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Once a year, twinkling in the winter sky just before dawn, Matariki (the Pleiades) signals the Māori New Year. This year, June 5 saw the rise of Pleiades and Matariki celebrations begin around the country.
Matariki is a time of celebration and reflection that everyone can take part in. Let NZLive.com introduce you to heaps of Matariki events where you can join in the spirit of the season.
There many ways to celebrate - from dawn services, drama and cook-offs to kapa haka, tours and tattooing. Matariki festivals, exhibitions and concerts abound.
Check out Te Ara - The encyclopedia of New Zealand to find out about the legends, significance to traditional harvests and the modern revival of Matariki. And if you want to know how to find Matariki, take a look at this great Beginners’ Guide to Matariki on the Signposts blog.
If you want to know more about the astronomy of Matariki, Te Papa, Waitangi Treaty Grounds and the Stardome Observatory are all running informative sessions. You’ll find some great things to do in the classroom on www.NZHistory.net.nz.
Maori Television.

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Kiaora folks.. Nau mai haere mai, Welcome... Stop and Holla at me if your passing thru or if you feel the inclination to rave, chill, its always good to hear how you doing.. Its another opportunity to reiterate upon some more talent coming out of Aotearoa...

Free Crazy Text Maker
My YouTube site for,subsriptions including Music,Dub,Ta moko......enjoy... Rhymenocerous and Hiphopotomus Flight of the Conchords .....congratulations you 2.. Tiki Taane sounds.. TIKIDUB Productions I would like to introduce, Our Maori Site by Tu Roa, great Opera user... check out her about page for her MySpace Link... Our Maori Site Please take care this week folks and i wish a happy and prosperous time going forward.. May you and your whanau be in the very best of spirits..

Kiaora folks and friends..
I love these kites thought you might like to see a couple if you haven't seem these particular ones already...



Māori kites
These sketches of various Māori kites were made by Titiri and Tui, two young rangatira (chiefs) from the Bay of Islands, while they were in England in the 1800s.




This Māori birdman kite is held at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. Its name comes from its shape: a human body and head, with extended wings. It is very similar to the kite known as manu kāhu, shaped like a harrier-hawk, and to a type of kite made with bark of the aute (paper mulberry) plant, known as the peru.

Birdman kite, 1890
In this 1890 photograph of the birdman kite held in the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the teeth, moko (tattoo) and hair made from hawk feathers, can still be seen. Today they are no longer visible on the kite.


‘Kahurangi o Te Maia’

Since the 1970s there has been renewed interest in Māori kites. Traditional materials and methods were rediscovered. Kites also became a focus for artists. Carrie Snowden’s sculpture, ‘Kahurangi o Te Maia’ (1998) stands 5 metres high and 4 metres wide. The name was given to the hokioi (giant eagle) befriended by Te Maia. The eagle flew Te Maia home to his people.

From the 17 or so known types of Māori kite, only three types have survived. In all, seven original kites still exist and are held in museums in London, Hawaii, Auckland and Wellington.
Kites in bird form

The manu kākā was designed to resemble the kākā (brown parrot). The manu totoriwai represented the robin – its unusual construction required considerable skill and was only undertaken by men, usually of high rank. Elders were said to be the only ones who knew the spell that made it fly well.

One of the largest kites, an example of the manu kāhu (harrier-hawk kite), was documented by the artist Charles Barraud about 1850. It was 1.5 metres high with a wingspan of 3.6 metres. A mask bearing a moko (tattoo) was attached.

The manu aute was a generic bird-like kite, with a frame of mānuka covered with bark cloth made of aute (paper mulberry). This type was described by the 19th-centruy Ngāti Porou leader Tuta Nihoniho as having a head but no legs. However, a variation with a convex form, a head, long wings and legs, was known as a peru.
Birdman kite

The birdman kite resembled a human, with the addition of extended wings. The mask of one held in the Auckland War Memorial Museum had teeth, a moko, and hair made of hawk feathers. This type looks similar to the manu kāhu and the peru. According to Tuta Nihoniho it was the usual tribal kite of Ngāti Porou.
Other kites

The manu pātiki, built to resemble a flounder, had two forms; one diamond-shaped, the other oval.

The large manu whara was tapu, and made by priests for divination. Flying it required the strength of several men. Made from tree roots, raupō and toetoe, the sticks of the frame projected upwards and could injure or kill people if it landed abruptly.

The rākau-he-whaka-maro was made by people of the Ngāi Tahu tribe. The frame was made of two sticks bound in a T-shape. It was flown on a long line mainly by young men, with women and elders sometimes participating. This type was used in kite-flying competitions.

Ka kite ano..bye for now...

... Kiaora folks and friends I dedicate this post to wickedlizard....
It has survived ice ages, volcanic eruptions and the intrusion of humans, but New Zealand's lastsurvivor of the dinosaur age may become extinct due to global warming.

The tuatara is one of the world's oldest living creatures.

But the reptile is facing increasing risk of extinction from global warming because of its dependency on the surrounding temperature which determines the sexes of unborn young while still in their eggs.

"They've certainly survived the climate changes in the past but most of them (past climate changes) have been at a more slower rate," said Jennifer Moore, a Victoria University researcher investigating the tuatara's sexual behaviour.

"So you wouldn't expect these guys to be able to adapt to a climate that's changing so rapidly."

The sex of a tuatara depends on the temperature of the soil where the eggs are laid. A cooler temperature produces females, while a warmer soil temperature results in male offsprings.

The tuatara is the only survivor of its species of reptile that flourished during the age of the dinosaurs, some 200 million years ago.

It can grow up to 50 centimetres and weigh up to one kilogram and like its reptile relative, the turtle, the slow-moving tuatara can live more than 100 years, feeding mainly on insects.

But scientists say its long life span as well as its four-year breeding cycle - relatively slow for a reptile - will make the adaptation process more difficult.

According to Moore, a temperature above 21.5 degrees Celsius creates more male tuatara while a cooler climate leads to females.

Already male tuatara on a predator-free island near the top of the South Island outnumber females by 1.7 times, Moore explained.

Peter Gaze, a senior conservation officer at the Department of Conservation, says global warming has become a new challenge for many of New Zealand's wildlife.

"I think the impact of temperature change is widespread and diverse," he said.

He says rare species such as the rock wren - ancient, tailless birds found only in the South Island mountain ranges - could become extinct if the warmer climate lets predators, like rats, to live in higher altitudes.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world's top authority on global warming, predicted in a report in February that global temperatures would rise by 1.8 to 4.0 degrees Celsius this century.

It also warned that between 20 to 30% of plant and animal species face an increased risk of extinction if the rise in the average global temperature exceeds 1.5-2.5 degrees Celsius.

Once found throughout New Zealand, the tuatara is now limited to around 30 isolated islands.

Tuatara numbers have been bolstered through artificial breeding and returning them to uninhabited islands eradicated of predators.

Scientists say the tuatara population has recovered to around 50,000-60,000, but the little dinosaurs may find themselves giving birth only in laboratories if temperatures continue to climb.

"The easiest way for the tuatara to survive would be for nesting female tuatara to change their behaviour and modify the areas where they nest, such as laying eggs deeper in the soil," Victoria University's Moore said. "There is a possibility that they will be able to adapt but I think the problem is that temperatures may rise so quickly they won't have time."

Source: Reuters

Ruatepupuke

Ruatepupuke is shown carrying carvings, his son Te Manuhauturuki, and the kuia (elderly woman) Hinematikotai. Ruatepupuke is believed to have retrieved the carvings from the wharenui (meeting house) of Tangaroa. This was the origin of carving in Māori culture.




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