manawatia a matariki

 This weekend New Zealand Aotearoa celebrated our first official Matariki public holiday. Apparently it is the first and or only known indigenous celebration to be made official in the colonised world. 

Matariki is celestial so the timing varies like Easter. It is when the Matariki stars rise in the east. This cluster of stars is also known as Pleiades and the Seven Sisters. 

It signifies the Maori New Year, a time to be with whanau (family), to think of those who have passed recently, to reflect on life and make plans for the future. It coincides with the Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere signalling that the days will now get longer and it is time to plan and prepare for the next crops. Never a year went by without my mother reminding me about the shortest day and the relief of knowing that the days were now getting longer.

Manawatia a matarki - Happy Maori New Year. 

Sunrise on the 21st June, the shortest day. 

the election experience

 Yesterday the final results from the NZ Election were announced. Yes, there were postal votes, etc to count - it's what happens in a democracy when everyone's vote is respected. Some years our elections have been so close even to the point that the party with the most votes did not become the government! We have MMP in NZ - there are other forms of democracy other than the 250 years old unfit for purpose version the world now watches in horror unfolding in America. NZ citiznes accepted the final results and responded appropriately - even those who lost thier seats at the last hurdle. 

I recorded my thoughts about what we are witnessing in America but felt uncomfortable publishing them. So I have here a link to an article - one of many opinion pieces now being published - by an American explaining the shame and the relief. I think it says mostly all? - but maybe not the underlying issue of American christianity and it’s impact on culture and politics. Maybe I’ll find something incisive to share on that topic one day also. 

Now the world can let out a collective sigh of relief and move forward. 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/07/catastrophe-has-been-averted-let-us-all-breathe-a-big-long-sigh-of-relief?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

spring is in the air

Spring is here. The tuis have been feeding in the cherry and kowhai trees. NZ has survived and beaten a second community transmission of Covid19. Elections are 2 weeks away. Globally Covid19 is rampant. The American President has tested positive. I'm guilty of schadenfreude. His supporters still say it's a hoax and/or he was infected intentionally - you can't have it both ways. 2020 continues to challenge us all. 

moving to level 1

Tomorrow we move to Level 1. 75 days later. Wow. There is so much I could have recorded about Level 3 (online school) and Level 2 (back to school). But life got busy again. We are returning to 'normal' however nothing is the same. The economy has taken a huge hit, particularly Tourism, one of our biggest earners. But hey, we watch what is going on overseas specifically the US and UK and we are so lucky! I said at the start of this that 'America was going to go off' - and it is in ways I never would have imagined. So happy to live in New Zealand. 

day 29

ANZAC Day. Lest we forget. Great Uncles killed in WW1.

Leonard Lawrence Beresford, died at Messines 7 June 1917	Walter Rex  Beresford, died at Gallipoli  8 August 1915

https://play.stuff.co.nz/details/_6151967422001

https://play.stuff.co.nz/details/_6151953522001

day 19

Light at the end of the tunnel. Talk is moving to how we come out of lockdown from Level 4 to Level 3 and what this will look like. The 'naysayers' heads are rising, those who say we went to hard too long. In NZ as of today, we have 1366 cases of Covid 19 and 9 deaths. That's a good place to be. Our numbers of new infections should soon be so low that contact tracing and closed borders will allow a 'version of returning to normal life.' Undoubtedly the economy will take a massive hit, which is to be expected and is the next challenge.
Term 2 starts for schools tomorrow with our first foray into online learning. Teachers have done much thinking and preparation. It will be the strangest start to a new term in my teaching career - in fact, it will be history-making.

rangiriri

So much history we don't truly know.