Maori Culture

Royalty, politicians, artists and performers will be among the crowds taking part in Waitangi Day - New Zealand’s national holiday - celebrations this Friday (6.02.09).

A Māori cloak of historic significance is home in Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand, after living in a London closet for more than 20 years.

A highly skilled performance has won Auckland’s Māori performing arts group Te Waka Huia, the supreme award at New Zealand’s annual Te Matatini National Kapa Haka Festival for the fourth time.

Runners from 10 countries will compete this weekend (21.03.09) in a unique beach marathon on the remote sands of 90 Mile Beach in New Zealand’s Far North.

Kupe was one of Polynesia’s most famous voyagers and now an exhibition celebrating his life is on the move itself, leaving the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington and heading to the central North Island town of Rotorua.

A giant gourmet hangi, created by Kiwi celebrity chef Peter Gordon, will launch New Zealand’s 2009 celebrations for Matariki or Māori New Year.

New Zealand’s Rangitāne tribe has finally laid to rest the remains of 60 ancestors unearthed from their original burial ground then reclaimed from Canterbury Museum in the South Island.

New Zealand’s Māori King is to lead a delegation to New York to join an official welcome for former NZ prime minister Helen Clark when she takes up her new job with the United Nations.

New Zealand’s North and South Islands have been found to be officially nameless because of a 200-year legislation oversight - but more than 70% of Kiwis think the current titles should remain.

Festivity is in the air this week as New Zealanders lift their eyes to the heavens for the rise of Matariki – the Pleiades star formation – in southern hemisphere skies.