Matariki Public Talk Series

Public Talk #1
18th June, 3pm
Ockie Simmonds (aka Henere Tumapuhia): Were Polynesians expert navigators or climate change refugees?
Ockie Simmonds-Tumapuhia (Raukawa, Tūwharetoa , Ngā Puhi) is a tribal researcher from the Society of Māori Astronomy Research and Traditions (SMART). Over the past decade Simmonds-Tumapuhia has worked closely with astronomical experts in Japan who used archaeo-astronomical techniques, based on traditional Maori korero, to identify the Gregorian arrival dates of the Tainui and Te Arawa waka to Aotearoa as part of a ‘Great Fleet’ in the summer of 1408 CE. What caused the early Māori ancestors to settle the Pacific and Aotearoa was presented at the History of Astronomy Symposium in Japan (2021) and to the NZ Climate Change Commission (2022). In this free public talk, he will present some of this research in a Matariki context.

Public Talk #2
2nd July, 3pm
Oliver McLeod: Geology of the Pirongia Volcano
Incorporating images of Pirongia from the Museum’s ‘Taonga Talking’ exhibition, Dr McLeod will discuss his geological mapping of Pirongia in this free public talk. Pirongia is the North Island’s largest basaltic volcano, and the unravelling of its volcanic history was a focus of his PhD research in the School of Science at the University of Waikato. In 2020 Dr McLeod presented his geological map and map book Geology of the Pirongia Volcano, Waikato to Kiingi Tūheitia as a gift from the Pūrekireki Marae.

Public Talk #3
14th July, 3pm
Ockie Simmonds (aka Henere Tumapuhia): Historic pā site (town) planning and the maramataka.
Ockie Simmonds-Tumapuhia (Raukawa, Tūwharetoa , Ngā Puhi) is a tribal researcher from the Society of Māori Astronomy Research and Traditions (SMART). He was born in 1951 when his Raukawa people in the South Waikato still used the traditional Māori lunar calendar, the maramataka, for pastoral and business activity. He has a broad understanding of his whakapapa, astronomy & cosmology. His promotion of the Māori night sky is legendary with his whānau. In this free public talk, he will discuss Te Whare Wairua o Raukawa – the spiritual house of Raukawa, and the astronomical knowledge used to align intra-tribal pā sites in pre-European Aotearoa.