What is maramataka used for?
The maramataka was used not just for daily food-associated activities like planting, harvesting and fishing; it was also used for planning important hui and battles, says researcher and kaumātua Henere Tumapuhia, also known as Ockie Simmonds.
What is the Maori maramataka?
The Māori lunar calendar is called the Maramataka, which literally means the turning of the moon. It marks the phases of the moon in a lunar month.
How does the maramataka work?
The maramataka is the traditional Māori calendar. Each year has 12 months based on the cycles of the moon. These lunar months begin and end when the moon is full, and last for about 30 days. Each month is represented by a star or stars.
How did Maori use the moon?
Marama – the moon gives the timing of Matariki Māori, like other Polynesians, measure time by the Moon and a day is counted from sunset to sunset. The Māori lunar calendar is called Maramataka. There are more than 40 versions of Maramataka across Aotearoa.
Where does maramataka originate from?
The maramataka came to Aotearoa with the first Polynesian migrants who arrived 800 to 1000 years ago. The first people would later become the indigenous Māori. By the time of the first Europeans arrived, every tribal group had developed its own unique maramataka based on the environment they lived in.
What do the names of the months of the maramataka mean?
The maramataka divided the traditional Māori year into 12 lunar months. The word marama means both the moon and the lunar month – a lunar month is the 29 and a half days between successive new moons, and normally straddles two calendar months.
What is Whiro the god of?
It depicts the god Whiro – a personified form of sickness, disease and death. Māori believed that sickness and disease often had spiritual roots. The woman between Whiro’s legs is the goddess of death, Hinenui-te-pō, described by the artist as the ‘mother of mortality’.
Who made the maramataka?
What does tamatea Kai Ariki mean?
Tamat[e]a-ngana: unpleasant weather, the sea is rough. Tamatea-kai-ariki: the weather improves. Huna: bad weather, food products suffer.
Who put te whanau in the sky?
Placed in the sky by the god Tane, they’ve guided Maaori across the Pacific Ocean and have played a pivotal role in Maaori agricultural, fishing, hunting, building – foretelling aspects of the coming seasons and weather conditions – and in ceremony, language and culture.
Who is the youngest Matariki star?
Hiwa-i-te-rangi
Hiwa-i-te-rangi – the youngest, is the wishing star that also ties into our aspirations for the coming year.
Who is Tūmatauenga?
Tūmatauenga, the main Māori god of war, is one of the sons of Ranginui (sky father) and Papatūānuku (earth mother). In tradition, Tūmatauenga sought to solve conflict by warfare and was the deity of humans.
What is the maramataka calendar?
In recent times the maramataka has been called the Māori calendar. It noted generic Māori lunar names but incorrectly applied it to the Gregorian calendar, said Thompson. It’s not a calendar, she said. Maramataka uses cycles and phases instead of counting days, weeks and months.
What does maramataka mean in Maori?
Learn the names of the months and nights in the traditional Maramataka. The Maramataka, which literally means ‘the moon turning,’ is the Māori lunar calendar, and is the traditional Māori way by which time was marked. iwi tribalMāori | Noun communities in history noted the movements of the moon over a typical month and year.
What is the maramataka system?
The maramataka is a complex system traditionally used for sourcing food and fresh water. “It’s the template for survival,” said maramataka expert Rereata Makiha. “If you understand the maramataka you’ll understand how to move with the changes in the environment. If you understand that you can live. You can survive anywhere.”
How do you teach the maramataka?
Teach the Maramataka and the Māori months in your classroom with the help of our teaching resource and classroom poster. Learning areas and strands Components of the solar system, cultural world-views, traditions and values The Maramataka is the traditional Māori lunar calendar. It was used to guide planting, harvesting, fishing, and hunting.