Matariki Writing

Maui and the fish by Liv

Maui paddled hard in his waka. His waka slowly drifted along the water. He threw his fishing line overboard. He read the newspaper. Waiting. He put the newspaper down, as something gave a sharp tug on the line. He pulled persistently. Before he knew it, he was no longer in the water, but on the fish. Maui sat there mouth wide open. He was shocked. The fish was huge. The fish slowly turned to land. Most of the land was forested. That fish is now the north island.

The Seven Stars Of Matariki by Asha

Collaborative Art from Whanau Groups- Taniwha

Long ago, there was a young boy named Haki who had six older brothers. Every Sunday morning they would set out on their Waka to whetu-kairangi to catch seafood for dinner, but Haki was not allowed to go. One day Haki woke up and crept onto his brothers Waka and waited until the morning. When morning came the brothers pushed out their Waka and paddled to Whetu-Kairangi, when they arrived, they pulled out their fishing rods and started fishing. After about an hour of waiting they all got a huge bite, they pulled and pulled until seven big diamond reached the surface, the brothers were so mesmerised by the diamonds that they forgot all about fishing for dinner and paddled all the back to Motu Kairangi, Miramar Peninsula. Haki became more and more suspicious as the days went by because his brothers were getting more and more angry every day, they no longer went fishing for dinner and they spent their day staring at the diamonds.

One day Haki woke up early and paddled out to whetu-kairangi where the brothers had fished up the Diamonds, he waited in the waka until he felt an almighty bite on the end of his line, Haki heaved it out of the water and as soon as he saw the huge diamond he was enhanced, Haki discovered that the diamonds made who ever saw them really angry, Haki threw the diamond into the sky, told the god of the night sky ‘atua o te rangi po’ that he wanted the diamond never to be seen again except at the start of Maori new year, Haki paddled back to Motu Kairangi to warn his brothers, When haki arrived at his whare his brothers were trashing the whare and their was nothing that Haki’s mama could do about it. Haki slowly approached his brothers and told them to step outside and throw the six stars into the air, so that's what they did.

And that’s how the seven stars of Matariki came to be!

The 7 stars by Isaac

One day Tataraimaka went out with his waka to fish by himself. Tataraimaka saw 7 fish and he thought that it will be a good lunch so he got out his magic net made from flax. He threw it as hard as he could and he scooped up the 7 fish. He was so pleased that he caught 7 fish. He  got out his paddle and all of a sudden his magic net with the 7 fish in it got hauled up into the sky and that is how the 7 stars of Matariki got there.

The story of Matariki - By Gretel

One day Maui’s six brothers were going on a big fishing trip. Their Koro (Grandfather) gave them each a special stone. He gave the oldest a Ametista (Amethyst), the second oldest a Taimana (Diamond), the third oldest a Peara (Pearl) the fourth oldest a Topaha (Peridot), the fifth oldest a Matangongore (Opal) and the sixth oldest a Tanzanite and gave Maui the tiniest Garnet you could possibly find. Maui had longed to have a stone like his brothers, he knew he had always earnt it but how could he use this if he was not going out on a fishing trip with his brothers? He decided to come up with a plan and sneak into the hull of his brothers waka, just before the sun rose and hide there. ‘There they shall not find me as I am hidden and when they anchor the boat I shall surprise them by coming out.’ He thought to himself.

That night Maui stayed up late in his whare carving a fish hook he was planning to take the next morning. He created the fishhook using his grandmother’s jaw. He woke up the next morning feeling excited and nervous. He crept down to the waka and climbed in carefully making sure not to move it an inch. He reached into his pocket he made sure he had his hook. Feeling exhausted because he had not had much sleep in the night he lay down to rest.

He woke up to the sound of water lapping against the boat. He now knew that they were out in the open sea. When he heard the sound of the rope unraveling, because the anchor was going down he started to feel more and more excited he was about to catch his first fish. He heard his eldest brother call out to everyone “Bait your lines up, and throw them overboard, ready to catch some Fish”

“Okay” was the reply from all the brothers, perfectly synchronised.

He knew his brothers had all turned away when he felt the boat wobbling a bit side to side. He knew this was the time to come out and show himself. He crawled out of the hull, making a bit of a noise as he did. This caused all his brothers to turn around, when they saw him they all just stared in amazement. Then finally the eldest brother asked “How are you here?”

“You wouldn’t let me come so I decided to come secretly. I bought my birthstone as a lucky charm.” He replied.

The brothers stared at him again, then they looked down to where there stones were.

Maui then asked his brothers how many fish they had caught? They all looked at each other with a sullen look on there faces. One of them spoke up and said “None.” The brothers all looked sheepish and annoyed though Maui knew why they had caught no Fish.

“Get your lines baited up and throw them overboard while I sing a special song” Maui ordered his brothers.

The brothers looked at him as if he was stupid, but they did as they were told. One by one they baited their own lines. Maui began to sing as the first brother threw his line overboard. Immediately the fish began tugging at the lines and in less than 5 minutes they had a whole boat full of Fish.

The brothers thought they were done but then Maui produced his fish hook and said “Now it is my turn to fish” “Do you have any bait I could use?”

“No, it’s not like you are going to catch anything with that fish hook” The brothers said meanly.

Maui did not like his brothers speaking to him like this so he decided to cut a big scrape in his leg, using the blood to attract fish.

Maui threw his line overboard far away from the boat, and began to sing again. Then suddenly a pull of the rope made his hand jerk because he was holding onto the line. Maui immediately got onto his knees and started pulling, the brothers just stared in amazement. Maui just tugged and tugged and tugged. Finally Maui saw a big black shadow loom around them, Maui loosened the grip on the rope because the fish was now coming up on its own, its mouth was open wide and Maui knew what he was aiming for. The boat.

“Brothers” he shouted. “The Fish I have pulled up is going to eat the boat, we will sacrifice ourselves but not our stones” he yelled. “Just before the fish swallows the boat throw your birthstone up in the air!”

And with that they all threw their stones into the air just before the boat got swallowed.

We now know these 7 stones as the 7 stars of Matariki. Their names are Ametista, Taimana, Peara, Topaha,  Matangongore, Tanzanite, and a Garnet for Maui. We see these stars once a year in between May and July.

There are around 500 stars, but only 7 are visible. Maori used these stars to navigate their way round the vast and open ocean.

This is my way of telling the myth of Matariki and also the giant fish.

By Gretel

Maui and the fish by Hugo W

Maui’s brothers said, “you’re too young to fish.”

Maui was sad and really wanted to go fishing with his six brothers, so he decided to make a fishing line out of flax, it was a magical fishing line. He hid in the boat when they went out to fish in the morning.

The brothers were complaining about how heavy the boat was. Maui knew that they were far from land so he jumped out of his hiding place.

“You trickster.” said one of his brothers.

Maui got out his fishing line and threw it out as far as he could into the sea. He could see the black outline of the fish, it began to rise up slowly.

They caught the world.