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Matariki Disco
Ngā mihi o te tau hou Māori! Best wishes for the Māori new year!
Matariki is the time of year in which we celebrate the Māori New Year, within this time, we remember the year that has gone, honour our ancestors and those who left us since the last rising of Matariki, celebrate the present, gather together with whānau and friends, and look forward to the promise of a new year. Matariki is also a time we celebrate language and culture within Aotearoa, New Zealand. We remember myths and legends which have been told over time and passed down from generation to generation. We at BestStart Burnside kickstarted the Matariki celebration by creating a display in our hallway for our tamariki to engage with the Hiwa-i-te-rangi (wishing star). We encouraged the parents/whānau to have a discussion with the tamariki during drop-offs or pick-ups, to remember the year that has gone and to talk about their family, and cast all their dreams and hopes and whānau aspirations for the new year! We celebrated our cultural diversity through our wonderful Matariki Disco evening. Hayley, our Centre Manager, opened the evening with a beautiful speech and karakia. The tamariki were excited to celebrate Matariki with their whānau, friends, and the community. It was such a great opportunity for the kaiako to connect, reconnect, and spend quality time with the whānau that participated. The mana and wairua of the tamariki were illuminated when they saw their kai contributions to our big hakari (feast). We could feel the aroha by sharing our kai prepared by all our whānau.
He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata! He tangata! He tangata! What is the most important thing in the world? It is people! It is people! It is people!