Matariki is on its way once again, and this year the tenth annual Kahu Youth celebration on the Wanaka lakefront will have an exciting new element.

Kahu Youth is teaming up with local Sarah Sweet to put together ‘Among Us’, a diverse multi-medium art exhibition which will tell the story of the Wanaka community through the theme ‘hoki whakamuri, kia anga whakamua’ – look to the past in order to forge the future.

Matariki marks the Maori New Year, and Kahu Youth has been celebrating the occasion with the Wanaka community since 2010.

Beginning as a casual pot-luck meal in the Wanaka Arts Centre attended by around 30 locals, the annual Matariki celebration in Wanaka has grown to become a large community event featuring two huge bonfires, performances from local primary and secondary students and kapa haka groups, arts and workshops, fireworks and a hangi which feeds well over 500 people. 

Sarah said the exhibition will be in keeping with the Matariki event’s focus on education, culture, diversity, people’s visions and goals, and a recognition of the past.

It will give locals, long-term or short, the opportunity to build a “time capsule” to collect information on “who the people are among us,” which can be maintained year after year, Sarah said. 

Matariki celebrations in Wanaka, which started as a small affair, is now a large, annual event featuring a hangi. PHOTO: Wanaka App

“From council’s yearly planning to Research First’s recent call-out to the youth of Clutha, everyone is trying to find out who our people are. This creative event puts an emphasis on those who want to share who they are and what their story is.”

The exhibition will build on last year’s 2.4m x 1.2m collaborative community mural project, led by local artist Stephen Martyn Welch. 

Already in the works for this year is a poetry performance, a live mural painting and a collective collage from some of the local pre-schools.

With prizes available from sponsors such as The Next Chapter, Bike Glendhu and Snow Farm NZ, anyone with an interest in participating in ‘Among Us’ through any chosen medium can email [email protected]. 

“It could be absolutely anything,” Sarah said. “We want to make it work for everyone.”

This year’s Matariki celebration will take place on the foreshore near the Dinosaur Park on Saturday, June 19.