Signposts - a blog about Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

To celebrate the end of the mid-winter month, we present Te Ara’s July quiz.

To view the quiz you need to have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player

Kei te ako Māori ki te Kura o Waiwhetū. Learning Māori at Waiwhetū School

Hei whakanui i Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, kua tuhia tētahi Rātaki i roto i ngā reo e rua. Waihoki ko te kaupapa o te rātaki nei he whakanui i tō tātou reo rangatira i runga i Te Ara. Ko tā te rangatira kai he kōrero. Nā reira, rukuhia ngā kai rangatira i roto i Te Ara.

To celebrate Māori Language Week, we’re kicking off with a bilingual blog post. This post is also to celebrate our use of Māori language on Te Ara. As the proverb goes, the food of chiefs is knowledge. So, we’d encourage you to sample the chiefly foods that can be found on Te Ara.

Ka tāea te huri ki te reo Māori mā te pāwhiri i te pātene Māori. Ko ngā kaupapa Māori katoa kua whakamāoritia.

In Te Ara, click the ‘Māori’ button near the top of screen and you’ll be able to change to Māori language navigation and content.

Nā reira, kua whakaritea he whakaraparapa kia mōhio ai koe ki ngā kaupapa reo Māori.

All entries with a Māori theme have been translated into Māori. You can find them using the Te Reo Māori section in the interactive browser on Te Ara’s homepage.

He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata! Nā reira, te kaupapa tuatahi o Te Ara, ko te tangata. Arā noa ngā iwi. Ko ngā urunga iwi katoa kua whakamāoritia.Tirohia te urunga mō Ngāti Porou. He mea whakamāori e te kaituhi, Tamati Reedy.

According to the saying, the most important thing is people, and so the first theme in Te Ara was New Zealand peoples, including iwi. All iwi entries are in Māori. A wonderful example of the use of dialect is the Ngāti Porou entry, written and translated by Tamati Reedy.

Ko te katoa o ngā urunga kaupapa Māori, kua whakamāoritia. Kua waimarie a Te Ara, nā te mea, ko ngā kaiwhakamāori i tipu ake i roto i te reo Māori. Ko Rangi McGarvey te kaitohutohu reo Māori. Nāna ētahi o ngā whakamāoritanga; nā tāna tama, a Tamahou McGarvey, ētahi o ngā whakamāoritanga.

The rest of the translations were done by qualified translators whose first language is Māori: Rangi McGarvey, who is also our Māori language adviser, and his son Tamahou McGarvey.

Nā reira, kei wareware koe, he taonga te reo, ā, he tumeke te kōrero Māori.

So, this week don’t forget Māori language is a taonga (treasure), and it’s cool to kōrero (speak).

Matariki (the Pleiades)

Happy New Year!

The pre-dawn rise of Matariki, also known as the Seven Sisters or Pleiades, traditionally signals the Māori New Year under the maramataka, or lunar calendar.

In general, celebration of Matariki starts when the first new moon can be seen following the pre-dawn rise of Matariki. The new moon can be seen on 5 June this year, and celebrations kick off from 6 June. Traditionally, Matariki was both a time to commemorate those who had passed on, and celebrate a time of plenty when stores were abundant from horticulture, hunting and fishing.

For some iwi, Puanga (Rigel), rather than Matariki, was the signal for the new year. For instance, Whanganui iwi are having a Puanga festival. In the South Island it is Puaka (which is Puanga in Ngāi Tahu dialect) that heralds the new year.

Whether you’re celebrating Matariki or Puanga, here’s an easy guide to try to find the stars.

How to find Matariki

Matariki is found low on the horizon in the north east of the sky. Try looking here between 5.30 a.m. and 6.30 a.m.

The pot

1. First find the pot (the bottom three stars of the pot are also called Tautoru, or Orion’s Belt). To find Puanga (Rigel) look above the pot until you see the bright star. To find Matariki, keep going.

2. To the left of the pot, find the bright orange star, Tuamata-kuku (Alderbaran).

3. Follow an imaginary line from Tautoru (the bottom three stars of the pot), across to Tuamata-kuku and keep going until you hit a cluster of stars.

4. That cluster is Matariki. If you have good eyes you should be able to pick out individual stars. If it looks fuzzy, look just above or just below and the stars will be clearer.

Matariki in the night sky

This picture, from AstronomyNZ, shows the relative position of Matariki (Pleiades) to Taumatau-kuku (Alderbaran), Tautoru (Orion’s belt), Puanga (Rigel) and Takurua (Sirius).

Let me know if you find it.

Illegally mined pounamu

Not another ‘tasteful nude calendar’!

The film Calendar girls has a lot to answer for. A number of Haast women have been photographed nude – tastefully of course – to raise money for the appeal of a couple of helicopter pilots convicted of stealing pounamu (greenstone or jade) on the West Coast. As a result of the Ngāi Tahu (Pounamu Vesting) Act 1997, the Ngāi Tahu tribe owns all pounamu in its natural state in the South Island.

In February 2008 the helicopter pilots, father and son David and Morgan Saxton, were found guilty of stealing pounamu valued at around $680,000, which they extracted from Cascade Plateau in South Westland between October 1997 and September 2003. David Saxton was jailed for two years nine months and Morgan Saxton, 30, for two years six months. This led to outrage amongst some locals who see the Saxtons, responsible for numerous rescue missions, as heroes. Hence the ‘tasteful nude calendar’, recently launched at the Hard Antler Bar and Cafe in Haast.

Tahu Pōtiki, a Ngāi Tahu leader, has a different point of view. He argues that Ngāi Tahu was contacted by West Coast locals and Māori artisans about a type of stone coming onto the market for which no licence was held. Therefore, ‘Ngai Tahu approached the police and asked that they investigate … The police investigated, confirmed that thefts were occurring and proceeded to prosecute the perpetrators. The courts agreed that a crime had been committed and sentenced the offenders accordingly.’ He contends that, ‘The current outrage against Ngai Tahu over the Saxton sentences is nothing short of racism.’

What do you think? Will you be buying a calendar, or celebrating that justice has been done?

Wine rack

You may know that Smaug’s Cave can be found in Middle Earth. But did you know that Pooh Corner is just below Smaug’s Cave?

Michael Brewer, a caver rescued from the Middle Earth cave system on Tākaka Hill near Nelson, does. From where he was injured – about 350 metres below the surface – he was taken out through a series of tunnels, including Pooh Corner, The Rift, Smaug’s Hall and Wiggles Passage. This diagram shows the route they took to get him out.

The Tākaka Hill cave system also has the chillingly named Shortie’s Terror, and Starlight Cave, which the tourists who were recently rescued – after rock-climbing mishaps in Harwoods Hole – travelled through on their way back to the outside world.

Unusual names for these passages are the bedrock of Te Ara’s Caving entry. The Hinkle-Horn Honking Holes and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road are in Nettlebed Cave on Mt Arthur. Where the Wild Things Are and Wellington on a Bad Day are found in Bulmer Cavern on Mt Owen, as is Possumboot Shaft.

The Wine Rack, with cavers inserted as ‘bottles’, is shown above. It is in the Xanadu cave system at Bullock Creek, in Paparoa National Park.