Aronui Announces The Return Of The Matariki Drone Show

Press Release – Aronui Arts Festival
The free outdoor event that will feature hundreds of drones painting stories across the night sky in a mesmerising blend of light, sound, and narration created by Ngti Whakaue/ Te Arawa artists.
The stars are set to align once again above Kouramāwhitiwhiti (Rotorua Lakefront), as Aronui Arts Festival prepares for the launch of a brand new drone show this Matariki June 19 & 20.
The free outdoor event that will feature hundreds of drones painting stories across the night sky in a mesmerising blend of light, sound, and narration created by Ngāti Whakaue/ Te Arawa artists. The performance- set to begin at 8pm each night- will honour those who have passed in the last year since the rising and setting of Matariki, lifting their memory to the stars where they will be forever remembered by their loved ones.
'It's more than a show — it's a spiritual moment,' says Mataia Keepa, the Rotorua-based tohunga reo on the creative team. 'It's a time to reflect, to grieve, and to remember together under one sky.'
Last year, Aronui's drone show attracted over 30,000 people, combining cutting-edge technology with ancient knowledge in a world-first tribute to the Māori New Year. Aronui CE/ Artistic Director Cian Elyse White says the positive response from the community inspired a bolder return;
'The energy last year was electric- there was such a positive vibe in the city, with people travelling from across the motu to see the show. Matariki holds deep meaning for Māori, and it's wonderful to see the new year being embraced by the wider community'.
This year, tohunga reo/ taonga puoro artist Dr. Anaha Hiini joins the team, crafting a live soundscape using traditional Māori instruments to accompany the visual storytelling alongside taonga puoro artist Riki Bennett. For the first time, the entire performance- narrative and music- will be broadcast live on Te Arawa FM, expanding its reach across the region.
'I want it to illuminate the stories, meanings, and traditions behind this sacred time. The show should offer both education and inspiration, helping people not only to understand Matariki, but to feel its presence, history and relevance in our lives today' says Dr. Hiini.
The Matariki drone show is the centrepiece of a larger celebration. From 5pm to 9pm each evening, an expanded Rotorua Night Market will showcase food, crafts, and stalls from past Aronui Māori Market vendors alongside regular favourites – turning the lakefront into a vibrant place to spend the Matariki long weekend.

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Short story for Matariki Weekend: It followed her home, by Jessica Hinerangi Thompson- Carr

They lived in an overpriced flat two blocks from the beach. Peter, Nathan, Luke and Harley all took commerce, Isla studied environmental management, and Kiri had enrolled in marine science. Kiri met Isla through Te Rōpū Māori association, and as soon as she'd expressed needing a place to live, Isla had invited her in. The boys accepted her quickly, they thought she was fun because she could do keg stands. Kiri didn't like beer, but she wanted friends, so she signed the lease. They held flat parties, large and small, at least three nights a week. As the university workload increased, the parties did not wind down. They strained through their studies, the promise of a box and some beats their carrot dangling on a stick at the end of the day. * Almost every day of first semester was spent at the beach with drinks. Kiri walked to the rock pools while the others lay in the dunes, tipping her beer onto the sand when they weren't looking. She crouched like a shag and studied the eco systems inside. All her lunchtimes at high school had been spent in the corner of the library reading about octopus and crabs. Her only friend had been the seventy year old Librarian Mrs Lauder. Kiri wanted to be liked. So badly. She didn't want to be Koretake Kiri anymore, the sore nickname given by her old peers up North. Koretake Kiri couldn't answer pātai in class, she froze up. Koretake Kiri couldn't do a job without dropping something. Koretake Kiri didn't know social cues, she rambled while others rolled their eyes. She didn't know what clothes to wear or how to apply makeup, or party like they did on TV. But Ōtepoti was her clean slate. No one knew her down here. She was determined to learn, and fake what she could. She'd done the whole rom com transformation thing before arriving. Got a fresh haircut. Plucked her eye brows. Filled her wardrobe with Glassons attire. She knew to play the billboard hot 100 when the aux cord came her way. She watched beauty youtubers with her breakfast. She found ways to bond with her flatmates. Isla loved One Direction, American Horror Story, and spending her afternoons scrolling Tumblr, so Kiri watched all the episodes at night through her headphones and made a Tumblr account dedicated to Zayn. They lay side by side on Isla's bed eating chips and re-blogging for hours. The boys loved video games. Sometimes they let her play Mario Kart or Call of Duty with them. She was good enough to last a few rounds, and mimicked how her cousins talked up home when they played. 'Kerri! Oi! Don't shoot at me!' 'It's Kiri.' 'Sorry Kerri. What the hell what are you doing?!' 'Your mum.' 'Kerri! Where are you going now?' 'Get wrecked scrub. It's Kiri.' They all chuckled and she hid her smile with a shrug. She had to limit her reo use. Isla seemed uncomfortable when Kiri tried to kōrero Māori with her outside of uni. The boys didn't know anything beyond Kia Ora and the national anthem. She tried to teach them a little. 'Kei te pehea koe?' 'Huh?' 'It means how are you? You could say anything back like pai for good, pōuri for sad, ngenge for tired…' 'Oh. I'm good, thanks.' Isla did most of the cleaning, and Kiri tried to help. There was no chore chart. The boys didn't seem to notice the filth. Peter liked to watch Isla vacuum and Harley liked to watch Kiri cook her meals. Kiri always gave him a portion of what she made. He was the most attractive of the boys, though she'd learned the phrase 'don't screw the crew,' she couldn't help flirting with him, seeing every glance he gave her as something meaningful. She began to feel at home in the flat, each room always loud and lively. The location was ideal, the ocean a stone's throw away so she could study marine life anytime. She loved the parties, things she'd never been invited to before. She could blend in at parties, beneath the aluminium hum, revelling in the spell of false friendliness that everyone fell under. * Her 19th birthday rolled around. They spent the day on the beach. The boys chugged beers in between a game of touch and Isla watched on her towel sipping vodka cruisers. Kiri went to the rock pools. Her māmā called. 'Hari Huritau e te tau! I pehea āu akoranga?' 'Pai. Good,' Kiri didn't mention the C she'd received on her recent essay, or how she'd missed three tutorials because she was too hungover, 'I'm learning a lot.' 'Me āu hoanoho?' 'They're really cool,' she didn't confess about the excessive drinking or the lack of a chore chart. 'Kōrero Māori to me my girl. Why don't you kōrero Māori?' 'Everything is pai māmā, kei te pai noa. It's all good down here. I'll be up to visit end of the year.' She hung up and stared into the water at her feet. Her tears fed the pool, and movement caught her eye. Something hid at the bottom under the murk and weed. She felt it watching her. A rounded shadow, adjusting itself deeper into the rock. 'Kiri! Come on!' It was dinner time. Everyone stumbled back to the flat tipsy. The back of Kiri's head buzzed. Her teeth tingled. She noticed something slink around in her peripheral. * Kiri twisted her body in her mirror. As she tucked the back of her cami into her jeans she noticed it. Beside her bed on the floor, pressed against the wall, a shiny wet blob. She screamed. Isla came running, 'What is it?' 'Look!' Kiri pointed. 'I don't know … what is that?' Isla peered down. It was the size of a bowling ball, pale pink, and slightly translucent. Like silicone but squishier, like jelly but sturdier. Kiri's insides flipped. It had followed her home, she knew it. She reached out. 'Don't touch it!' Kiri sniffed the smallest spot of wet at the tip of her finger, 'I think it's from the beach.' 'Oh god that's disgusting.' Isla stormed through the flat. 'Harley! Did you put something in Kiri's room? Peter! Do you know anything about this? Boys! Is it a sick joke? You guys are so rank.' The boys came to look, shaking their heads, scrunching their noses. 'I have no idea what that thing is.' 'Alien as!' Peter marvelled, offering Kiri a beer. 'What do I do? How do I get it out?' 'Shovel it out?' 'We don't have a shovel.' They used an oven tray to scoop the mucilaginous mass off the floor. It was heavy. Kiri and Peter had to hold each side of the tray. They walked sideways down the street to the beach. It schlooped onto the sand, rippling at the drop, then stilled. 'Do you think it's dead?' Kiri whispered. 'Maybe,' Peter peered down, 'I don't know if it was ever alive.' The pink glowed in the setting sun. It looked too bright to be dead. * Although it was her birthday party, no one noticed when she disappeared from it. So many strangers filled the house. Kiri collapsed onto her bed and waited for sleep to come. Her whole body was coiled in taut uncertainty. She rolled side to side. She stared at the ceiling, then she stared at the floor where the blob had been. The jelly stain hadn't dried. Kiri reached out from her bed and wiped her finger across it. She sniffed. It was an odd smell. A little sickening, a little moreish. She rubbed her nose and finger raw into the dawn, rubbing and sniffing, rubbing and sniffing. She couldn't stop. * It began in her puku. Groanings like wrecked ships swaying in ocean trenches, whale song echoing down to her pelvis. She had to leave her lectures early, mortified. She skipped flat movie nights and kept to her room, researching IBS and colon cancer. Student health said it was trapped gas and prescribed some medication. It didn't help. Kiri spent her time curled up facing the wall where the blob had been. It had left a permanent stain on the skirting board which still smelled. Some nights she woke kneeling on the carpet, face pressed against it, inhaling desperately. Sometimes she caught herself licking it. She gained the fresher five and more, despite diet attempts. Her belly, hips, behind, and breasts, all bubbled out from her bones. She attended step and spin classes at the gym, stopped eating fast food and sweets, and shrunk her portions. But her flesh kept expanding. * 'Don't you think that's a bit revealing?' Harley scanned her outfit one night. Kiri wore a sheer long sleeve over a v-neck singlet and jeans. 'Are you serious?' 'I dunno … I can see a lot.' Before she could think what to reply, he left her. Kiri swore at her reflection; scolded herself for not telling him where to put his eyes, for not defending herself. She consulted Isla who was hacking burnt crust off a pan in the kitchen, a rare cooking attempt by Peter. 'Don't ever let a man tell you what your outfit is or isn't. You look great.' 'Is it too revealing though? Harley said-' 'You've just gained a little weight and guys can't compute that our bodies aren't flat forever. Ignore him.' Their thirsty Thursday proceeded. They went to the clubs and returned by 3am, congregating in the lounge to guzzle water and review the night. Kiri settled on an arm chair and just listened. She was content for the moment, until she felt Harley's eyes on her. 'Jesus put your breasts away, Kerri.' He said it loudly so everyone else stopped talking and looked at him, then looked at her. 'They're actually massive.' 'Don't look at them if they bother you so much.' 'It's hard not to when you've got them out like that.' Kiri stood and walked as calmly as she could to her room. She checked herself in the mirror. Her skin was coral red and her eyes shone with shock. But she was covered up. The boys had never commented on their bodies before. At least not in front of them. She tucked herself into bed and pawed at the blob wall, struggling to sleep. She recalled her notes from the last few lectures she'd attended. Shelter seeking behaviour in intertidal crabs … the collapse of orange roughy fisheries… H. rotundifrons and P. elongatus species scuttled up and down her walls. Sleek tuna, narrow sharks, and burnished barracudas swam circles on her ceiling. * Her appetite evolved. She couldn't starve herself anymore. She was sick of eating nothing. So she started eating everything; kinas, mussels, shrimp, tarakihi, red gurnard, tuna, snapper, squid, prawns, oysters … Nights when she'd run out of kai she ran to the beach and dug frantically in the dark for pipi till her fingers turned blue. Sometimes she wanted the kai so desperately, she didn't slow to cook it. She slipped fillets of raw fish down her throat with ease. The bones were no obstacle. During exam season, Kiri's skin turned pink all over, like sunburn, but the days were dark and cold. Small bumps burgeoned along her arms and legs. She returned to student health and they said it was eczema caused by stress. She lathered foundation over the limbs she could not cover in clothing, and beat herself silly every morning with the beauty blender. Every day she was bumpier, pinker, thirstier, hungrier. She couldn't escape the unbearable sensation of dryness. In the shower she scrubbed herself raw, rotating between a loofah, exfoliant gloves and a pumice stone. Whispers outside the door. She caught 'being so weird …' and 'flat meeting'. It was happening, she sighed, they were seeing Koretake Kiri. * Exams passed, and celebrations commenced with more gusto than ever. Everyone went to Castle Street. Kiri followed her flatmates trying not to feel like the unwanted one who clung too close. They mostly ignored her, except Harley who'd snorted something that made him extremely friendly. Kiri disregarded him. Of all of them, he was the last one she wanted to talk to. He hadn't said sorry, just pretended everything was fine. She felt his eyes on her throughout the night. She tried to elbow them off, jumping from group to group, mooching smokes and laughing at anything. Hungrier. Thirstier. She walked into random flats and raided the cupboards in the kitchens, stuffing handfuls of cereal and wads of bread into her mouth. No one noticed. In the bathrooms she held her tongue under the running faucet until someone banged on the door. She felt she was drowning in filthy bass and broken glass. She wandered around the corner onto Howe street where bodies thinned out. There she found a couch crouched in the middle of the road like a dare. 'You wouldn't,' Harley's voice behind her jeered. She turned to see him holding out a lighter. She felt an absurd impulse to impress him. She wanted to show him she was more than round and bumpy. Hungry and thirsty. Anxious and useless. She snatched the lighter and flicked a tiny flame alive. It caught the fabric and ran like a dog off its leash up the upholstery. They jumped back, but Kiri caught a whip of heat on her arm. Harley laughed and clapped as she ran away. The back of her head buzzed. Her arm stung, her gums ached and her vision shimmied. She ordered a ride back to the flat and made her way to the beach. Kiri stumbled down the dunes into the black water and hunched over, retching. Something fell out of her mouth. Rushing red on her tongue. She searched the sand at her feet and clutched what could have been wheel shells or cats eyes. But they were teeth. Kiri sank down and let the cold clamp its jaws into her body. The buzzing drained out of her under the press of the tide. Her arm cooled and she let the current shuck her back and forth. She released her teeth, and fell asleep in the steady shore for a few hours. She would have stayed all night if her puku hadn't woken her. * Still hungry. Trekking slowly back home, her feet dragged on the concrete, breath heavy. It was hard to work her lungs out of the water now. Her face slipped downward. She stumbled into the flat and leaned against the wall in the hallway, listening. She slunk into her bedroom and bent down to greet the blob wall. 'Hey,' someone whispered from her bed, 'I texted you.' Harley sat up and patted the space beside him. Kiri lurched forward, her legs heavy sponge, grabbed the edge of the bed and gurgled. 'Was that your stomach?' Harley started laughing, but stopped when his eyes adjusted. She hovered over him. Her eyes had sunk into a softened skull. Her mouth pinched to a lumpy centre. Her hair had melted to mucus. Her thick makeup had been washed away revealing the dermal branchiae that erupted all over her skin. Before Harley could scream, before he could make any move to escape, she had him. It felt sublime to be completely spilled out. She smothered his face with her top ray, and wrapped the rest of her around his middle. Her new suction disc slowly pried his stomach open at the belly button, it was as easy as peeling back the wrapper of a chocolate bar. She relished the warmth of his intestines. She averted her own stomach, her new centre, into his, and began to eat. Leisurely, she digested most of his innards. When she was done, she released his husk and her stomach retreated back into her body. It had been a silent feast. She oozed to the floor and latched herself onto the wall. * Isla knocked several times on Kiri's door the next day. She expected a reply eventually, but when night fell and Kiri hadn't emerged, she let herself in. There was no evidence of the previous night. No body on the bed, no blood or acids on the sheets. But there was a star-shaped blob suctioned to the wall. 'Another one?' Isla sighed, kneeling down to inspect the organism. Before she went to fetch the oven tray, she couldn't help herself. She reached out and touched it. Asked what was on her mind when she wrote the story, the author replied, 'This story was inspired by my own and many of my friends first year of university at Otago. The pressure of trying to fit in and force friendships when inside you're a growing turmoil. The drinking culture, the anxiety, pretending to be an adult when you're just a child fresh out of high school. I had a horrible relationship with my body, my sexuality, my identity, in my first few years. I wanted release, to spill out, but I was terrified of what was in me. This story is about the pressure that builds up when you try to repress it, and revenge of the body and nature. 'It is also inspired by starfish. A friend once walked me through how truly terrifying they are, and if they were to grow larger and come for us, we would be doomed.'

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The 21-year-old gearing up for a bellringing marathon

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RNZ News

14 hours ago

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Light trail to celebrate Matariki goes on display

Auckland's Te Ara Rama Matariki Light Trail. Photo: Supplied A reflective light trail celebrating Matariki is on display for two weeks in the Auckland CBD, stretching for two kilometres from Myers Park to the waterfront. Auckland Council said the trail is guided by light and sound effects created by Māori artists, celebrating wai (water) - including the waters of Te Waihorotiu stream, the Waitematā Harbour and the life-giving value of rain. It said the trail is designed to allow people to pause and reflect on the rich history of the city centre. The trail begins with a stairway at Myers Park, designed by Tessa Harris (Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki), with patterns depicting pātiki (flounder), accompanied by the sounds of Waimahara. Turning on to Queen Street, a series of art installations tell the ancient stories of place - including Hotoriu - a nine-metre kaitiaki that symbolically guards the ancestral river, and the Waharoa (archway) in Aotea Square by artist Selwyn Murupaenga. The area carries the historic footprints of local Māori tribes who have thrived in the space for hundreds of years. Towards the harbour, a Kawau Tikitiki (a cormorant/shag) is suspended in flight above the street, and anyone visiting the area can walk beneath Te Wehenga between Fort Street and Shortland Street. Meanwhile, the downtown part of the light trail begins at Te Komititanga, the public square by Britomart train station. A brand new trail of light installations and lightboxes links Te Komititanga along Galway Street to Takutai Square and Māhuhu ki te Rangi Park (near Spark Arena). In Takutai Square, a light and sound installation by Arama Tamariki-Enu, Angus Muir and Catherine Ellis depicts patterns mimicking the star-like shapes of the Matariki cluster. An accompanying soundscape brings the sounds of the foreshore and forest before the modern city was founded. The Tūhono light projections in Takutai Square will play every evening from Thursday 19 June to Thursday 10 July, with a seven-minute light and sound sequence every quarter-hour from 5pm until 10pm. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.