Celebration | Māori education | Matariki | Astronomy
Children’s music duo, Leah, and Siu, of Loopy Tunes, have created a beautiful new waiata to celebrate the first official Matariki public holiday, here in Aotearoa. The sisters have penned a song to help tamariki celebrate Matariki with their whānau and friends, by remembering these three kupu/words - Whakamaumahara (to Remember), Whakanui (to Celebrate) and Whakariterite (to Prepare).
This is another simple, yet catchy, waiata that will get the whole whānau up and having a kanikani to it. Allow it to motivate you all to wake up early, view Matariki in the morning sky, prepare and enjoy some kai while sharing memories (and making new ones)!
The song features Auckland-based, Te Rarawa guitarist, Michael Lemanu. Michael is a Samoan-Māori musician, who regularly leads worship teams, and is the National Youth Coordinator for the Methodist Church of New Zealand. Music producer, Thom O’Connor, has blended Michael’s awesome guitar sounds with a contemporary beat, and added beautiful twinkly elements to give it an ethereal, yet upbeat, vibe.
Leah and Siu have been making music for tamariki for nearly 13 years, releasing their first album, Kākāriki – Simply Us, in 2019. The Tongan-Ngāpuhi sisters have a passion for creating music that encourages tamariki to embrace te reo Māori, as well as songs from the Pacific. The pair collaborated with Whānau Āwhina Plunket NZ and Ministry of Pacific Peoples to create 10 Pasifika Beats albums in 10 different pacific languages – the Pasifika Beatz series.
All that they do reflects this kaupapa and the duo hope to inspire even more tamariki through this waiata.
This song was released on all digital streaming platforms on Friday, 17 June, 2022. Check out the lyric video, here, created by the team at Tākai, Sparklers at Home and Great Scott Communications. We have created resources for this waiata on our website, here.