Celebrate te tau hou Māori, Matariki, with the special five-hour national broadcast, MĀNAWATIA A MATARIKI from 6.00AM on 14 July, followed by a day of special whānau programming, on Whakaata Māori and MĀORI+.
Beginning at dawn with the traditional hautapu ceremony, MĀNAWATIA A MATARIKI features reports from across the regions, including a very special performance by Tauranga family band The Harmonic Resonators. Join Stacey Morrison (Te Arawa, Ngāi Tahu) and Mātai Smith (Rongowhakaata, Ngāi Tāmanuhiri) from Ngongotahā Mountain (Rotorua) for live coverage of the national Matariki celebrations.
Made with support from Te Māngai Pāho and NZ On Air, the informative and entertaining MĀNAWATIA A MATARIKI invites all of Aotearoa to both understand the old traditions and how to create new ones.
Nō reira, kohia tō whānau, and settle in with Whakaata Māori for heart-warming whānau movies, inspiring documentaries, short films and a full dose of Rangi Mātāmua explaining the mysteries of Matariki.
Our Matariki broadcast concludes with the Taika Waititi classic, Two Cars, One Night.
MATARIKI SCHEDULE:
6.00AM – MĀNAWATIA A MATARIKI – Live from Ngongotahā mountain, a hautapu ceremony, live crosses and reports from around the motu.
11.00AM – DOCUMENTARY: WHĀNAU 2021 – Three Māori born in 2000 and revisited every seven years reflect on their upbringings and what it’s like to be 21 and Māori in the 21st century.
12.00PM – TE AO TAPATAHI – The midday news bulletin of Whakaata Māori. Presented by Neil Waka.
12.30PM – ISLAND OF MYSTERY – A time traveller and his sisters are on an action-packed adventure to find the next god stick before Porakanui and his co-conspirators make another grab for power.
1.00PM – BEYOND MATARIKI EPS 1-4 – Professor Rangi Mātāmua talks about the Matariki cluster and how important it is in regulating the Māori year.
3.00PM – FILM: CAMINO SKIES – A feature film documentary following six inspirational Australian and New Zealand pilgrims as they set out to conquer the mighty 900km Camino De Santiago trail.
4.20PM – LOADING DOCS – POWER – Seeking joy after his life-threatening diagnosis, a determined father attempts one last adventure with his daughter: An ambitious bike ride that will push them to their physical and emotional limits.
4.35PM – DAY TRIP – A gang member wakes up one morning and decides he needs a day off. A short voyage between islands changes his outlook on life.
4.45PM – LEMMING AID – In a bizarre stand-off, New Zealand ecological campaigners try to stop lemmings from throwing themselves over a cliff. They encounter a Scandinavian adventurer – with unexpected results.
5.00PM – FILM: MCLAREN – The story of Bruce McLaren, who founded the McLaren Motor Racing team and showed the world that a man of humble beginnings could take on the elite of motor racing and win.
6.30PM – TE AO MĀRAMA – Whakaata Māori flagship weeknight news programme. Presented by Peata Melbourne.
7.00PM – DOCUMENTARY: CARBON THE UNAUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY – The spectacular and surprisingly unorthodox biography of Carbon, the most misunderstood element on Earth.
8.30PM – FILM: COUSINS – Entwines the very different lives of three Māori girls, cousins, through tumultuous decades, after one of them is taken from her family and raised in an orphanage.
10.05PM – MATARIKI – A random act of violence leaves eight people in crisis, searching for hope and new beginnings, as the constellation Matariki (Māori New Year) rises in the Southern skies.
11.35PM – SHORT FILM: TWO CARS, ONE NIGHT – Sometimes first love is found in the most unlikely of places, like in the carpark outside the Te Kaha pub.
