The appearance of the Matariki star cluster (also often called Pleiades) within the New Zealand sky just before sunrise in late June or early July marks the brand new 12 months in traditional Māori culture. Celebrated with feasts, prayers at dawn, and time spent with family, Matariki is a time to recollect those that died previously 12 months, rejoice and provides thanks for the current, and look ahead to the longer term.
After the British colonized New Zealand within the mid-1800s, traditional Māori practices began to say no, and by the Nineteen Forties, public celebration of Matariki had stopped. Yet for the reason that Nineteen Nineties, Māori culture has undergone a successful revival, leading the New Zealand government to designate Matariki as a national holiday in 2022, celebrated this 12 months on June 28 (although the festivities proceed until July 6). This re-indigenization has also elicited the reintroduction of traditional beliefs, including the worship of ancestors and a pantheon of gods.
For Christians, this has led to a parsing of what believers should and mustn’t embrace when celebrating Matariki. CT spoke with Michael Drake, who’s of English and Māori heritage, about Christianity’s legacy among the many Māori people and the way believers can engage with Matariki today. Drake worked in Christian education for 50 years, including as a teacher, principal, curriculum author, and faculty founder. Today he pastors and writes books, including the 2023 explainer A Christian Looks at Matariki.
Could you describe what Matariki is?
Matariki is a celebration embedded way back to we all know in Māori culture. It celebrates the rising of the Matariki star constellation, which is the start of the brand new 12 months in our culture and indicates when harvesting and planting ought to be timed.
Rather than one unified group, the Māori are made up of various tribes with different customs, and we recognize the event in alternative ways. Yet there are common themes of eating, fellowshiping, and praying.
We cook hāngī by digging a hole in the bottom and placing big rocks on the underside and lighting a fireplace on top of it. After fighting the hearth off, you place meat, fish, cabbage, and kūmara (sweet potato) in baskets in there with plenty of water and canopy it up with dirt. A number of hours later, you open it up and the food is steamed.
It is a celebration of the brand new 12 months. At that level, it’s something that Christians might well rejoice.
But traditional Māori culture is deeply animistic. There are prayers and incantations to the celebrities. The ancestors who died within the previous 12 months are believed to have migrated to the celebrities, the Matariki constellation particularly. During the feast, the steam rising from the food you’re cooking goes up as a prayer to the celebrities, the ancestors, and those that died within the last 12 months.
Did you rejoice Matariki growing up?
No, I used to be raised post–World War II at a time when my parents, who didn’t look overtly Māori, were in a position to hide the actual fact. I knew I had Māori ancestors but didn’t know I used to be Māori. They did this to maintain us protected, as a consequence of the prevalent racism against Māori in New Zealand society.
It wasn’t until I used to be about 20 and went to varsity that I actually understood my Māori heritage. It was quite exciting to see what my ancestry was and in addition to learn the importance of the gospel in Māori history.
How did the gospel come to the Māori people?
Anglican missionaries proclaimed the gospel to the Māori on Christmas Day in 1814. Over the years, God turned hearts massively. At the time, Māori were using muskets and cannons to fight one another, decimating the population. In God’s windfall, Māori were ready for the gospel as they saw the promise of peace. Missionary Henry Williams got here here in 1823 and established trust with them. He stood in the course of a battlefield and told them to place down their rounds because God commanded them to live in peace.
By 1860, 80 percent of Māori were attending church on Sundays. The three keys to the Māori rapidly accepting the gospel were the preaching of the gospel, the interpretation of Scriptures into the Māori language (there was no written language previously), and the Māori themselves becoming evangelists.
How did the introduction of Christianity change their beliefs and practices?
There was a large abandonment of pagan religion. The Scriptures were their rule of life. For example, in northern New Zealand, a gaggle of chiefs each had multiple wives. As they read the Scriptures, they felt that was mistaken—they need to have just one wife. They decided to construct a village where the excess wives can be housed and placed under their protection in order that they may very well be the husbands of 1 wife. They sought husbands for the opposite women. They worked out for themselves how the Scripture ought to be applied.
Christmas and Easter were celebrated. Matariki was celebrated by way of celebrating family and community and thanking God for the food, the harvest, and the promise of a latest 12 months.
Based on the 2018 census, only 30 percent of Māori say they’re Christian. What led to this huge drop in the religion?
In the 1860s, the military confiscated massive amounts of Māori land, which led to the Māori’s alienation from Christianity. Many Māori lost confidence within the gospel and within the church as they associated the European settlers with the religion. The colonizers stripped Māori of their land, their territory, and their identity.
100 years later, in the course of the twentieth century, Māori tried to rebuild their identity again, and plenty of resorted to the old paganism. Celebrations like Matariki, which many Christians celebrated simply as a latest 12 months, returned to being a pagan festival.
The government is now promoting Matariki in a spiritual way. State schools are being supplied with specially written prayers and incantations, which they claim are usually not religious but cultural. Some Māori young persons are coming to imagine in the normal deities, and even non-Māori participate in it. That’s impacting the church, as lots of our churches are struggling to succeed in Māori and be seen as open. You get quite a little bit of syncretism in evangelical churches today.
How are Christians responding to prayers to Māori gods and deities happening within the workplace and taught at schools?
Most Christians are usually not quite sure what to do with it. Public events will often open with a type of katakia or prayer. It is dependent upon who’s doing the katakia: A Christian would pray to God, while someone who isn’t Christian will pray to the celebrities or earth or ancestors. When Christians ask what to do in those situations, I say you only don’t should say “Amen.”
There are all types of situations where as Christians, we see things happening [and] we wouldn’t have to take part in them, nor do we now have to be antagonistic to them. We’re called to be clever and prudent. I believe there’s a danger that we’ve develop into too confrontational about things we don’t must confront.
We have a possibility to share the gospel. You see that with Paul in Athens speaking concerning the unknown god. He says, Let’s discuss him; I can inform you about him. This is a classic example of how we will use the culture without confronting it. On the opposite hand, in Ephesus and Philippi, they did should confront the culture. There comes a time when you might have to.
What was New Zealanders’ response when the federal government decided to make Matariki a public holiday?
There’s a major group of non-Māori New Zealanders who’re bitterly against anything Māori. Sadly, there are a number of Christians amongst them—they only don’t understand it; they’ll’t stand it. On the opposite hand, there are individuals who think it’s wonderful to rejoice Māori culture. In the center are numerous New Zealanders who are usually not particularly concerned; they’re fairly benign toward different cultures so long as they don’t should do anything about it.
What points of the festivals should Christians partake in?
We can rejoice the rising of Matariki and the undeniable fact that God has built the universe and continues to rule it in a way that for hundreds of years Māori have been in a position to discover when this was going to occur. We rejoice the wonderful order in creation that declares the glory of God.
A variety of Christians will stand up and pray in the course of the dawn of Matariki since it is tradition to wish at the moment. I personally avoid anything that may be misunderstood by any individual. To me the gods mean nothing, but when any individual sees me praying at dawn, they might misinterpret it.
Other Christians are quite comfortable to try this. I haven’t any problem with that in any respect; it’s perfectly right. You have that freedom within the gospel. Matariki is fun—it’s fellowship; it’s talking about those that have recently died and constructing family relationships.
Last 12 months, I put out this booklet on how Christians can engage with Matariki, written for non-Māori believers unfamiliar with the vacation. I also opened the church service with a Matariki greeting and encouraged people to embrace it as a celebration of God’s grace.
How do you see Matariki as an evangelism opportunity?
This week, a handyman who got here to repair my burglar alarm asked me what I believed of Matariki, and I got to share with him that God set the celebrities of their place.
He responded, “But [the universe is] so huge it doesn’t need us.”
“Yes, that shows how great God is,” I said. This is the form of conversation I’m comfortable to have around Matariki.
I cited Genesis 8:22 to him: “As long because the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and warmth, summer and winter, day and night won’t ever stop.” We haven’t only a wonderful God but a continuing God, a reliable God, a faithful God. All these you’ll be able to show through Matariki. It’s an exciting time to share the gospel: Jesus is the intense and morning star.
