Happy New Year!
Thursday kicked off Auckland’s celebration of Matariki, the Māori New Year. Matariki is marked by the appearance of a star cluster in the sky known as Pleiades. It is a time to reflect on the past and plan for the future, and its celebration is closely tied to an appreciation of this land, the arts and especially music.
On Friday night, I attended Native Noise 2009 at Auckland Town Hall (Native Noise may sound familiar, as they also sponsored the Waitangi Day concert I attended back in February). This was an awesome concert featuring DJ Poroufessor, reggae bands Katchafire, Three Houses Down and Cornerstone Roots, and headliner Tiki Taane, who performed with a kapa haka group and an incredible DJ, Charlie B. There was also a respectful playing of Michael Jackson hits between sets, a subtle tribute to the passing of an undeniably significant figure to musicians around the world. Nearly every artist greeted the crowd with a warm “Kia ora, whanau”, and the crowd reacted to each performer with generous applause and support. Although the Matariki celebration extends for nearly a month, in the spirit of a new year’s celebration there was a countdown, followed by shouting, hugs and kisses among concert attendees. While I hoped to show some pictures and video, the concert was considered a “taonga”, or treasure to be shared between the performers and the audience, and cameras and recordings were discouraged.
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Super City Hikoi
Super City Hikoi
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Smashproof
Smashproof
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Easter Break and Celebrations
It is almost the end of the university Easter break, which I so often wrongly refer to as “spring break” even though we are rapidly descending into winter here in New Zealand. Because my Māori culture class was on hold for two weeks, I had the opportunity to travel around New Zealand a bit. A highlight was completing an awe-inspiring 14 km hike in the Tongariro Alpine Crossing (unrelated to music, I know, but I’ve decided to put a picture up anyway because it was so beautiful).
A long overdue photo tour of Auckland
Pūnehunehu taku titiro
ki te ao nei e
Pōraki ana ahau
i te kimi i te wāhi ki a au
My view is dimmed
upon the world
Frantic in search
to find my place
This is an excerpt from the poem “Pūnehunehu” (Hazey) by Māori poet Charisma. I included it in my ethics proposal because I thought it was a striking summary of the need for “place”, which in my research I am hoping to show can be created through popular music. However in reading the poem again, I have realized that I have not done my city (yes, after merely 2 months I am infatuated with Auckland enough to feel comfortable calling it “my city”) justice by conveying anything about what kind of place Auckland is.
The following photo slideshow is by no means a comprehensive presentation of everything that is fantastic about Auckland. My photo tour is a little limited by the fact that I do not have a car. I’ve tried to capture some of my favourite spots though so that you can get a sense of my “place” in Auckland. Hopefully I’ve shown a bit of how vibrant, active, colourful and stunning the city is. There are some obligatory scenic shots, but also some more subtle things that I appreciate that might not come up through a Google image search of Auckland. I wanted to share this now so that when I put some footage of artists’ commentary on living in the city, you will know a bit more of the city they are talking about.
Enjoy!
