A Pou Tiaki is a traditional Māori guard post. As a progressive digital media company and member of the fourth estate, we will act as a Pou Tiaki or guard post by safeguarding our own work and society from discrimination and inequity.
We will do this through our Pou Tiaki fair representation strategy, or mahi Māori, which is a range of ongoing actions and commitments prioritising te ao Māori with a focus on underserved cultural communities.
Pou Tiaki is now one of Stuff’s four core business priorities with Customer, Data and Enterprise.
Underpinning Pou Tiaki are a number of pou including; the Pou Tiaki strategy, personnel and company-wide framework; a company charter with commitments to te ao Māori, the Treaty of Waitangi and equity principles; an updated editorial code of practice and ethics; a stuff.co.nz homepage Pou Tiaki section showcase; and increased use of te reo Māori.
In early 2022, NowNext Pou Tiaki respondents told us they aspired to a cohesive New Zealand society but many had experienced different forms of discrimination. We believe Pou Tiaki can help to achieve this aspiration, to help make Aotearoa a better place.

This year Stuff's theme for Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori was To help build confidence in everyone to use te reo Māori everyday and everywhere. As a part of this we created a one pager with some common phrases to use throughout emails and in conversation.

If you would like to download this one pager, please do so here. 

At Stuff we learned about the growing importance of Matariki by reporting on a range of events, across many regions, over many years including failed attempts to turn it into a public holiday. At a national level, the celebration of Mātahi o te tau, the Māori new year and Matariki, began in the 1990s as an integral part of Māori cultural practices used in schools, local government and Crown entities across the country.

We knew Matariki celebrations were incrementally helping to shift positive societal attitudes towards using more te reo and tikanga Māori in everyday life. We wanted to do more to support this shift.

So we launched our own campaign in July 2020 to help turn Matariki into New Zealand’s first indigenous public holiday. Our campaign helped increase the signatures of two petitions presented to parliament, with Labour, the Green Party and Te Pāti Māori making election promises to back Matariki. The re-elected Labour Government turned Matariki into a statutory holiday in April 2022 and it was an historic moment when we all enjoyed our first Māori public holiday on Friday, 24 June 2022.

What is Matariki?

Matariki, the star cluster, is a marker of time which symbolises an ancient tradition still practised throughout the Pacific. The observance was brought to Aotearoa around a thousand years ago where it has evolved, like all unique indigenous Māori customs, to become what it is today. And, it will continue to change as more people in New Zealand make it an integral part of their own identities and cultural practices.

Mātahi o te tau, the Māori New Year isn’t one day but the period of time marking the end and beginning of the annual cycle of the Matariki star cluster being clearly visible in the sky. 

Matariki can be seen for most of the year, reaching its peak in the hot season of Raumati and its low point during Hōtoke the cold season, when Matariki dips below the horizon to disappear from sight for a few weeks. We mark mātahi o te tau, the Māori new year, when Matariki rises and is visible again in the north-east.

Whānau, marae, hapū and iwi across the country use their own unique ways to mark Matariki, some use other stars such as Puanga and Rehua.

Matariki is all about connection. How people connect to each other in the past, present and future, the physical and metaphysical realms, and the environment. It is a reflection of the maramataka, the traditional Māori way of life. Using ceremony, it is a time to gather, remember those who have passed, give thanks to the environment and how it sustains us, reflect on the past and plan for the future.