The call to navigate the stars

Me mātau ki te whetū, I mua kōkiri o te haere

Before you set forth on a journey,
Be sure you know the stars

The study of the cosmos is a pursuit of knowledge that unites all peoples from around the world. This year marks the first year that Matariki will be acknowledged as a national holiday in Aotearoa. In recent years, Matariki has become a time for all people to celebrate through Māutauranga Māori (Maori Knowledge), but also to celebrate and share their own uniqueness and culture (Matamua, 2018). The Te Arawa confederation has been provided by its forbearers a rich navigational history that serves as trace reminders to their decendants that we carry all we need within us to answer the call of the stars, step into the fullness of who we are and successfully navigate the path of our own dreams (Ihimaera, 2020).

The migration from Hawaikii to Aotearoa was an incredible act of courage and unrivalled feat of oceanic navigation. Maketū holds special significance for Te Arawa being the landing place of the great Te Arawa waka (Tapsell, 2017). Memorialising this significant history is the Maketū monument. Built at a site remembered as Ōngatoro in 1940, it rises from a stone base with eight sides representing the children of Rangitihi, thus the descendants of Te Arawa. Incorporated into its construction are pieces of granite slab from the Coromandel where the commander Tamatekapua is buried. Stones are stacked to form the memorials spire, in memory of the great navigator and high priest explorer Ngā-toro-i-rangi, who was the first to step off onto land and conduct rituals beneath the Pōhutakawa tree in full bloom. It is said two stone anchors used to stabilise the great waka were in the Maketū estuary, marking the place where the waka landed.

Māori sea fearing culture is deeply embedded in our Polynesian roots. Māori relied on non-instrumental navigation amongst other techniques and technologies that were taught and passed on like Tātai Arorangi (star lore), whakairo (carving) and toi raranga (weaving) (Bader, McCurdy, Chapple, 1999). Polynesian navigators relied on the position of the stars to guide them along on their voyaging routes. Navigators knew stars held their positions steady in the sky throughout the year, although at times stars would rise, or set, changing seasonally like that of the Matariki constellation. The star map known as Kāpu whetū was an adaptation made by navigator Jack Thatcher for navigators from Aotearoa (Inia, 2018).  

Devastatingly, the effects of colonisation infiltrated all aspects of Māori society. The Polynesian achievements and skill required in voyaging the pacific were both denigrated and romanticised (Walker, 1990). Many cultural practices such as star lore, and the technologies associated with voyaging, were either lost and/or forgotten, almost to the point of extinction (Inia, 2018)

However, due to the steadfast commitment of those cultural practitioners dedicated to the reclamation of mātauranga Māori, a revitalization of these aspects of Māori culture has experienced a renaissance. An exemplar of this work is that of master carver Matahi Whakataka-Brightwell, of Te Arawa descent, and the Tahitian master navigator Francis Cowan. They joined forces to build a double hull waka, which was gifted the name Hawaiki Nui I. (Gill, 2011). This prestigious maritime vessel was crafted utilising customary knowledge, tradition and skills. Whole lifetimes of experience and years in the making it was in 1985 that Matahi, Francis and three others set off on this historically momentous journey sailing and retracing the route of Te Arawa-Tainui from Tahiti to Rarotonga then South-west to Aotearoa. Reinvigorating the voyaging techniques of their ancestral navigation predecessors, using the stars, reading all the signs and wonders of their oceanic environment as their guide (Whakataka-Brightwell, 1994).

Ancestral knowledge is encrypted in taonga tuku iho (ancestral expressions of cultural value that are handed down). They are intrinsically imbued with tangible and intangible qualities like (philosophy), tikanga (custom and lore) and karakia. Re-discovering these pathways of knowledge is like accessing a cultural archive (Starzecka, D.C, Neiche, R. Pendergrast, M. 2010). Only one example of Māori waka sail remains in existence, named Te Rā and housed in the British Museum. It is only in recent years that attention has been focused on the weaving technology incorporated into the production of sails for these maritime vessels. They are an essential component to the success of these Pacific voyaging migrations, which would not otherwise have been able to happen. Future generations can benefit and become part of the ongoing reclamation of this knowledge (Starzecka, D.C, Neiche, R. Pendergrast, M. 2010).

Kia Whakatōmuri te Haere Whakamua. 
I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past.

This whakataukī or 'proverb' speaks to Māori perspectives of time, where the past, the present and the future are viewed as intertwined, and life as a continuous cosmic process (Walker, 1990).

In 2022 three Te Wānanga o Aotearoa staff were awarded doctorates in raranga (traditional Māori weaving) through Auckland University of Technology’s Te Ipukarea Research Centre. Their unique joint project - covering raranga past, present and future required each to individually work towards their PhDs by completing research and creating raranga. Each piece of work produced could stand on its own merit but also worked together creating a collective body of work. 

The overarching kaupapa of the joint PhDs project was the role of kairaranga – who were essential in the effective functioning of Māori society - from the past to the future. Amongst many other customary cultural practices our navigational technologies were almost made extinct. However, it is worth remembering that within our great migrations from Polynesia an abundant basket of knowledge also came with us, which was adapted and evolved to suit the new conditions and resources of this land.

Producing a collective timeline of work reflecting this understanding and transmission of knowledge Jacqueline McRae-Tarei, a Kaiwhakahaere Ako in Kawerau, looked at historical raranga up to 860 and created sails. Gloria Taituha, a Te Awamutu-based Poururuku, studied the period from 1860 to 1970. Rose Te Ratana, a kaiako from Rotorua, researched raranga from 1970 and into the future and looked more deeply into whāriki. In an interview with the Waikato Herald these women commented that “Raranga isn't just decorative – it was essential to the successful migration of Māori to Aotearoa and their life here amid a colder climate. So, we acknowledge our tīpuna kairaranga from the distant past as well as more modern and contemporary practitioners who have carried the practice forward' (Herald, 2021)

So, thanks to the focus, dedication and commitment of cultural practitioners such as these kairaranga, all those that have gone before them and will come after, their research has created an important body of work about the practice of raranga across time and its path into the future. They become part of the continuum of this story, carrying their past into their future. In their continued practice, and the transmission of the practice of raranga, they strengthen the connection to the ancestors who are ever present, existing both in the physical and spiritual aspects of their work and ensuring its legacy for generations to come.

References
Walker, R. (1990). Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou: Struggle without end. Penguin.
Matamua, R. (2018). Matariki the star of the year. Huia.
Ihimaera, W. (2020). Navigating the Stars: Māori creation myths. Penguin.
Whakataka-Brightwell, G (1994). Waka. Learning Media Ltd.
Inia, R. (2018). E Oho. Te Mau Aroha.
Bader, H-D., McCurdy, P., & Chapple, J., (1999). Proceedings of the waka symposium 1996: Voyages from the past to the future. Te Huiteananui-A-Tangaroa, New Zealand Maritime Museum.
Gill, M. (2011). New Zealand Hall of Fame: 50 Remarkable Kiwis. New Holland.
Starzecka, D.C, Neiche, R. Pendergrast, M. (2010). Taonga Māori in the British Museum. Te Papa Press.
Paul Tapsell, 'Te Arawa - Settlement and Migration', Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.Te Ara.govt.nz/en/photograph/1515/te-arawa-monument-maketu
Maketu Te Arawas first settlement, https://www.gtas.nz/maketu
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/waikato-news/news/unique-triple-achievement-as-wahine-awarded-doctorates-in-traditional-maori-weaving/U6KGLIREA643IBGIBZLJABD3IY/

(2021, June 21).