Looking up into the night sky, a beacon of stars gleams and guides the traveller home...

Matariki is the name Māori give the Pleiades star cluster, navigational pinpoints in the sky for brave seafarers and the sign to prepare for the coming New Year, bringing with it a promise of good things to come for Aotearoa's Children.

Matariki rises in Aoteraroa, New Zealand, in mid winter. Mata ariki means ‘Eyes of God’. 

From early June, Matariki is visible to the naked eye before sunrise toward the north east of the horizon. North of the commonly known ‘Orion’s Belt’, you will see a tiny cluster of stars - this is Matariki. The seven stars in Matariki are often told as representing a mother and her six children. Matariki is a time to reflect on where we are now and where we will be, a renewal for the new year.