PAKURANGA preschoolers swarmed into to Te Tuhi arts centre yesterday to feast on hangi for the culmination of their Matariki (Maori New Year) storytelling sessions.
Pakuranga kaumatua Koro Percy says the steamed flavour was not the same as a pit hangi, where the food tastes more of firewood and stones.
Nevertheless, Te Tuhi staff still had to get up at four in the morning preparing the food for voracious kindergarten appetites, and Mr Percy was thoroughly enjoying his Matariki experience amongst the kids.
“A lot of these children have never experienced a hangi before,” said the Ngati Porou elder. “It’s good to see a lot of schools here.”
Mr Percy said hangi was part and parcel of the Matariki festival. But the marking of the passage of New Year, signalled by the Matariki star cluster (also known as the Pleiades), hasn’t always recently been a feature of Maori life.
“I can remember in my young days in primary school we didn’t celebrate Matariki,” he said.
