Human Flower Project

Friday, June 06, 2008

A Flower for the Pleiades—Matariki

It’s the Maori New Year, observed across New Zealand with the making and presentation of harakeke flowers.

A flower made from woven flax is the traditional gift of New Zealand’s New Year, in early June
Photo: Ali Brown

Thursday, on the final dog walk of the night, we spotted the head and claws of Scorpio coming over a neighbor’s house. Summer is here.

Or winter if you live in New Zealand. And in the early mornings, Taurus the bull rises with the sun. In his horns you can see the twinkling Seven Sisters – the Pleiades. In Maori they’re known “Matariki,” and their appearance both marks and names the Maori New Year (in 2008, it fell on June 5th).

An old custom of Matariki is the weaving of kites and flowers out of a native plant called harakeke (Phormium tenax) – or New Zealand flax. From pictures, it looks like a cross between palm and agave.

Harakeke seems to have been THE basis of Maori material culture: “The long strap-like leaves were ideal for plaiting into mats, containers, shoes and even shelters. …Strong flexible fibre could also be extracted from the leaves for weaving into clothing, or for making rope and fishing nets.”

Phormium tenax varieties growing at Landcare Research in New Zealand
Photo: Warwick Harris, via Fernwood Nursery

Among “observant” Maori there is a quite extensive protocol both for gathering the leaves and for working them into objects. To wit:

“A prayer of thanks or karakia may be said before cutting.  Flax is not cut at night or in the rain or snow.
 Only enough flax is cut to complete the weaving project.
 Flax is not cut by women who are menstruating, although 
they are able to weave.”

…the very sorts of requirements and prohibitions that indicate sacredness. So do these woven flowers, because the first putiputi (or flower) made from flax at the New Year must be presented to someone as a gift.

A flax “lily” by Sema
Photo:  Flax Flowers by Sema

As one would expect, there are now crafts specialists who make flax flowers to sell, both for special local occasions and as New Zealand souvenirs. Today schoolchildren make putiputi at the New Year, too. Like so many human-flower traditions, the Maori custom has taken on a secular, nationalistic, and commercial flavor. If you have some New Zealand flax (or a similar plant on hand) you might ask a blessing and then try weaving your own New Year’s flower with these instructions. Now, don’t forget to give it away!

We’d be negligent if we didn’t show you the flowers harakeke can make all by itself. They’ll bloom six months from now, in December – the height of New Zealand summer. We understand they’re used to sweeten foods and drinks.

The Maori are just one of many cultures that have marveled at the Pleiades, and considered them divinely creative. Count contemporary scientists among these stars’ most awed admirers.

The Pleiades, in the constellation Taurus: a planet incubator?
Photo: Space Spin

“Rocky terrestrial planets, perhaps like Earth, Mars or Venus, appear to be forming or to have recently formed around a star in the Pleiades ("seven sisters") star cluster, the result of ‘monster collisions’ of planets or planetary embryos,” according to astronomers at Gemini Observatory in Hawaii. “This is the first clear evidence for planet formation in the Pleiades,” says Joseph Rhee, an astronomer from UCLA. “The results we are presenting may well be the first observational evidence that terrestrial planets like those in our solar system are quite common.”

A happy, humbling thought for the New Year.