Matariki Workshops

On the 17th of June 2014 a Maori dance group called the Kahurangi did a show to start our Matariki.  When that was finished we had our Matariki workshops that we had to go to.  My first one was cooking then rakau and then I did string games.  What is Matariki?

For cooking I made fried bread and it was really easy to make.  It took a while but we did it in the end. When Mum makes fried bread she uses yeast but we didn’t use yeast when we were doing our Matariki workshops.  I think everyone liked it because some of the teachers had to come in and have some of our delicious food.  I didn’t have morning tea or lunch because I was full of fried bread.   

Rakau was my second workshop that I went to.  I learnt how to play games with the rakau and I learnt some new songs to go with the rakau.  I do rakau in Kapa Haka so it was really easy.  We do different songs for rakau in Kapa Haka.  I went home that day and I taught Mum and Dad some of the songs we did for Kapa Haka and our Matariki Workshops.  Dad said that he used to do rakau when we was my age.  Mum said that she liked the songs that go with the rakau.

For string games I learnt how to do a cup and saucer.  It took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to make it but I did it just when we had to pack up and go back to class.  Half of us had to do rakoau while the other half got to do string games.  I did rako first and we did a completely different song and actions.  After that I went to do the string games.  I liked string games because I taught my sister how to do it and now she can do it.

The answer to my initial question (what is Matariki?) is a Maori New year and a Maori celebration.  People go there to celebrate the Maori new year.  My favourite one was rako because I learnt some different songs to do with them.  Matariki was awesome!