About Matariki

If you go outside on a clear night in early Winter,  you may be lucky enough to see a small, fuzzy group of stars rising in the East, just where you would expect to see the sun rise in the morning. As the year progresses, these stars will march across the sky, following the ecliptic of the sun, until they disappear from sight in Spring, when they set at twighlight, just before Orion.

Astronomers know this star cluster as Messier 45, or M45. The Japanese call it Subaru. In Swahili, it is called Kilimia. You probably know it as Pleiades or the Seven Sisters.

In Aotearoa, (New Zealand) Maori call it Matariki and its appearance in the sky heralds the commencement of the new planting season and the start of the Maori new Year.

It also signifies new beginnings. And that is what this is.