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June 20, 2023
Stardome unique glimpse at matauranga Māori
Peter Verschaffelt
Posted On June 20, 2023
Download AudioMāori astronomer Rangi Mataamua says the Auckland Stardome now offers a unique opportunity to view Māori and European knowledge systems sitting seamlessly side by side.
The Stardome in Cornwall Park reopened yesterday after an extensive overhaul.
Professor Mataamua says the exhibits now include not just panels on the sun, stars and planets, but discussion of how the story of Maui slowing the sun could relate to scientific observations, how the phases of the moon inform maramataka, and how Maori and Polynesian ancestors used the stars for navigation.
“All the exhibits are bilingual and it’s awesome to see matauranga Maori, which is scientific in its approach anyway and is built on observation and practice and trial and error and these very scientific principles, sitting alongside what you would see in any other observatory or planetarium around the world,” Professor Mataamua says.
The stars of Matariki, also known as Pleides, will appear aboove the horizon before dawn in the next couple of days.
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