As Matariki (or Puanga for our West Coast rohe), rises once again over Aotearoa, classrooms, lecture theatres, libraries, kura, and wānanga across the country are preparing for a time of rest and reflection – beyond a public holiday.
The juxtaposition between our public holiday debate five years ago, and our current love for the Māori New Year, is an interesting one – how did we get here, and what drove education around our Matariki celebrations? One answer lies within that question itself, with our education institutions becoming vital puna mātauranga (springs of knowledge) helping whakanui (celebrate) mātauranga Māori for our next generation.
For generations, our English-medium education systems in Aotearoa have largely centred Western frameworks of knowledge, diminishing Māori language, history, and ways of understanding (our te ao Māori worldview). Without going into the flaws of our historical education system and intergenerational trauma those who have come before us experienced throughout the years, it is important to note that western ideological education has not been kind to Māori. In knowing this, seeing schools, kura, wānanga, and tertiary institutions increasingly help shift that narrative is a step in the right direction – Not simply by including Māori perspectives, but by embedding cultural celebrations or mātauranga into the school itself.
I want to stress, however,
That this piece focuses on English-medium (what people wrongly term ‘mainstream’) and not our Kura Kaupapa, Kura-ā-iwi, and Kōhanga who remain our leaders in learning built on tikanga and tuturu Māori – nor is it a reflection on Māori teachers working within our ‘western’ built systems who carry their mātauranga with intention into their teaching – this is a discussion on how our English-medium institutions are now looking to our kura, looking to iwi, and beginning to understand the overwhelming data that highlights the importance of cultural identity, space, place, and belonging, within our education spaces (Berryman & Woller, 2013; Berryman et al., 2018).
According to the 2024 New Zealanders’ Engagement with Matariki report from Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 85% of New Zealanders now report having at least a basic understanding of Matariki, while 63% actively celebrated it in 2024. This is compared to the 2023 report, where 23% of non-celebrants said they did not celebrate because they “didn’t know much about Matariki or what to do,” compared to 2024, where non-celebrants with this reasoning dropped to only 7%. Younger adults aged 18–39 were among the groups most likely to celebrate Matariki, understand its meaning, and want to continue celebrating it in the future (Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage 2023; 2024).
That trend matters because many of these younger adults have grown up experiencing Matariki, or te ao Māori for that matter, directly through education spaces. Also, our young learners are bringing this information home. For our learners today, Matariki is not an unfamiliar concept encountered once a year in the media. It is instead encouraged in assemblies, inquiry projects, environmental studies, astronomy, storytelling, and community events throughout their schooling.
Education institutions are powerful because they shape what knowledge is seen as valuable for our young minds.
They influence not only what learners know, but how they understand identity, belonging, language, science, and culture. This is why schools and tertiary spaces are so integral to indigenising Aotearoa.
Unlike one-off public events or advertisements, education spaces create repeated, intergenerational engagement. A learner exposed to te reo Māori, mātauranga Māori, pūrākau, and Māori astronomy throughout primary and secondary school may carry those understandings into adulthood, workplaces, communities, and eventually into the next generation of learners themselves. Hence Matariki offers a particularly powerful example of this in action.
Across primary and secondary schools, Matariki has become a vessel to connect subjects that are often taught separately. Ākonga (students) might explore:
- astronomy through the Matariki star cluster
- environmental science through maramataka and seasonal cycles
- storytelling through pūrākau
- wellbeing through remembrance, reflection, and aspiration
- art, music, and performance through cultural expression and celebration
Rather than sitting outside ‘mainstream’ education, mātauranga Māori becomes part of how learning itself is approached. Having kaiako come up to us and tell us that they are focusing on Matariki these next two months reinforces how mātauranga IS science and IS a foundation for learning and pedagogies. It is an integral step closer to indigenising our education spaces.
Inclusion can involve acknowledging Māori culture through occasional celebrations or themed activities.
Indigenising goes further, asking how educational systems themselves can better reflect the knowledge systems, values, relationships, and histories of Aotearoa, embedding these as a foundation of learning.
Institutions such as Te Wānanga o Aotearoa demonstrate how kaupapa Māori learning environments can support learners in ways that extend beyond academic achievement alone. Grounded in values such as whanaungatanga, collective learning, and cultural connection, wānanga spaces often help adult learners reconnect with language, identity, and whakapapa alongside ‘formal’ education.
For many learners, particularly Māori adults who may not have previously experienced culturally affirming education environments, these spaces can be transformative – as education here reinforces their cultural identity within an environment where they can be their whole selves, not just attend as a pathway to qualifications. Importantly, this influence extends beyond Māori learners themselves.
The same 2024 Matariki engagement report found that 68% of New Zealanders believe Matariki is ‘for all New Zealanders,’ while younger generations were significantly more likely to say Matariki encourages connection with te reo Māori and the environment (Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage 2023; 2024). Why is this important? It suggests education spaces are helping foster broader cultural literacy across Aotearoa, creating environments where te ao Māori is not treated as an ‘extra,’ or tick box for inclusion, but as a deeper part of understanding the whenua (land) we live on.
In many ways, education institutions hold a uniquely important responsibility within our communities.
If schools once contributed to the suppression of te reo Māori and mātauranga Māori, they now also hold immense power in helping restore and uplift them… Perhaps that is why Matariki feels so significant within education, as it highlights how a uniquely Māori practice has rapidly become a key part of classroom unit plans, in contrast to what educational experiences looked like 10, 20, 30 years ago.
Each year, as learners gather for their ‘Matariki’ whānau night, study the stars above them, share kai, or reflect on the year ahead, they are directly shaping a future where mātauranga Māori is visible, valued, and embedded into the pathway of learning. In this way, childcare, schools, and tertiary institutions have the opportunity to move beyond four walls of learning, instead growing to become living spaces of cultural transmission where nurturing knowledge, identity, belonging, and connection comes naturally.
Kaiya Cherrington
References
Berryman, M., & Woller, P. (2013). Learning about inclusion by listening to Maori. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 17(8), 827-838
Berryman, M., Lawrence, D., & Lamont, R. (2018). Cultural relationships for responsive pedagogy: A bicultural mana ōrite perspective. New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (2023). New Zealanders’ engagement with Matariki 2023. New Zealand Government. Ministry for Culture and Heritage Matariki Report 2023
Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (2024). New Zealanders’ engagement with Matariki 2024. New Zealand Government. Ministry for Culture and Heritage Matariki Report 2024