Matariki Around the World

Book Authors Miriama Kamo and Rangi Matamua
Book Illustrator Isobel Joy Te Aho-White
Rights Available World excl. New Zealand and Australia

The Matariki cluster (or Pleiades) is known by many different names and is seen and celebrated by many cultures around the world. This book features 21 stories: 9 of which highlight the Māori Matariki stars, while the others reference the stories about this cluster from different cultures, from the Pacific Islands to Australia, Asia, the Americas, Europe and Africa.

This beautifully illustrated collection of Matariki stories will be a resource to treasure in homes, schools and libraries across Aotearoa New Zealand and the wider world.

• Co-authored by Professor Rangi Matamua, who is widely respected as Aotearoa’s expert on things Matariki, with well-known Māori broadcaster Miriama Kamo.

• Includes stories from Aotearoa New Zealand, Cook Islands, Tahiti, Australia, Hawai’i, Japan, China, India, Africa, Greece, Scandinavia, and the Americas.

• Isobel Joy Te Aho-White skilfully weaves Te Ao Māori into her beautiful illustrations.

Awards
2022 Storylines Notable Non-fiction Award

About the Authors
Miriama Kamo is an award-winning journalist. She is the anchor of TVNZ’s flagship current affairs programme Sunday and Māori current affairs programme Marae. Miriama has worked on many of TVNZ’s key programmes including 1 News as a newsreader. She is also a keen writer who is published in Metro, NZ Herald and The Spinoff. Miriama’s first children’s book with Scholastic was the popular The Stolen Stars of Matariki.

Rangi Mātāmua is a New Zealand indigenous studies and Māori cultural astronomy academic of Tūhoe descent. He is the first Māori to win a Prime Minister’s Science Prize, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi. Rangi holds extensive knowledge about our skies, star clusters, galaxies and planets and is on a mission to disseminate star lore left to him by his tīpuna Te Kōkau and Rāwiri Te Kōkau.

About the Illustrator
Isobel (Izzy) Joy Te-Aho White (Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Kahungungu ki te Wairoa) is a freelance graphic artist and illustrator with a passion for the natural world and te ao Māori. She specialises in symbolism and metaphor, and her work is influenced by mythology and folk tales, botanical illustration and life experience. Izzy currently lives and works in Pōneke/Wellington.