Kia ora, School. Please be seated. 

Today’s reading comes from Ephesians Chapter 4,  Verses 22-24 

Change the former way of life that was part of the person you once were, corrupted by deceitful desires.  

Instead, renew the thinking in your mind by the Spirit, and clothe yourself with the new person created according to God’s image, in justice and true holiness. 

This is the word of the Lord (thanks be to God) 

Jonty’s reading relates to leaving behind those attitudes and behaviour that do not serve us, and renewing our minds. That sense of renewal and new beginnings reminds us of a new year, and that’s why today I’m going talk to you about Matariki, the Maori new year. 

On the last Friday of your school holidays we have a public holiday for  Matariki. Matariki is the Māori name for the cluster of stars that rises in midwinter and for many Māori, heralds the start of the new year. 

Even though Matariki doesn’t line up with what we traditionally know as a new year, by celebrating Matiriki we are showing respect for an aspect of Te Ao Maori that provides a different view or perspective on something, and that’s great for a nation that is trying hard to honour Te Tiriti O Waitangi. 

Matariki is a time for remembrance, celebrating the present and looking to the future. 

During Matariki we remember others, by honouring those we have lost since the last rising of Matariki.  

We also celebrate the present, by coming together with whanau and friends to give thanks for what we have. 

And we look to the future and the promise of a new year.  

As I said before, Matariki doesn’t line up with what we know as New Year on January 1st, but it is quite cool that at this halfway point of the year, we can use Matariki to reflect on the start we’ve made to the year, and look to the future and the promise of what’s to come. It’s a great opportunity to reset, and perhaps there are parts of your life that you’d like to do a mid-year reset on. 

The theme for 2023 is Matariki Kāinga Hokia. “Matariki calls you home” 

This year, Matiriki encourages us all to return to our whānau and our people, wherever and whoever that might be. It encourages us to journey back home and celebrate, feast and be with whānau and friends. So all of our boarders are living out the theme of Matariki when they head home tonight to be reunited with their families for the holidays. I wonder how many of you, like me, will then leave your homes to travel in order to be with extended whanau and friends during the holidays?   

Matariki’s theme in 2023 also provides important environmental messages. The various stars in Matariki invite you to return to where you are from and reconnect with the mountains, rivers, ocean and land. It reminds us of our responsibility to the places we call home. 

You might not know, but there are values associated with Matariki. They remain a part of our Matariki celebrations. 

Aroha 
Love and respect for one another 

Whaka mau mahara tanga 
Remembrance 

Kotahitanga
Unity 

Tohatoha 
Sharing 

Mana Tai ao 
Environmental awareness 

Hākari 
Feasting 

Wānanga 
Discussion 

Noho tahi 
Coming together 

Ata whai tanga 
Kindness 

Whakanui 
Celebration 

Tua kiritanga 
Identity 

I wanted to talk about Matariki today because I want you to be educated about our nation’s special days, and just like I want you understand why we celebrate Anzac Day, and King’s Birthday, Easter and Christmas, I want you to know why we celebrate Matariki, which by the way is unique to our nation of Aotearoa New Zealand.  

When talking abour Matariki, people often have lots of questions, because it’s fairly new to them. I’m going to read out 3 common questions and then I’m going to give you the answers to them. 

Question 1 

How many stars are in the Matariki cluster and what are their names? 

Answer 

There are nine stars in the Matariki cluster, Matariki is the mother, and the other stars are her children: 

Tupuā-nuku is associated with food from the ground 

• Tupuā-rangi is associated with food found in the tops of the trees 

• Waitī is associated with freshwater and water creatures 

• Waitā is associated with food harvested from the sea 

• Wai puna rangi is associated with the rain 

• Uru rangi is associated with nature and the winds 

• Pōhutukawa connects Matariki to those who have passed 

• Hiwa-i-te-rangi the wishing star that we send our dreams and desires to 
   

Question 2 

Why did the Government create a new public holiday to celebrate Matariki? 

Answer 

Matariki heralds the start of the Māori New Year and is a time of celebration and reflection for many people across Aotearoa New Zealand.  

Matariki is a public holiday that recognises and celebrates Te Ao Māori.  

It provides an ongoing opportunity for people across Aotearoa to seek to understand, learn, and celebrate the importance of Māori world views and knowledge. The main motivation behind making Matariki a public holiday was to honour Māori culture, particularly the acknowledgement of Māori as Treaty of Waitangi partners. 

And the final question 
What date is the Matariki holiday each year? 

The Matariki public holiday will always fall on a Friday. As I said, this year the Matariki holiday will be on Friday 14 July. 

The date will shift each year to align with the mara mataka (Māori stellar-lunar calendar). 

The calendar that we use is called the Gregorian calendar and you may know that it’s based on the earth’s orbit around the sun, whilst the mara mataka is based on the phases of the moon and the appearance of different stars.  

The date for the Matariki public holiday will shift every year to align with the Māori stellar-lunar calendar system, in a similar way to how we currently celebrate Easter, which is also based on the phases of the moon. The timing of our Easter weekend changes each year.  

So I hope that’s taught you or reinforced what you’ve been taught about Matariki. There are lots of Matariki celebrations going on around the nation to welcome in Matariki on July 14th  and if you are going along to one of those, I hope you enjoy the celebration.  

To finish, I’m going to invite our Deputy Head Prefect Hopa Keelan to come up and read a Karakia that is used to Welcome Matariki: 

Celebrate the rising of Matariki 

Celebrate the lord of the skies 

Celebrate the new year 

Unite, unite 

And bring forth the dawn 

Together 

In union 

We are one! 

Mānawa maiea te putanga o Matariki 

Mānawa maiea te ariki o te rangi 

Mānawa maiea te Mātahi o te Tau. 

Whano, whano 

Haramai te toki ata huakirangi 

Haumi e 

Hui e 

Tāiki e! 

Thank you, Hopa for reading that so wonderfully. We are now going to sing our final hymn for the term.  

I love that our final hymn every term is always our school song Highways in the Heart. I did some research on this song last week and it was written in 1968, when our College was just 15 years old. It’s a very special song and it’s the song that old boys feel most proud to sing when they return to their school. 

We had to postpone House Singing today but let’s still finish with a great performance of our School Song Highways in the Heart 

Thank you, please be seated. I’ll now ask Cultural Prefect Paora Watene to come forward to present his Cultural report. 

Cultural Report  

Lindisfarne College Jazz Quartet Performs at Lion’s Club Yearly Function 

Lindisfarne College musicians Callum Wallace (saxophone), Leo Guo (piano), Ryan Palmer (drums), and Marcus Gallagher entertained members of the Lion’s Club at the yearly Lion’s Club function at Havelock North at the weekend. The boys performed jazz standards and improvised while the guests enjoyed their meal. Dr Kristensen commented that it was fantastic to see these boys performing so well – they rehearsed independently and organized themselves excellently. Thanks to Mr Selfe for his help with jazz improvisation over the past years with these boys.   

Salsa Dance Project 

It’s been great to see so many boys try out the basic steps of salsa dancing over the last couple of weeks. Salsa is a fun dance, and the music is uplifting. I encourage you all to give it a go.  Keep an eye out for messages about salsa dancing in the notices early in term 3.  

House Music 

Due to the disruptions that have occurred this term, the House Music Competition has been postponed to Term 3. All sections of the competition will still take place, but in a different format to what we are used to. House Music rehearsals will start up again in week 1 of term 3, so keep learning your songs and pieces of music for this.  

Isaac Chou (Violin) - National Youth Orchestra  

Year 11 violinist Isaac Chou has been named as a member of the New Zealand National Youth Orchestra, which makes him one of the country’s best violinists. The orchestra is made up of musicians 25 years and under, so it’s a fantastic achievement that Isaac is already in this orchestra. Isaac will be performing on Friday night in Wellington and on Saturday night in Auckland – both performances will be live streamed.  

Debating at Scots College 

The premier debating team of Thomas Turner, Will Duncan and Leo Guo debated the moot: This house should separate senior secondary schools into academic and vocational pathways. This impromptu debate allotted teams 1 hour to prepare and each team member presented a 6-minute long speech with a 3-minute leader's reply. As the negating team, Will, Thomas and Leo refuted the idea that schools do not allow for vocational pathways and successfully defended the status quo. The Lindisfarne College team won the debate, which was a fantastic result for the team. Congratulations boys and I’ll now invite William forward to receive Debating award.  

Sports Report 

Rector speaks 

Mr Hakeney “Thank you, Paora. Sports Prefect Finn Balchin will now present the latest sports report”. 

Good afternoon I am pleased to be able to read today’s sports news 

IN POLO 

Congratulations to Wilbur Coates on his selection for the Junior Kiwi Under 13 Polo team travelling to Singapore.   

IN CROSS COUNTRY 

The College Cross-Country team headed to Palmerston North for the annual NZSS Cross Country Nationals last weekend. The 6-strong team consisted of five Year 9 runners and one Junior competitor. The Year 9 runners were very competitive and as a team managed a great result of 7th overall. Hamish Butler, the lone Junior runner, ran a strong race, finishing 8th for his age group. 

This was a fantastic experience for the boys who enjoyed running in the fine weather and dodging the rain back here in Hawke’s Bay.  

IN HOCKEY 

The Colts B Hockey team has played 7 matches so far this season and to date is unbeaten in the Boys Div 4 Secondary Schools Hockey competition. We are top of the leaderboard almost half way through the second round of the Round Robin competition.  In all we have scored 46 goals and have only let in 7. We have played 7 games for 7 wins, with no losses or draws. The team is playing attacking hockey and they are improving each week. 

IN RUGBY 

E grade won their most recent game against Hastings Boys 90-17, with Will Symes scoring three tries and Hunter Manaena scoring five.  The team head into the holidays unbeaten with a 7 – 0 record.  

IN SHOOTING 

Last Sunday thirteen students participated in round four of the CLNISS (central lower North Island secondary schools) series which was held at a very soggy Patangata Range.  

Individual highlights included Jonty Bothamley and Nathan Campbell shooting 20/20 Single Rise and Gus Denton with a 20/20 in the Single Barrel. Monty Cullwick won points score with 59/60 and along with Angus Niblet (NBHS) tied for the day with a score of 97/100. Monty unfortunately lost the shoot off to come second but it was a great result for him. 

In the teams’ event the 'A’ Squad of Jonty Bothamley, Will Lowry, Nathan Campbell, Josh Snijders and Monty Cullwick posted 442/500 to take 1st place.  

Well done to all the boys who adapted well, considering the less-than-ideal conditions.  

IN CANOE POLO 

Lindisfarne College has 2 Intermediate school canoe polo teams playing in the local Hawkes Bay competition. The Autumn league, which ran over Term 2, has just come to an end.  

The Division 2 team ended up finishing 5th in their competition. They played well in some games, but had some narrow losses in others, which meant they were a bit far down the rankings to play in the finals.  

The Division 3 team ended up finishing the round robin games in 2nd place, allowing them to play off in the final against top qualifier Heretaunga Intermediate. The boys played really well in this exciting game, with lots of good passing and boat movement and scoring first. After the lead changed hands several times, it was 4-4 at full time, so we went to golden goal. We scored first in the extra time, so won the final 5-4.  

Can Johnathan Chheur, Charles Clarkson, Luke Dodd, Danyon Dohmen, George Dorward and Blake Sprott please come up to receive your certificates. 

Three Lindisfarne College students have been representing Hawkes bay in the National league canoe polo competition which concluded with the final round over King’s birthday weekend. The boys were Ollie Fritchley in Year 9, Thomas Griffiths in Year 10 and Jacob Porter in Year 11. Ollie and Thomas represented the D1 team, and Jacob was in the C2 team. The B grade is for the best Year 13 players and adults, the A grade is for players who are in, or who are trying to make New Zealand representative teams (Open and U21) to travel to worlds.   

SCOTS COLLEGE WINTER EXCHANGE 

On Tuesday 1st XI Hockey, 1st XI Football, 1st XV Rugby and a debating team travelled down to Scots College for the annual winter exchange.  You heard from Paora earlier that the debating team were victorious, as was the Hockey 1st XI with a 5-1 win. Football and Rugby were defeated and so the with two wins and two losses, the exchange was a 2-2 draw. All teams represented the college very well and put in a huge effort on the day. Our thanks go to the coaches and managers who looked after their teams, and Acting Director of Sport Mrs Akeripa for managing the exchange.  

I’ll now ask Callum O’Keefe, Captain of 1st XI Hockey, to come up and receive the Hockey trophy. 

IN DUKE OF ED 

Congratulations to Jack Morison for achieving his Duke of Ed Silver award.  Silver is the second level of the Award, and takes a minimum of 6 months to complete.  A fantastic achievement. 

Jack can you please come forward to receive your award. 

Thank you and to everyone have a fun and safe holiday break. 

Thank you, Finn and congratulations to everyone who was mentioned in those reports. 

• Thank you for all you hard work and your ability to cope the challenges of Term 2. 

• We’ve had some awesome events, including the School production, Senor Ball, Manu Korero which we’ll celebrate next term and a heap of successes in all your winter sports teams. 

• Have an awesome break. Stay safe. Catch up on work if you need to, get those assessments done that have been set during the holidays and I look forward to seeing you all refreshed for a very busy working term 3. 

• Manawatia a Matariki  

I’ll now invite Reverend Dunnett to close our assembly in prayer. 

Article added: Friday 30 June 2023