Welcoming the new year.

As at last year's marking of the annual festival Matariki at NZNO's national office, pupils from Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Nga Mokopuna (pictured above) were the highlight of last month's celebrations. The large gathering of staff, NZNO members and friends included Te Runanga kaiwhakahaere Brenda CLose, Ministry of Health chief nursing adviser Mark Jones and a number of invited guests from the Council of Trade Unions.

Matariki takes its name from a star cluster appearing at this time of the year on the pre-dawn horizon. Explaining its significance, guest speaker and managing director of Raukura Consultants Morris Te Whiti Love, described a growing acceptance in Aotearoa for Matariki as a starting point for the year. "Traditionally, Matariki was a time to connect Maori to land and seafood harvesting, for navigation and weather patterns," he said. "During midwinter, people would also gather to farewell the dead, acknowledge the past year's activities and then greet the new-born and focus on the year ahead. Matariki was a time when people would gather to share kai, rituals, entertainment, hospitality and learnings."

NZNO chief executive Geoff Annals described Matariki as representing "the many gifts we, as Pakeha, have been given, because of Te Tiriti." As she blessed the box of food collected for the Wellington Women's Refuge, NZNO kuia Aunty Vera [Morgan] thanked NZNO for the opportunity to celebrate Matariki. "We are two people, two races, two cultures, with one aim--to walk together," she said.

The evening, inspired and organised primarily by policy analyst Maori Sharon Clair, concluded with a hakari of traditional Maori food.