Slow-Small Media for the Weekend #8

(Above: a wintery table top and typical scene in our whare.)

Mānawatia a Matariki!

I hope you have a restful, peaceful day ahead for this special holiday. Today’s digest is Matariki themed. I have some friends coming over for a huge pot of soup and some sharing from the heart.

A ‘Matariki banger’

To get us rolling, here’s a sweet short (4mins) documentary about the making of a new Matariki song:

‘When Professor Rangi Matamua, Rob Ruha, Troy Kingi and Kaylee Bell link up — we get a Matariki banger.’

(For northern hemisphere readers, Matariki is the Māori New Year in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It happens around the winter solstice when the the Matariki star cluster, known in English as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters, is brightest in the sky. The names o the stars in Māori are:  Matariki, Pōhutukawa, Waitī, Waitā, Waipuna-ā-rangi, Tupuānuku, Tupuārangi, Ururangi, and Hiwa-i-te-rangi.)

A beautiful essay about brief but strong connections, grief and lessons from a marae kitchen

I’m part-way through Nadine Hura’s wonderful collection of essays, ‘Slowing the Sun’. I have to keep pausing because it is powerful writing. So much grief, so much truth, so much beauty.

This week she published this essay. I loved how she conveys the fun but tough environment of the marae kitchen.

I’ve done a bit of time in marae kitchens myself and you learn fast to keep your head down, get on with any work assigned to you and stay outta the way! It’s also where all the good stories and gossip are…and the place to be, really.

A couple of recipes

Given it’s Matariki, here’s one for traditional Māori Fry Bread

It’s kind of like a doughnut…but it can be served savoury or sweet.

The marae I had the privilege to eat at sometimes as a kid used to serve it piping hot, drizzled with golden syrup and fresh runny cream.

Can you imagine the decadence?

& for a hearty dish which uses a native plant, here’s a stunning recipe from Dunedin food writer Alby Hailes, Turmeric roast potatoes with crispy kawakawa & brown butter whip I haven’t tried this one yet…but it’s on my want-to-try list.

I’m intrigued to try the crispy kawakawa. Frying sage leaves in butter is an extraordinary thing so I imagine the kawakawa would develop a similar spicy umami.

The delight of hearing Hone Tuwhare reading his poem Papa-Tu-A-Nuku

National treasure Hone Tuwhare died back in 2008. He read his work aloud with such spice, intensity, joy.

Here you can hear him read his short and lovely poem, Papa-Tu-A-Nuku (earth mother.)

‘We are massaging the ricked

back of the land

with our sore but ever loving feet’

It’s worth listening to for his ‘aaah’ before ‘we love her’ which doesn’t appear in the printed version of the poem.

A beautiful story about a Kapiti teacher who guided his students to hand build a Free Kai Cafe for their local community

Teacher, Adi Leason wanted to engage his teenaged students in something meaningful; hands-on learning that would result in a community asset. Here’s the story of their project.

& Here’s a short Te Ao Māori News clip about the cafe.

(I visited the Leason family permaculture garden some years back. Check out that post here.)

Affordable art: the Matariki edition

Here’s three Matariki-themed things for your walls. (As always, to be deemed ‘affordable art’ it has to be less than NZD $50.)

A Matariki wall tile from Raglan pottery, Monster Company. ($46)

Ceramic Matariki stars by Borrowed Earth ($28 each.)

A poster of the Matariki Constellation ($30)

Or, for no money at all, here’s a handy YouTube clip on how to fold a Matariki star from two leaves of harakeke.

A song and video to melt your heart

This song, Polytunnel, by UK folk singer Richard Dawson, is so spare, simple and sweet…with his vulnerable, slightly off-key singing. It’s all about the joys of gardening an allotment and community spirit.

And the video! Oh! The video.

Please take the time to watch the video. It stars various members of his allotment and is a sheer joy to see all these happy, connected gardeners. I hope you love it as much as I do.

(Listen to the whole slow-growing Slow-Small playlist here. It grows at the rate of one song per week and will keep growing for as long as I write these digests.)

(Above: kumara soup + feta, smoked trout cream cheese dip with carrot sticks and nuts.)

Keep warm, beauties.

Eat soup, find your gratitude, take some time to reflect on how you’re doing at this mid-point of a fast-moving, nerve-rattling year. x