Why kite flying is central to Matariki

The lack of kites in the air over Matariki is a big problem for Harko Brown, an expert in traditional Māori games and kite making. How else will those who have died in the past year find their way to the stars if not for the string of a kite?

“Lots of iwi believe that the kites are a way for the dead spirits to enter the heavens.”

Māori used kites for many purposes including fishing, surveillance through divination, carrying away grief and sorrow, and predicting the weather. But their most important role was —and is for some Māori— a conduit between the physical and spiritual realms, bringing messages to the deceased or specially prepared kumara to sustain Matariki for the coming year.

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Brown has flown traditional Māori kites before millions of spectators at some of the biggest kite festivals in the world in Europe. He has also written books on Māori games, with kite flying as a subset.

However, Māori kite expertise and the role of kites during Matariki fly under the radar in New Zealand. Brown wants to see a revitalisation of kite flying during the Māori New Year, whether it is traditional kites made from harakeke (flax) and manuka wood or a nylon kite bought from the Warehouse.

“Forget about getting too much into the details, just get the kites up and represent something important to us,” says Brown (Ngāti Raukaw, Ngāti Whātua Tainui) who is based in Kerikeri, Northland.

He says that the near-loss of kite flying “is like the cutting of an arm” for Māori culture.

“That is how we celebrated our technology and got our tupuna (ancestors) to the stars.”

Brown knows of a few pockets around New Zealand where Māori kite making is alive and well, including in Northland and Gisborne. Ironically, he and his father learned from an Australian swagman who learned kite making from various iwis around New Zealand. Brown’s father became so taken with the idea of flight that he went on to get his recreational pilot's license.

A simple kite in a rectangle shape takes Brown a few days to make, starting with collecting the fibres. Manuka, toitoi and strips of kareao are used to make the frame. Raupo is used to make the cover or the sail. Fibre from the harakeke is spun into a line. Feathers can be added to the tail.

“Test your kite and the feathers could be used like... a foil on an airplane wing,”

These days, few people have the know-how or the time to make a kite the traditional way.

“I put it down to everyone is time-poor now,” says Brown.

That’s where someone like Perrin Melchior comes into the picture. Melchior opened Kiteworks, an Auckland kite and repair shop, more than 30 years ago. Planes, rockets and kites captivated him since he was a child.

“It can be a sedate family activity,” he says of kite flying.

The store sells everything from a single-string kite that a child might fly, to two-stringed kites for more maneuverability to power kites that might drag you through the sand at the beach. Melchior also repairs kites, including those used in kite surfing.

“It's very easy to get a bad experience as a child with a kite,” says Melchior.

“You can go buy a kite, take it to the park, and it doesn't work, and then you sort of think for the rest of your life that kites are really hard to fly.”

The ideal time and place to fly a kite is low tide on the beach when there is plenty of room, he says. Onshore is the ideal wind direction and the wind should be steady and strong, but not blowing a gale.

Avoid basins, which are essentially mini valleys. Don’t fly your kite near power lines or trees.

Kite flying makes it into Civil Aviation Rules which forbid you from flying kites more than 120 metres in the air and within four kilometres of a helipad or airport. For whatever reason, you cannot fly a kite at night.

One of Perrin’s favourite ways to fly a kite is to walk up Auckland’s often windy west coast beaches with a kite flying up behind him.

“Some people always have their phones with them. I always have a kite with me."