Happy New Year to all readers and welcome 2021.
This year is going to be really exciting for the Wairarapa. The hard-working members of the Wairarapa Dark Sky Society are putting the finishing epic touches to the application to make our region a Dark Sky Reserve.
It has been a long process and we are almost there, to keep the night dark for generations to come.
But why is keeping the night sky dark, so important for Wairarapa?
Wairarapa has always had a long history of using the night sky for navigation, seasonal markers, guiding times for fishing, planting and agriculture. The Wairarapa is well known for its farming, food and produce so it makes sense that people who worked the land would use the sky to guide them through the seasons.
The Maramataka (the Māori Lunar calendar) was a vital guide for anyone to live by. There would be good times in the lunar cycle to plant particular crops by and to harvest.
Wairarapa is well known for its wild seas and clean rivers and the bounty that these bodies of water include can be guided by the moon. For example, eels were never caught during the Full Moon. The light from the Moon was too bright and eels would hide. Shellfish would be easy to collect after high tide, which is also controlled by the Moon.
The stars in the sky also let people understand the seasons. When we see Orion, The Pot, rising in the early Summer, early people sometimes saw this shape as a bird snare, a good reminder to catch birds like the keruru after it had feasted on spring berries.
Wairarapa has also a starring role in the legend of Kupe and his voyage across the sea from Hawaiki chasing the octpous Wheke. One legend tells of a battle between Kupe and the octopus in Rangiwhakaoma/ Castle Point. The great creature escaped only to meet Kupe later on. However, Kupe and his people stayed living in Wairarapa at Kawakawa/ Cape Palliser which was named from a mourning wreath made by his daughter.
Moving further on in time, Featherston has the earliest surviving man made observatory in New Zealand called the Carkeek Observatory. It was built by 1867 by amateur astronomer Stephen Carkeek using totara wood. Last year, it was added as a category 1 historic place on the New Zealand Heritage list.
The night sky is important to preserve; it tells us our cultural identity, our history as well as stories and science. Every person should have the right to look up and see the sky. It tells us where we have come from and it’s our link to the cosmos.
The good news is that it is easy to help. Turn off your outside lights when they aren’t needed and shield them so the light points down. Change the bulb colour to a warmer yellow or orange.
Keep updated with our progress on our new website, www.wairarapadarksky.nz
Becky Bateman, astronomer
