As July approaches, a very significant day draws near for the people of New Zealand. Matariki, the Maori New Year, is named for the Matariki star cluster (Pleiades) which is visible in our night skies for 11 months of the year. It disappears in the lunar month of Haratua (May/June) and rises again around a month later in the North-Eastern sky during the lunar Month of Piripi .(June/July). This celestial event marks the beginning of the Māori calendar, signalling a time for both reflection about the year that past, and renewal for the year ahead. It is a time for communities to come together and celebrate. Since 2022, this is now also an official public holiday, one that falls on a different day each year due to the lunar calendar.
This celebration, a time for Peace, Joy and Community, has lead to many art forms that educators can explore as a way to connect classroom learning with this important event. But first, let's dive a little deeper into the history of Matariki.
While Matariki has deep cultural significance for the people of Aotearoa New Zealand, it is understood and celebrated in different ways across the country. Legend has it that Tāwhirimātea (the god of wind) was so angry with his siblings for causing the separation of this parents - the sky father (Ranginui) and earth mother (Papatūānuku) - that he ripped out his eyes and flung them into the heavens. This gives Matariki its full name - The eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea (Ngā Mata o te Ariki Tāwhirimātea).
With the star cluster disappearing and then returning each year, this event celestial became linked with the cycle of life, death and rebirth. This is now a time to remember our ancestors, releasing their spirits to become stars. Similarly, a time to express thanks for the past year's harvest by feasting and sharing the bounty with family and friends. Celebrations often include storytelling and cultural performances which offer a wonderful opportunity to teach about cultural connection through engaging forms of creative expression.
Some popular options that educators can explore for art creating, include:
1. Star (whetu) themed art - painting, collages or sculptures that depict celestial representations. See a starry night lesson idea below.
2. Kites - the design and construction of traditional Māori kites can represent both ancestral connections and the spirit of Matariki.
3. Flax Weaving - teaching the traditional art of weaving flax leaves to create beautiful and functional pieces, like baskets (kete) and mats (whariki). See a lesson idea below.
1) Starry Night - an art lesson for Upper Elementary
You can make a great connection to a well loved artwork - Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh - when exploring Matariki with Year 5-6 and middle school students.
First, it's important that students can correctly recite their personal and individual Pepeha. For help with this you can visit the following website: https://pepeha.nz/
A pepeha is a formal way of introducing yourself in Māori. It tells others about who you are by sharing your connection with people and places that are important to you.
Your pepeha is the inspiration for the content of this artwork. Students then locate images of water, mountains, plants and buildings or other landmarks that they associate with their significant place.
Combining this with information about The eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea (Ngā Mata o te Ariki Tāwhirimātea) and the Post-Impressionist technique of Vincent Van Gogh, students create wonderful original artworks they can be proud of.
For a fully comprehensive art lesson including a video tutorial please visit my TPT store - One Teacher's Journey - HERE
or visit my website - Help Me Learn - HERE
2) Make a Manu Tuktuku - Maori kite - an art lesson for Mid Elementary
Start this lesson with the shared book called The Seven Kites of Matariki. Here is a link to the read-aloud on YouTube:
The following video, made by Tauranga City Library, will guide you through resources to collect and and the steps to making kites with your students.
3) Woven Whariki or blanket for lying down to watch the night sky - an art lesson for Early Elementary.
Traditionally mats would be woven from the leaves of a flax plant in New Zealand. However, when harvesting the leaves of this plant, certain cultural procedures (tikanga) need to be followed. Here is a video on YouTube explaining more about that:
In the classroom you can substitute other materials to teach weaving, when gathering flax is not an option. I always save the paper strips from trimming student artworks and these provide colourful pieces for students to work with. You can also strip coloured card on the guillotine for this lesson. By using up trimmings from other artworks that would otherwise be thrown away, you are aligning to, and honouring the Māori world view on sustainability and environmental awareness.
Students are given an A5 sized card to turn into a loom following a few careful steps and then they can weave coloured card or paper strips though this to create their mat or blanket.
Another option is to use wool on a loom. Make the looms by pre-cutting thick packaging cardboard to aprox. A5 size. Snip into both short edges - cut 1-2 cm deep and use 2cm spacing. Wrap the Warp thread around the card and tape the ends off. Thread a large plastic / craft needle with a length of wool and weave (the Weft) in and out of the Warp threads to create the blanket. Snip the ends of the Warp treads across the back of the card and tie this off in pairs across the top and bottom of the weaving.
With the paper option, you can layer thinner strips, decorative strips or even thick wool across the weaving too.
For the full paper weaving lesson which also includes a video tutorial, you can go to my TPT store - One Teacher's Journey - HERE or
visit my website - Help Me Learn - HERE
So bring your classroom communities together and use the arts as a way to acknowledge the past, celebrate the present and look forward to the future.
Keep warm everyone! and enjoy your winter break if you are teaching in the Southern hemisphere.
No comments:
Post a Comment