Matariki Invitations
“Matariki holds great importance for Māori, however, the star cluster is known across the world. It has been used to guide people since the beginning of humankind. All around the world, the star cluster has different names, different stories, different mahi (jobs), and even different numbers of stars. It’s known by names such as Pleiades, Subaru, Makali’i and many more. But what ties all these stories together is that Matariki has been watching over us all, wherever we are in the world.”
- Matariki Around the World, Miriama Kamo and Rangi Matamua (2022)
The countdown is on to the celebration of Matariki on Aotearoa New Zealand’s national day (14 July) that signals the arrival of the Māori New Year.
Professor Rangiānehu Mātāmua ONZM says Matariki has three major elements. Firstly, to remember those who have passed, secondly to celebrate who we are, and thirdly to plan for a new and bright future. The cover of his book ‘Matariki: The Star of the Year’ accompanies this blog. This wonderful book explores what Matariki was in a traditional sense, so it can be understood and applied to help us as modern-day Wayfinders.
In our webinar and blogs about ‘Wayfinding for Ethical Investment’ Professor Chellie Spiller included the question: ‘What kind of ancestor do you want to be?’ from the book of that title for which she was interviewed. This question generated a lot of interest and resonated with many people.
As a personal investment adviser, I have the honour of helping clients reflect on the legacy they want to leave for future generations. Most ethical investors consider this in terms of both how they live and how they invest. Reflecting the importance of this question of legacy, the theme for Ethical Investment Week 2023 October 1st to 7th is ‘Building a Sustainable Legacy’.
Following the advice of Professor Mātāmua, in this blog, I remember two remarkable women and the sustainable legacy they left. I invite you, in the spirit of Matariki, to take time to reflect on the positive impact of those who have passed. I also share some of my Matariki celebrations, plans, wishes and hopes for the future.
Remembering Jane Marsden
As I began to write this blog I thought of Jane Marsden (Ngāi Takoto), who I was blessed to be guided by for many years.
Just as I was reflecting on Jane’s legacy, I received an email from Chellie saying she had been asked by a senior New Zealand leader for permission “to use the story of your spiritual aunty with her quote ‘The whales are crying…’ in this year’s Annual Report”. The leader had read Chellie’s chapter in ‘Ngā Kete Mātauranga: Māori scholars at the research interface’. Described as a “beautiful and transformative book” the “perspectives provide insight for all New Zealanders into how mātauranga is positively influencing the Western-dominated disciplines of knowledge in the research sector”.
The leader said we “are trying to make plain the challenges facing Aotearoa and the world, and I feel your Aunty’s view captures much of what we feel”. Here is the extract:
“Whaea Jane Marsden would often tell me that Aotearoa is a beacon, a lighthouse of the world: ‘In Aotearoa we have a BIG responsibility to the global world in every aspect of it. In the environment, in what’s happening to our whales, to the sea … everything.’
“I recall a time when Aunty Jane, my husband Rodger and I were in the Hokianga standing out on the jetty. Aunty Jane stood quietly looking out across the harbour, then her head dropped to her chest and for the longest time she stayed there bowed in silence before slowly turning to head back to shore.
“As we walked, she said, ‘The whales are crying; they are weeping’, because of what is happening to the environment.
“Not long after that conversation, she rang to tell me about a dream she’d had. In the dream Aunty Jane saw a small vanguard of people at the front of a large procession, then a spark flew up into the air from the leading vanguard and ignited the whole march.
“This vision, she explained, pointed to the need for humanity to work together to help our world heal.”
I am deeply grateful to Chellie and to Aunty Jane for sharing this wisdom.
Aunty Jane was a big fan of ethical and sustainable business. I have a lovely memory of sitting with her as Al Gore addressed a packed auditorium and sea of mainly businesspeople at The University of Auckland. Jane stood out on many counts, not least her powerful presence. At the conclusion of his speech, she was one of the few people in the audience Al Gore went out of his way to engage with personally.
Jane liked to talk with me about the spiritual dimension of money and business. I had explored this in my PhD and many other contexts. However, she was keen for me to learn more about theology, and so before I knew it I found myself enrolled in a Theology 100 course and her helping me with assignments! To go from a PhD and lecturer back to being a Stage 1 student was quite sobering, but it proved to be an enriching experience.
Jane also encouraged me to train as a Spiritual Director – an in-depth two-year journey seldom undertaken by a full-time investment and businessperson. That advice was partly inspired by Jane’s experience as the wife of the Rev. Māori Marsden (1924-1993) who was a tohunga, scholar, minister and philosopher. Māori and Jane were close friends of Chellie’s mother, Monica, and her father, Tony, who trained to be a minister at the same time. The book ‘The Woven Universe: Selected Writings of Māori Marsden’ is a must-read for anyone committed to attaining true wisdom. The back cover of that book includes sage advice that goes to the core of the spirituality Jane embodied:
A truly educated person is not one who knows a bit about everything, or everything about something, but one who is in touch with his centre. He will be in no doubt about his convictions, about his view on the meaning and purpose of life, and his own life will show a sureness of touch that stems from inner clarity. That is true wisdom.
Remembering Hazel Henderson
Another remarkable woman I have been honoured to be guided by since we first met in the 1980s was Hazel Henderson.
Hazel passed away recently and was remembered in an exquisite New York Times tribute.
Here is an extract: “... a self-taught environmentalist and futurist who became an apostle of the green economy and of socially responsible investing, and who popularized the slogan “think globally, act locally,” died — or “went virtual,” as she would have put it. She was 89’:
“Ridiculing conventional economists — and relishing her reputation in some quarters as a crank — she sought to redefine gross national product as a measure of prosperity not merely to encompass material success on the bases of the cash value of goods and services produced annually, but also to include health, social, educational and other benchmarks that, as Senator Robert F. Kennedy declared in 1968 after being briefed by Ms. Henderson, ‘make life worthwhile’.
“She was instrumental in pressing for qualitative measurements suitable for people focused on a democratic economy, in contrast to the dominant monetized yardsticks of the corporate economy, the consumer activist Ralph Nader said in a phone interview, ‘and through networking she spread those measures throughout the international civic community’.
“…She wrote nine books, perhaps most notably “The Politics of the Solar Age” (1981), which heralded the environmental movement’s embrace of sustainable energy sources as a substitute for fossil fuels like coal and oil.
“Ms. Henderson also wrote “Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy” (2007), later the basis of a PBS television series…”
I met with Hazel on many occasions internationally. One of these meetings was at a conference at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland in October 1987. Titled ‘From Organisation to Organism: A New View of Business and Management’ this conference featured many international pioneers of ethical business and ethical investment. The need for the ethically based approach Hazel and other presenters were advocating for was highlighted the following week when I was on Wall Street, New York as the sharemarket crashed.
We were also both deeply interested in the concepts of ‘Spirituality and Consciousness’ in the realm of business and would attend the same conferences on that theme.
Back in 1999 Hazel generously accepted my invitation to speak at the Inaugural Conference of New Zealand Businesses for Social Responsibility (NZBSR). Chaired by Dick Hubbard, NZBSR was instrumental in challenging the shortcomings of conventional business and investment that then dominated the NZ landscape. Back then, most in business and investment dismissed ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) and ethical investment. While these ideas and practices have now become mainstream, vocal critics still get plenty of airtime.
As a founding director and then Executive Director of NZBSR and having just completed my PhD in ethical investment and business that included insights from Hazel, I was keen for New Zealand audiences to hear her message. She made the case for a ‘Bill of Responsibilities’ for investors: “Investors don't just have rights, they also have responsibilities”. Unfortunately, a Bill of Responsibilities for investors has not been implemented. However, many investors now see the wisdom in investing responsibly and ethically in a way that both makes money and makes a difference. This shift in perspective would not have occurred without visionary activists like Hazel.
Another part of Hazel’s legacy is the recognition of the importance of fund managers and businesses not being allowed to get away with simply proclaiming they are ‘ethical’, ‘responsible’ and ‘sustainable’ now that these concepts are belatedly being recognised by most as important and urgent. Hazel demonstrated the courage to challenge greenwashing. This challenge is reflected in the second part of the theme for Ethical Investment Week 2023 - Building a Sustainable Legacy: Overcoming Greenwashing with Ethical Investment Advice. I am part of the team at the Ethical Adviser’s Co-op organising Ethical Investment Week 2023 – stay tuned for more on that.
I was honoured to be a Member of Hazel’s Ethical Markets Global Advisory Board. Inspired by her example and guided by her legacy I remember her with great appreciation, this Matariki.
Guidance from Alice Walker
To conclude this reflection on remembrance in honour of Matariki, I’m turning to guidance from another remarkable woman, Alice Walker. Walker was an American author and social activist who in 1982, became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Some wise words from her were shared at the start of a Center for Courage & Renewal event I attended recently in my capacity as a Courage & Renewal Facilitator:
“I believe we are destined to meet people who will support, guide, and nurture us on our life’s journey, each of them appearing at the appropriate time, accompanying us at least part of the way.
“I think specific human beings, sometimes only in spirit, will present themselves in such a way that their presence will shape and reshape our hearts until we are more fully who we are.
“This particular magic or synchronicity is activated by something both simple and profound: we must adhere to our own peculiar way, that is the only chance we have to meet those spirits who wander along our road; we must persist in being true to our most individual soul.”
At the Center for Courage & Renewal there is a tradition of offering ‘honest and open questions’ - a special type of question designed for working with what the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) call ‘IDG 1: Inner Compass’ (see my IDG blog for more on that). In that spirit and with particular reverence for reflection at this time of Matariki I offer you these questions to consider:
● Who are three key people you have met as you have wandered along the ‘road’ of your life that have provided support, guidance, and nurturance on your ‘life’s journey’?
● How did their presence shape and reshape your heart to make you more fully who you are?
● What was it in how you were adhering to your ‘own peculiar way’ that enabled you ‘to meet those spirits’?
Celebrations
My Matariki celebrations include the arrival of a new family member with Chellie’s mother Monica Stockdale ONZM recently coming to live with us permanently. She is another remarkable woman – you can read here about her New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to Māori health. In the spirit of preparing for Matariki, last weekend Monica and I attended an amazing Spiritual Retreat with a Winter theme – read here about future seasonal retreats. We have many upcoming Matariki events on our calendar!
In case you are wondering ‘Where is Chellie?’ - last weekend she was in Italy presenting a paper authored by her, Dr Amber Nicholson and myself. The paper explores ‘Stewardship as a conscious adaptive system’ – let me know if you would like a copy. The conference was the 39th European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) conference. Held at the University of Cagliari, Italy it had a theme I found both fascinating and timely: ‘Organizing for the Good Life: Between Legacy and Imagination’ with a goal ‘to understand the organizing of a good life as the encounter of legacy and imagination’.
Another highlight among the many reasons for me to celebrate at this time of Matariki is the upcoming launch of Chellie’s phenomenal new book: ‘The Catalyst’s Way: A Handbook for people who want to help change the world’. This book and the accompanying workshop are the product of Chellie’s role as 2022 Leader-in-Residence with the Atlantic Institute, in collaboration with the Rhodes Trust, Oxford University (UK). Chellie is at Oxford University this week launching the book and workshop to an audience of Atlantic Fellows that have gathered in person from around the world.
Plans and Wishes
The EGOS paper and ‘The Catalyst’s Way’ book provides unique insight and guidance that can help fulfil the potential expressed by the IDGs (Inner Development Goals) initiative, that inner development “is the greatest possible accelerator to reach the Sustainable Development Goals and create a prosperous future for all humanity”.
Unfortunately, many fund managers and businesses, even some regarded as being at the forefront of ethical investment internationally, are yet to embrace the potential of the IDGs. The ethical investment question being asked increasingly is ‘How is your BUSINESS creating positive, sustainable change?’ One of my Matariki wishes is that this question is put to every business, and is also accompanied by another essential question ‘How are your PEOPLE being supported and developed to create positive, sustainable change?’.
I’ve been thrilled this past year to see the quantity and quality of demand for Chellie’s leadership training and development and the impact her work is having locally and internationally. This gives me more hope that the awakening of consciousness and redirection of capital needed for a sustainable future will happen in time. This hope is supported by many impact-filled developments in the ethical investment field and the ever-increasing demand for more ethical investment.
As I wish upon the Matariki star cluster, I think of USA Law Professor, author and environmental advocate Gus Speth, who in the IDGs film calls for “a spiritual and cultural transformation” to achieve the United Nations SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) vision of shared prosperity in a sustainable world— a world where all people can live productive, vibrant and peaceful lives on a healthy planet. This was the vision of Jane Marsden and Hazel Henderson. If you share that vision, please be in touch so we can explore how we might journey together to create a sustainable legacy.
Very best wishes for your Matariki – may it be an enriching time of remembrance, along with celebration and planning for the future.
The last words go to Professor Rangiānehu Mātāmua who concludes his book ‘Matariki: The Star of the Year’ with:
…Matariki is more than a cluster of stars that marks the changing of the season and the winter solstice. It is more than an environmental indicator that predicts the new season’s growth, and it is more than a symbol of unity, togetherness, and hope. Matariki is greater than its connection to new life and its remembrance of the deceased. Matariki transcends boundary, religion, political agenda and even race. Matariki has different meanings for different people and in a new age, it has become a marker, not only of culture, but also of national identity.
The eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea, were thrown into the sky in a spiteful fit of anger and a sorrow-filled act of love. These stars served a purpose for the ancestors of the Māori, and in this modern society they have been revived, taking on new meaning for a new generation. Perhaps the future of Matariki is best portrayed in the following proverb: ‘Matariki ki tua o ngā whetū’; Matariki of endless possibilities’.