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Māori New Year Celebrations
Ngā Mata o te Ariki, more commonly known as Matariki is the celebration of the Māori New Year this is a special month of celebrations in New Zealand, and we celebrated Matariki 2022 at BestStart Onehunga with lots of fun and joy.
Our tamariki displayed their whakapapa by respecting the history of Matariki and participating in creating stars, using different mediums such as cardboard, chalk, crayons, and paper. During mat time, they also learned about the Pleiades, known as The Seven Sisters, and other names from different cultures. The story of how the Seven Sisters came to be was intriguing for our tamariki: a time to prepare, create gifts, harvest, care for the land and each other, and remember our ancestors.
Tamariki also learned how to make poi, and enjoyed weaving with flax and making kites. Tamariki and kaiako joined together to prepare the soil for new seeds and harvested kumara.
Our pepe enjoyed listening to stories about the stars, and fish and singing waiata. In this way, BestStart, and Onehunga showed their Aroha for te ao Māori. Our whānau were also excited to see our tamariki participating in learning about the traditional ways to celebrate this special time of the year.