali'i ko Matari'i ko Makali'i. Ahakoa ko Matariki te whetū taiaroha katoa o te kāhui arā tū ana anō ētahi e hiranga tonu ana. Ahakoa hoki te rerekē o ngā whakaaro ki te rahi tūturu o ngā whetū kei te kāhui e whakarongona ana a Tākuta Mātāmua i te rangi nei nō reira me kī au e iwa. Waitī ko ia te whetū o te wai Māori me ōna tini katoa. Waitā ko ia te whetū mō ngā kai ka kohia i te wai tai. Waipunarangi e hono ana ki te ua. Tupuānuku e hono ana ki ngā kai mai i te whenua. Tupuārangi e hono ai ki te kai kei te kauuru o te rākau. Ururangi e hono ana ki te ao urutapu me ngā hau. Pōhutukawa ko ia ka hono i a Matariki ki te hunga kua whakawhetūrangatia. Ko te whetū e tata ana ki te ngākau o taku whānau ko Hiwa-i-te-rangi te whetū e tukuna atu ai ō tātou wawata te whetū e tapaina nei taku tamāhine. Kāore e māmā te tohu i tētahi rā kotahi hei whakanui i te hararei tūmatanui o Matariki. I ngā rā he wā kē a Matariki ehara i te rā kotahi. E kī mai tā mātou rōpū arotake kia arohia aketia hararei tūmatanui o Matariki i te Rāmere tata katoa ki te wā ki a Tangaroa i te marama o Pipiri. I te kore e hāngai pū o te maramataka Māori ki te maramataka Gregorian ka paku neke te rā haere he tau haere he tau he rite ki te Aranga. Ko te hararei tūmatanui o Matariki te wā e aro ai tātou ā-motu nei ki te whakanui i te Mātahi o te tau. Ehara tērā i te kī ake koia tūturu te rā e arohia ai e te iwi te huringa o te tau. Ki tēnā iwi ki tēnā rohe ki tēnā hapū me tēna whānau te tikanga mō te wā e whakanui ai rātou i te tīmatanga o tō rātou tau. Ko te mea nui o te pire nei ko te āta tohu i te rā kotahi o te tau e noho ai ko Te Mātahi o te tau te kaupapa hei whakanui mā te katoa o Aotearoa. Ko te tūmanako ka mahara tātou ki ētahi tikanga e toru a Matariki. Tuatahi te mahara ake me te whakanui i te hunga kua riro mai i te aranga ake o Matariki i te tau o mua atu. Tuarua te whakanui i ēnei rā me te huihui tahi ki te whakamoemiti mō ngā painga kei a tātou. Tuatoru te titiro whakamua ki ngā painga ka kawea mai ki tō tau hou. E mōhio ana mātou kāore e tuku anōtia a Matariki me ngā mātauranga mōna. Kia mārama taku kupu kei te iho o te pire nei ko te ngākau pūmau ki te hononga o ngāi Māori me te Karauna mō te āhua ki te whakamahi te tuku te whakatairangi me te āta tiaki i te mātauranga Māori. He mea nui hoki te āta whakatinana i te hararei tūmatanui o Matariki i runga i te kauanuanu. E ngākau pūmau ana tō mātou Kāwanatanga ki te tautoko i te rerekētanga o te whakanui i a Matariki me te Mātahi o te tau i tēnā me tēnā rohe. Ka mahi tahi mātou ki te iwi Māori e taea ai tēnei ingoa o te hararei tūmatanui o Matariki tuatahi ka tū ā te 24 o Pipiri o tērā tau. He taka hanga whakamua hiranga te pire nei mō Aotearoa ki te whakatū i ngā āhuatanga o mua e hīkoi whakamua ai tātou ki tō tātou anamata hei iwi o te ao hou o Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. Kī pai ana taku ngākau i te tūmanako mō tō tātou tuākiri ā-motu i te tipu tonu nei me te rikarika anō kia kite i ngā iwi o Aotearoa e pārekareka ana i tetahi mutunga wiki roa ki ngā hoa me te whānau i raro i te karu o te tū o Matariki. Matariki hunga nui Matariki whakakotahi i a tātou. Mā te pire nei e pērā ai ka tāpaea i konei te pire ki te Whare. [I move that Te Kāhui o Matariki Public Holiday Bill/Te Kāhui o Matariki Public Holiday Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Māori Affairs Committee to consider the bill and report back before 10 March 2022. It is my great honour to table a bill in front of the House to establish a public holiday to celebrate Matariki Te Kāhui o Matariki Public Holiday Bill.I am in possession of the treasure which has been fashioned by specialists in the field; I welcome you. You come from the world of Pūanga. To the cluster of Matariki to Pareārau to Poutūterangi and the male and female stars that provide sustenance for Aotearoa. We in Aotearoa are proud that we know who we are and stand up for what we believe in and for the way we are weaving together different worlds and cultures to create our own unique national identity. The bill and its rules about establishing a new public holiday are easy to understand. The bill seeks to establish a new public holiday to celebrate Matariki. It states when it will be and it also seeks to update rules about work and business days that run through many other laws. However the most important thing is that the bill dives deeply into Māori knowledge. For that we have been fortunate to have the guidance of the Matariki Advisory Group a group of well-known specialists in the fields related to Matariki and the Māori lunar calendar.The whole of the bill is in two languages. It is written in te reo Māori and English. It is important that the origins of Matariki are acknowledged from the foundation of the Māori language. This will be only the fifth law in both languages in this country and I am proud to table it at this time during Mahuru Māori.This bill would not be being tabled if it had not been for the Matariki Advisory Group. It has been our good fortune to have the guidance of these esteemed Māori experts. Rereata Makiha is one from Muriwhenua and Te Arawa. It would be very hard to find someone with more knowledge of the lunar calendar systems than Rereata. There are two ocean navigators who also steered the group Jack Thatcher from Tauranga Moana and Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr from Tainui. They have immense experience sailing the open sea and knowledge of the night sky. Victoria Campbell is another. She is a researcher a specialist in astronomy and the star calendars. Dr Ruakere Hond of Parihaka is another and he deeply understands the traditional Māori knowledge systems. Then there is Dr Pauline Harris of Kahungungu who is the only Māori physicist and astronomer in the world. I turn now to Professor Rangi Mātāmua the leader of the group the expert in Māori astronomy. For a great many years he has travelled the country lecturing and sharing his knowledge about Matariki and the Māori lunar calendar. I overflow with tributes to these great leaders.For many tribes the cluster of stars that is Mataraki is first and foremost a sign of the changing seasons and this is the same for our Pacific relatives. Some of their names for the cluster are Mataliki Matali'i Matari'i and Makali'i. Although Matariki is the star most loved in the cluster there are others as well that are very important. And although there are some differences of opinion about the true number of stars in the cluster I listened to Dr Mātāmua today and I can say there are nine. Waitī is the star associated with all forms of fresh water. Waitā is associated with the collection of food from the sea. Waipunarangi is connected to rain. Tupuānuku is associated with food from the land. Tupuārangi is connected to food from the trees. Ururangi is connected to the natural world and the winds. Pōhutukawa is connected to the dead. The star close to the heart of my family is Hiwa-i-te-rangi the star to whom we send our deepest desires and after whom my daughter is named. It is not easy to specify a particular day to celebrate the public holiday of Matariki. Matariki falls at a time not on a day. Our advisory group told us that the Matariki public holiday should fall on the Friday closest to Tangaroa in the month of June. Because the Gregorian Calendar and the Māori Lunar Calendar do not exactly coincide that day will move slightly from year to year just like Easter. The Matariki public holiday will be a time where we can focus as a nation on celebrating the beginning of the first month of the Māori year. That is not to say that it will be the exact day that all tribes will focus on the turning of the year. Each tribe each subtribe and each family have their own protocols about how to celebrate the beginning of the new year. The important thing about the bill is to clearly signal a single day of the year where the beginning of the Māori year can be celebrated by everyone in Aotearoa.Hopefully we will be reminded of three customs regarding Matariki: firstly to remember those who have passed since the last rising of Matariki in the previous year; secondly to celebrate the day with gatherings and giving thanks for our blessings; and thirdly to look forward to the blessings you can carry forward into the new year.We know that we will not relinquish Matariki and the associated knowledge. So that my words are clear in the heart of the bill we are steadfast about the connection between Māori and the Crown concerning the use the release the promotion and the careful protection of Māori knowledge. It is also important the Matariki public holiday be realised with the utmost respect. Our Government is also steadfast in its support of the regional variations in the celebration of Matariki and the Māori new year. We have collaborated with Māori to name the day of the first Matariki Public Holiday as 24 June next year. This bill is an important forward-looking proposal to instigate a new way so that we can move together into our future as a people of the new world in the Pacific. My heart is full of hope for further growth of our national identity and with excitement to see the people of Aotearoa happily enjoying a long weekend with friends and family beneath the gaze of the risen Matariki. Matariki of many people Matariki who gathers us all. This bill will make it so and I hereby submit the bill to the House.]DEPUTY SPEAKER: Ko te pātai kia whakaaetia te mōtini. [The question is that the motion be agreed to.]