Te Marama o Matariki He Maramataka Māori - Hui Tanguru
9th Month of the Māori Year - February/March
Kua maranga mai a Rēhua ki te paerangi, te tahatū o Tonga ki te Rāwhiti. He tohu tēnei o te mutunga o te wā tupu o te huawhenua, huarākau. Kei te maoa mai ngā huarākau o te Ngaio me te Mokopapa, e kitea ana e inaina mai ana i roto i ngā ringa o Tama nui te Ra. Kei te tino wera me te tino maroke a Papatūānuku.
Antares is seen rising on the southern horizon bringing the end of the growing season. Berries are ripening on the Ngaio and Skinks are seen basking in sun. Earth is now very hot and dry.
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Te Tohu o Kaupeka - Rēhua
Sign of the Season - Antares, Alpha Scorpii
‘Haere, e whai i ngā waewae o Rēhua.’
‘Go and follow in the footsteps of Rēhua.’
This whakatauākī (proverb) is a reference to Rēhua as a skilled and esteemed chief
and one who inspires great leadership qualities.
When Rēhua appears on the southern horizon during Hui Tanguru (9th Matariki month), it signals the end of the growing season. Earth is now very hot and quite dry.
When Rēhua appears on the southern horizon during Hui Tanguru (9th Matariki month), it signals the end of the growing season. Earth is now very hot and quite dry.
Rēhua, seen in the heavens as the bright heart of the Scorpio, is an important navigational star and red supergiant sometimes mistaken for Matawhero, the Red Planet, Mars.
Rēhua is the eldest offspring of Rangi and Papa, tūpuna of Māui and parent of Kaitangata (eater-of-people, in name only), known also as Awa-nui-a-rangi (great river of heaven), husband of Whaitiri (thunder). The blood of Kaitangata marks the red sky of the morning, warning of storms.
Rēhua illuminated the sky as lightening before ascending the celestial realms as an extremely noble and sacred personage to live in Te-Putahi-nui-o-Rēhua in Rangi-tuarea, the tenth and highest of heavens. When his brother Tāne made the long journey to see him, Rēhua, on having nothing to feed him, unwound the knots in the top of his hair and released the tui that lived there. The birds were then caught and cooked carefully over a fire by the people of Rēhua before being placed in an elaborately carved large empty gourd and offered to Tāne for sustenance. Tāne declined as the birds had been living on lice from the sacred head of Rēhua and were tapu. Rēhua then taught his brother the art of bird snaring and gave Tāne live birds to return to the world with.
