So This Is Matariki

Click on Picture to Enlarge:

According to Ranginui this is Matariki or the group of stars that appear to start the Maori New Year. I must confess. As a Maori, Matariki the stars and the Maori Tau Hou have only recently seeped into my consciousness in the last say 10 of my 77 years on Papatuanuku. And yet for as long as I can remember the name Patia O Matariki has been part of my placename vocabulary. Again, only recently I discovered what the name meant in the course of my research for the book "Nga Tapuwae O Hinetewai."

Click Onto The Picture to Enlarge:

Patia O Matariki or Patia for short is the place/bay/beach behind our marae Haititaimarangai. The high hill behind it is the pa/headland (below). The marae is visible in the left corner. The little hump jutting out into the sea is Te Tuuta which was well known to the French De Surville Expedition who drew a sketch of it. The other end of the beach/bay is another headland and ridge called Matariki. The Parakerake Block subdivision stops along this ridge at Matariki Place that joins the Whatuwhiwhi road down to the marae. As you drive down from Matariki Place you will see "Pari Raharuhi's House" (still standing) and Takapu Urupa. About level with Pari's house there used to be a path off on the right which led us  to a grass clearing and a small peach orchard about halfway down from Matariki Place and up from Patia Beach. That was Matariki Pa. 

(Below: This pa is between the caravan and the houses above.)

Click on to enlarge:

Now the full meaning of Patia O Matariki is The Pa Where Matariki Shows (tia). I don't know how often a wananga was held to observe the tia of Matariki but I do know that the last one was held in 1924 at Matariki Pa. The Tohunga who took that wananga was Honetana Papahia. I don't know who attended nor what the kaupapa or matauranga of the wananga was. Honetana was also an Anglican Minister and a descendant of Wharewhare.

I Have Been Thinking.......

You may have been wondering about all this korero in politics such as left, centre and right. Back in the day left meant various ideologies from Communism (extreme left) to Socialism (left) and Social Democracy (centre left). Labour straddled the centre left. The extreme right meant Fascism, right meant capitalism and centre right meant capitalism plus social conservatism. National straddled the centre right. 

That was then. Since the introduction of "more market", the selling off of state assets, and something called neo-liberalism , but was introduced by Labour and continued enthusiastically by National, the economic and political concepts of left and right have become blurred. Under a first past the post system of elections this ideology which purports to come from Milton Friedman of the USA (extreme market) was cemented into the economic and political korero of our time. However the impact of this ideology has resulted in the rich getting richer, the poor numbers increasing dramatically and the cost of housing increasing. 

The introduction of MMP and the growth of minor parties has highlighted the excesses of capitalism. Minor parties have introduced into politics those issues like the environment, tangata whenua interests, New Zealand as distinct from global issues, that would otherwise have been ignored ahead of major party concerns that cover the broad spectrum of centre-left and centre-right. 

An Economic Activity: 

Our tupuna harvesting kumara in a largely subsistence

economy of those times.

These trends of course are determined by major economic and social change since the hey day of Labour and National governments from 1935. The "working class" are no longer only the skilled and unskilled. Technical knowhow and the explosion of skills has multiplied a hundred fold. The middle class are now richer. As we all know the days of full employment and cheap housing are long gone. We do have an "under class" who are the poor as defined by level of income and the unemployed. 

I am not trying to tell you who to vote for but as you know we now have choices. Most important on election day however is: VOTE. KAUA E WAREWARE. KAUA E MANGERE. If you don't vote then don't moan. 

Catching Up; After Google Glitches

I have finally got my blog back in order to post more korero. What a performance! The trouble is I was asked by the system to change my email from msn to outlook. Don't ask me why. It's one of the mysteries I am too hoha to work out. However and I don't know why I got my blog back after many frustrating weeks. This is no excuse for not blogging. It's the truth. Am I too old for all this mod technology?

What's Been Happening?

Well a lot actually. The Runanga in it's cause celebre against Carrington Farms Ltd; did get it's day in the Supreme Court over the Ana O Taitehe affair to do with a resource consent matter. Then the new owners from China arrived and things changed. Given that the Chinese such as Mr. Guang Liu have been in the political spot light lately with all that dosh, it's hard to access the impact the arrival of the new owners of Carrington Farms will have. No doubt within the Karikari-Whatuwhiwhi Peninsular it could be major, but as long as pragmatic heads rule the day on our side (Haititaimarangai Marae and Te Whanau Moana-Te Rorohuri) then the relationship and outcomes should be positive.  On the other hand if the Runanga A Iwi O Ngati Kahu goes on another cause celebre like the last one then there could be some fun. The Runanga has not yet withdrawn its case, but no doubt it will once it has what it's leaders want.(Yen?)

Labour is down in the dumps but fighting back. It's amazing how much money has become involved in our politics. The Big Kim Dot.com has paid $3m into the newly formed Internet.Mana Party. For a small party that's a lot of dosh, not to mention Mr. Liu's yen. However some $100k to Labour seems to be in doubt and part of Mr. Liu's excessive accounting. No wonder the major parties especially of the right are worried. National however is so far ahead of Labour (50% -23%) I doubt if all the money in the world is going to change the fact that they should. The only interest will be the cuppa tea arrangements if they happen again. Good on Labour for not making cups of tea for any other party.