8th Matariki Month - Kohi Tātea (2nd Year)

Te Marama o Matarik He Maramataka Māori - Kohi Tātea

8th Month of the Matariki Year - January/February

Kei te kai ngā manu i ngā huarākau o te Kōtukutuku kei te rongohia te waiata o te tātarakihi i te atatū. He maha ngā putiputi o te Rātā me te Kānuka. Kua reri ki te hauhake i ngā huawhenua tuatahi.

Birds feed on the fruit of the Fuchsia. The songs of Cicadas are heard in the first light. Northern Rata and large Teatree are covered in flowers and the first foods are ripe.

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Tātarakihi Cicada
Melampsalta cingulata

‘Te tātarakihi, te pihareinga; ko ngā manu ēnā o Rēhua.’
‘The cicada and the cricket are the song birds of Rehua.’

This whakatauākī (proverb) is a reference to the heat of the summer,
 when the sounds of cicadas and crickets are heard.

The days are long and hot and the first foods have ripened when the entrancing sounds of Tātarakihi are heard during Kohi Tātea.

 
Tātarakihi, known also as Tarakihi and Kihikihi, are large tropical cicadas found in grasslands and scrub, sand dunes and swamps from the coast to the subalpine regions of the North Island and some parts of the South Island of New Zealand. They appear from their dark underground burrows to mate during hot summer months.

They have four clear membranous wings attached to a tapering body with three sets of small legs and two bulbous eyes that protrude from the sides of its broad shaped blunt head. The large wings of the males quiver together to create clicking sounds heard at the end of each deafening chorus. It is only the males who are heard, females remain silent.

The eggs of Tātarakihi are laid on leaves of small shrubs and trees. On hatching, the lavae fall to the ground and tunnel into the earth where they feed on the root systems of trees. When the lavae mature they re-emerge from the earth  to climb up the bark on the trunks of the trees where they slip out from the backs of their brittle brown bodies. 

Tātarakihi are the offspring of Tūteāhuru and Hinepeke, who are the parents of all insects, vermin and lizards. Tātarakihi are known as the birds of Rēhua (Antares).

8th Matariki Month - Kohi Tatea

Te Marama o Matariki He Maramataka Māori - Kohi Tātea
8th Month of the Māori Year - January/February

Kei te kai ngā manu i ngā huarākau o te Kōtukutuku kei te rongohia te waiata o te tātarakihi i te atatū. He maha ngā putiputi o te Rātā me te Kānuka. Kua reri ki te hauhake i ngā huawhenua tuatahi.

Birds feed on the fruit of the Fuchsia. The songs of Cicadas are heard in the first light. Northern Rata and large Teatree are covered in flowers and the first foods are ripe.

Tohu o Kaupeka - Rātā
Sign of the Season Northern Rata (Metrosideros robusta)

‘Kia mau ki te aka matua; kei mau ki te aka taepa .’
‘Hold fast to the strong parent vine, rely not on the loose vines.’

This whakatauākī (proverb) derived from the journey of Tāwhaki and his brother Karipi, cautions against casting away reality for illusion.

When the Rātā bursts into flower summer is at hand and the first foods are ripe.

Rātā, a native of New Zealand once widespread in forests from sea level to 900m throughout the North Island, Three Kings Island and in north-western regions of the South Island, can grow to a height of some 40m. The crimson flowers of Rātā can be seen straddling the canopies of the dark green forests from Kohi Tātea (8th Matariki month). Rātā begins life as an epiphyte in the crowns of tall forest trees.

As Rātā grows the epiphyte sends aerial roots down the outside of the trunk to take root in the earth, eventually overcoming its host in a massive network of gnarled vines that merge together encasing the host tree completely. Although Rātā is a very strong wood with an unusually long life, it eventually succumbs to a similar fate through its own shallow roots, and falls to the earth under the weight of numerous epiphytes, lilies, mosses and ferns that have fastened themselves to it over the years.

In Māori mythology Rātā, the son of Wahie-roa and Tonga-rau-tawhiri, is grandchild of Tāwhaki, who ascended the heavens by climbing the strong aka matua, or parent vine. The crimson of the flowers came from the blood of Tāwhaki, who later fell back to the world having been cast from the heavens.