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Gerald Jay Sussman

Gerald Jay Sussman (born February 8, 1947) is the Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has been involved in artificial intelligence (AI) research at MIT since 1964. His research has centered on understanding the problem-solving strategies used by scientists and engineers, with the goals of automating parts of the process and formalizing it to provide more effective methods of science and engineering education. Sussman has also worked in computer languages, in computer architecture, and in Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) design.

Education
Sussman attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an undergraduate and received his SB in mathematics in 1968. He continued his studies at MIT and obtained a PhD in 1973, also in mathematics, under the supervision of Seymour Papert. His doctoral thesis was titled "A Computational Model of Skill Acquisition" focusing on artificial intelligence and machine learning, using a computational performance model named HACKER.

According to a common story, in 1966, Marvin Minsky tasked his student Gerald Jay Sussman to “spend the summer linking a camera to a computer and getting the computer to describe what it saw.” This story was often told to illustrate that the difficulty of computer vision was not apparent to AI researchers in the early days.

Academic work
Sussman is a coauthor (with Hal Abelson and Julie Sussman) of the introductory computer science textbook Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. It was used at MIT for several decades, and has been translated into several languages.

Sussman's contributions to artificial intelligence include problem solving by debugging almost-right plans, propagation of constraints applied to electrical circuit analysis and synthesis, dependency-based explanation and dependency-based backtracking, and various language structures for expressing problem-solving strategies. Sussman and his former student, Guy L. Steele Jr., invented the programming language Scheme in 1975.

Sussman saw that artificial intelligence ideas can be applied to computer-aided design (CAD). Sussman developed, with his graduate students, sophisticated computer-aided design tools for Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI). Steele made the first Scheme chips in 1978. These ideas and the AI-based CAD technology to support them were further developed in the Scheme chips of 1979 and 1981. The technique and experience developed were then used to design other special-purpose computers. Sussman was the principal designer of the Digital Orrery, a machine designed to do high-precision integrations for orbital mechanics experiments. The Orrery hardware was designed and built by a few people in a few months, using AI-based simulation and compiling tools.

Using the Digital Orrery, Sussman has worked with Jack Wisdom to discover numerical evidence for chaotic motions in the outer planets. The Digital Orrery machine is now retired at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Sussman was also the lead designer of the Supercomputer Toolkit, another multiprocessor computer optimized for evolving of ordinary differential equations. The Supercomputer Toolkit was used by Sussman and Wisdom to confirm and extend the discoveries made with the Digital Orrery to include the entire planetary system.

Sussman has pioneered the use of computational descriptions to communicate methodological ideas in teaching subjects in Electrical Circuits and in Signals and Systems. Over the past decade Sussman and Wisdom have developed a subject that uses computational techniques to communicate a deeper understanding of advanced classical mechanics. In Computer Science: Reflections on the Field, Reflections from the Field, he writes "... computational algorithms are used to express the methods used in the analysis of dynamical phenomena. Expressing the methods in a computer language forces them to be unambiguous and computationally effective. Students are expected to read the programs and to extend them and to write new ones. The task of formulating a method as a computer-executable program and debugging that program is a powerful exercise in the learning process. Also, once formalized procedurally, a mathematical idea becomes a tool that can be used directly to compute results." Sussman and Wisdom, with Meinhard Mayer, have produced a textbook, Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics, to capture these new ideas.

Sussman and Abelson have also been a part of the free software movement, including releasing MIT/GNU Scheme as free software and serving on the board of directors of the Free Software Foundation.

Sussman's work is presented in many videos, such as: with Hal Abelson in a full 20 lecture version of MIT's SICP course, for LispNYC, at the International Conference on Complex Systems, for ArsDigita University, and giving the keynote talk at a Strange Loop conference.

Awards and organizations
For his contributions to computer science education, Sussman received the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Karl Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award in 1990, and the Amar G. Bose award for teaching in 1992.

Sussman and Hal Abelson are the only founding directors still active on the board of directors of the Free Software Foundation (FSF).

Sussman is a fellow of the following institutions:
 * The American Academy of Arts and Sciences
 * The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
 * The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)
 * The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
 * The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
 * The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS)

Sussman is member of the following institutions:
 * The National Academy of Engineering (NAE)
 * The American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute (AWI),
 * The Massachusetts Watchmakers-Clockmakers Association (MWCA)
 * The Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston (ATMOB)
 * The American Radio Relay League (ARRL).

In 2023 he received the IEEE Computer Society’s Taylor L. Booth Education Award for his “inspirational approach to the teaching of computer science through functional programming".

Personal life
Gerald Sussman is married to computer programmer Julie Sussman.

In 2011, Sussman attended an event on Jeffrey Epstein's private island, Little Saint James, known as the "Mindshift Conference", hosted by Epstein and Al Seckel.

Select bibliography

 * Chris Hanson and Gerald Jay Sussman; Software Design for Flexibility, MIT Press, 2021. ISBN 978-0-262-045490.
 * Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom, with Will Farr; Functional Differential Geometry, MIT Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-262-01934-7.
 * Alexey Radul and Gerald Jay Sussman; "Revised Report on the Propagator Model", documentation and system, August 2010.
 * Alexey Radul and Gerald Jay Sussman; "The Art of the Propagator," MIT-CSAIL-TR-2009-002; Abridged version in Proc. 2009 International Lisp Conference, March 2009.
 * Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics, second edition, Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom, MIT Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-262-02896-7.
 * "Cellular Gate Technology", Thomas F. Knight and Gerald Jay Sussman, Proc. UMC98, First International Conference on Unconventional Models of Computation, Auckland, NZ, January 1998.
 * "Sparse Representations for Fast, One-shot learning", Kenneth Yip and Gerald Jay Sussman, Proc. of National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, July 1997. A longer version appears as MIT AI Lab Memo #1633, May 1998
 * "A Computational Model for the Acquisition and Use of Phonological Knowledge", Kenneth Yip and Gerald Jay Sussman, MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo 1575, March 1996.
 * "Amorphous Computing", Harold Abelson, Don Allen, Daniel Coore, Chris Hanson, George Homsy, Thomas F. Knight, Jr., Radhika Nagpal, Erik Rauch, Gerald Jay Sussman, Ron Weiss, in Communications of the ACM, 43, 5, May 2000. Also as MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo 1665, August 1999.
 * "Comparison between subsonic flow simulation and physical measurements of flue pipes", Panayotis. A. Skordos and Gerald Jay Sussman, Proceedings of ISMA 95, International Symposium on Musical Acoustics, Le Normont, France, July 1995. Also MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo 1535, April 1995.
 * "Chaotic Evolution of the Solar System", Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom, Science, 257, 3 July 1992.
 * "The Supercomputer Toolkit: A general framework for special-purpose computing", with A. Berlin, J. Katzenelson, W. McAllister, G. Rozas, G. J. Sussman, and Jack Wisdom, International Journal of High-Speed Electronics, 3, no. 3, pp. 337–361, 1992.
 * "Numerical evidence that the motion of Pluto is chaotic", Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom, in Science, 241, 22 July 1988.
 * Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman with Julie Sussman, MIT Press and McGraw-Hill, 1985, second edition 1996, ISBN 0-262-01153-0. (published translations in French, Japanese, Polish, Chinese, Korean, and German).

title: Gerald Jay Sussman


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Owari Province

Owari Province (尾張国) was a province of Japan in the area that today forms the western half of Aichi Prefecture, including the modern city of Nagoya. The province was created in 646. Owari bordered on Mikawa, Mino, and Ise Provinces. Owari and Mino provinces were separated by the Sakai River, which means "border river." The province's abbreviated name was Bishū (尾州).

Owari is classified as one of the provinces of the Tōkaidō. Under the Engishiki classification system, Owari was ranked as a "superior country" (上国) and a "near country" (近国), in relation to its distance from the capital.

History
Owari is mentioned in records of the Nara period, including the Kujiki, although the area has been settled since at least the Japanese Paleolithic period, as evidenced by numerous remains found by archaeologists. Early records mention a powerful “Owari clan”, vaguely related to, or allied with the Yamato clan, who built massive kofun burial mounds in several locations within the province, from which archaeologists have recovered bronze artifacts and mirrors dating from the 4th century. Atsuta Shrine is of very ancient origin, ranking with Ise Shrine in importance, and is the repository of one of the Imperial Regalia of Japan, the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi.

Under the Engishiki classification system, Owari was divided into eight counties, which persisted as administrative units into the Edo period. The exact location of the provincial capital is not known, but is traditionally considered to have been located in what is now the city of Inazawa, although the Ichinomiya of the province is located in what is now Ichinomiya.

During the Heian period, the province was divided into numerous shōen controlled by local samurai clans. However, by the Sengoku period, the province had fragmented into many small territories largely dominated by the Oda clan. Under Oda Nobunaga, the province was reunified. Nobunaga began his campaign to reunify Japan from his stronghold at Kiyosu Castle. and many of his retainers (who later became daimyōs under the Tokugawa shogunate) were natives of Owari, including Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Katō Kiyomasa.

Under Tokugawa Ieyasu, the province was assigned as a feudal domain to his ninth son, Tokugawa Yoshinao with official revenues of 619,500 koku, the largest domain in the Tokugawa clan holdings outside of the shogunate itself. Yoshinao was founder of the Owari Tokugawa clan, one of the Gosanke, which had the hereditary right of succession to the position of shōgun should the main line fail. The castle town of Nagoya prospered during this period, and Owari Province was especially known for its ceramics industry.

Following the abolition of the han system in 1871 after the Meiji Restoration, former Owari Domain and Inuyama Domain were transformed into short-lived prefectures, which were joined with Nukata Prefecture, which was the former Mikawa Province, to form the new Aichi Prefecture in January 1872. At the same time, the province continued to exist for some purposes. For example, Owari is explicitly recognized in treaties in 1894 (a) between Japan and the United States and (b) between Japan and the United Kingdom.

Historical districts
Owari Province consisted of eleven districts:

 * Aichi Prefecture
 * Aichi District (愛知郡)
 * Chita District (知多郡)
 * Haguri District (葉栗郡) – dissolved
 * Kasugai District (春日井郡)
 * Higashikasugai District (東春日井郡) – dissolved
 * Nishikasugai District (西春日井郡)
 * Kaisei District (海西郡; West Ama) – merged with Kaitō District to Ama District (海部郡) on April 4, 1913
 * Kaitō District (海東郡; East Ama) – merged with Kaisei District to Ama District on April 4, 1913
 * Nakashima District (中島郡) – dissolved
 * Niwa District (丹羽郡)
 * Yana District (八名郡) – dissolved

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Owari Province


text: User:Koehl

title: User:Koehl


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User talk:Koehl

Hello and welcome to the English Wikipedia! --mav

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If the file also doesn't have a copyright tag, then one should be added. If you created/took the picture, audio, or video then the GFDL-self tag can be used to release it under the GFDL. If you believe the media meets the criteria at Fair use, use a tag such as or one of the other tags listed at Image copyright tags. See Image copyright tags for the full list of copyright tags that you can use.

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title: User talk:Koehl


text: Talk:Chris Cunningham

title: Talk:Chris Cunningham


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Laʻa Maomao

In Hawaiian mythology, Laʻa Maomao is the god of the wind. He was said to be created in the midst of chaos by his father, the sun god. Largely a benevolent entity, he is the god of forgiveness.

title: Laʻa Maomao


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Laufakana'a

In the Polynesian mythology of Tonga, Laufakanaa (speak to silence; i.e.: command [the winds] to calm down) was a primordial creator god, and his home was Ata.

In Tongan cosmogony, the sky and the sea, and the land of Pulotu (the dark underworld, the home of the souls of departed chiefs) existed from the earliest times. All other lands were created later. Either they were thrown down from the sky by Havea Hikuleo or, subsequently, they were fished up by Maui from the bottom of the ocean. All the makafonua (landstones) of Hikuleo were full of unevenness, and tended to jump around (that is, they were the source of earthquakes) and were full of holes and pits (that is, volcanoes), while Maui's lands were smooth (coral islands and atolls). ʻAta and ʻEua, the islands which were fished up first, were quite hilly, as Maui apparently was not an expert fisherman yet. His next catch, (Tongatapu) he kept much smoother.

The first people of Ata came forth directly from the same uanga (fly larva, maggot) as Kohai, Koau, mo Momo, and were the ancestors of all other men. At that time the god Tamapoulialamafoa was the king of the sky, and he commanded some of the Tangaloa gods to tell the faahikehe (sub-god) Laufakanaa to go down to the realm of light (i.e. the earth, not Pulotu) to become ruler of Ata and also ruler of the winds. Whenever a boat came to Ata in stormy weather, Laufakanaa had to listen to the prayers of the crew and give them a good wind to sail on. The prayer had to consist of an offering of mā (bread) cooked in the oil of the grated coconut.

Laufakanaa also brought a special fishing net with him. This typical Ata-net was used by the islanders on special occasions, as when they went fishing for the Tuʻi Tonga. As well, the putalinga (a kind of plantain), the sī (ti (plant)), the ngū-ata and tua-ata yams were brought down from the sky by Laufakanaa and first grew on Ata, before they spread to the other islands.

title: Laufakana'a


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Tamapo'uli'alamafoa

In the Polynesian mythology of the Tongan island of ʻAta, the god Tamapoulialamafoa is the king of the heavens. He is the one who ordered (through his servants all called Tangaloa (Tangaloa Eiki, Tangaloa Tufunga, and Tangaloa Atulongolongo)) the sub-god Laufakanaa to become ruler of that island.

According to others, however, Tangaloa Eiki was the ancestor god and Tangaloa Tamapoulialamafoa, Tangaloa Eitumātupua, Tangaloa Atulongolongo, and Tangaloa Tufunga his offspring.

title: Tamapo'uli'alamafoa


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Aikanaka (mythology)

In Hawaiian mythology, ʻAikanaka (or ʻAi Kanaka, ʻAikane) is a mortal chief.

His name means "man eater". His father was named Hulumanailani, whilst his mother was named Hinamaikalani.

ʻAikanaka married Hinahanaiakamalama (according to the Ulu genealogy). She gave birth to sons named Hemā and Puna. ʻAikanaka is also depicted to have married the moon goddess lona, who carried ʻAikanaka on her wings.

According to the Ulu genealogy, ʻAikanaka was born about 746 AD.

title: Aikanaka (mythology)


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Losi (mythology)

In the traditions of Samoa, Losi was a giant and a son of Tagaloa, who instructed him to go and catch fish for the gods. Losi obeyed, but played a trick on the gods by laying a fish at the door of each of them, causing them to slip and fall. Losi then stole a slip of taro plant and smuggled it back to earth, where it became a staple of Samoan diet.

title: Losi (mythology)


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Maero

In Māori tradition, the Maero (or Mohoao) are an iwi-atua or supernatural people from New Zealand. They are sometimes described as giants or wild men of the woods, and inhabit mountains and forest, particularly in the South Island and Tararua Range. Maero are characterised as wild, malevolent and often violent, carrying stone clubs as weapons. They are covered in dark body hair and have long, bony fingers with sharp fingernails. They kill and eat humans and other animals.

The Maero are said to harbour anger towards the Māori, who arrived from Hawaiki, and are thought to have displaced them and ruined the tapu (sacredness) of their homes, forcing them to dwell in inhospitable alpine regions.

In traditional Māori stories
In a story from the Whanganui area told by Tuao, chief of Upper Whanganui, Tukoio, a mortal man, once found a maero, a mohoao (wild man), and attacked it, cutting off its arms, legs and head. He brought the head back, but it was still alive and called for help. Tukoio did not want to fight a whole clan of maero, so he dropped it and came back later with reinforcements, only to find the maero had put itself back together and returned to the forest.

title: Maero


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Tukoio

Tukoio is the name of a legendary or mythological chief in Māori mythology.

In a story from the Māori tradition of the Whanganui area, Tukoio, a mortal man, came across a Maero or Mohoao, a wild person or monster much feared in Maori legend. The creature instantly attacked him, fighting fiercely until Tukoio cut off its limbs and head, which he took as a trophy back to his village. However, when the severed head cried out for help from its clan, Tukoio instantly dropped the head and ran, fearing retaliation. When he and some of his villagers returned, they found the Mohoao gone, having reassembled itself and returned to the forest.

title: Tukoio


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Mafuiʻe

In Samoan mythology, Mafuie is the god of earthquakes. He dwells in the volcanic regions below the Earth, and has only one arm.

Mafuie was also the keeper of fire. Tiitii, a demigod, won the fire from him in a battle, thus introducing fire to the people of Samoa.

title: Mafuiʻe


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Makeatutara

In Māori mythology, Makeatutara is the father of Māui. His wife is Taranga. He is a deity and guardian of the underworld. Makeatutara made mistakes as he recited the dedicatory (or baptismal) incantations over Māui, which made it inevitable that Māui would die. As a result, humankind is mortal.

title: Makeatutara


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Taranga (Māori mythology)

In Māori mythology, Taranga is the mother of Māui. Her husband is Makeatutara. Māui was born prematurely, so Taranga wrapped his body in her hair and threw him into the waves. Some sea-creatures cared for him, hiding him in kelp until a storm sent him back to the beach. His ancestor, Tama-nui-a-rangi, found him and brought him back to life, and educated him.

Māui arrived at his mother's village one day, and recognized his brothers. Taranga didn't know who he was until Māui reminded her of the circumstances of his birth. Each morning, Taranga would disappear and eventually Māui followed her to the underworld by assuming the shape of a wood pigeon. Māui found her with his father, Makeatutara, a guardian of the underworld. Taranga introduced them and his father performed the dedicatory ritual over his son. Because Makeatutara made mistakes in the incantation, Māui was fated to die and thus humankind is mortal.

In some versions, Taranga is a man, the son of Murirangawhenua. He married Irawhaki, and begat the Māui brothers.

title: Taranga (Māori mythology)


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Makemake (disambiguation)

Makemake is a large planetoid in the Kuiper belt.

Makemake may also refer to:
 * Makemake (deity), the creator of humanity in the mythology of Easter Island
 * a make-makefile tool in build automation
 * "Make Make", a song by Mike Oldfield from Heaven's Open
 * Make-Make, an album by Jabberwocky
 * The Makemakes, an Austrian pop-rock band

Makemake

title: Makemake (disambiguation)


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Mākutu

Mākutu in the  Māori language of New Zealand means "witchcraft", "sorcery", "to bewitch"; and also a "spell or incantation". It may also be described as a belief in malignant occult powers possessed by certain people.

An October 2007 mākutu-lifting in the Lower Hutt suburb of Wainuiomata led to the death by drowning of a woman and the hospitalisation of a teen, allegedly due to attempts to remove such a curse.

title: Mākutu


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Kopu

Kopu can refer to:

 * Kopu or Malara, a god in Oceania
 * Kopu, New Zealand, in the Thames-Coromandel District

title: Kopu


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Malara

Malara, in the mythology of the Orokolo, of the south coast of Papua New Guinea, is the god of the planet Venus. The myths indicates that Malara was looking for wives. He found Eau and Havoa, the daughters of the sun-god Maelare, and married them.

title: Malara


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Ngā Mānawa

Ngā Mānawa, in a tradition of the Ngāti Awa, a Māori tribe of the eastern Bay of Plenty Region in New Zealand's North Island, was the collective name for the Fire Children, the five sons of Mahuika and Auahitūroa. The names of the Fire Children are the names of the five fingers of the human hand:
 * 1) Takonui (thumb)
 * 2) Takoroa (forefinger)
 * 3) Māpere (middle finger)
 * 4) Mānawa (ring finger)
 * 5) Tōiti (little finger)

The names of the fire children differ in the various regions of New Zealand, simply because the name of the fingers differ. For example, to the Ngāti Kahungunu people of the East Coast of the North Island, they are:

 * 1) Konui (thumb)
 * 2) Koroa (forefinger)
 * 3) Māpere (middle finger)
 * 4) Mānawa (ring finger)
 * 5) Kōiti (little finger)

title: Ngā Mānawa


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Maohi

 * "Maohi" can also refer to the indigenous people of French Polynesia, also known as Tahitians.

In Tahiti and adjacent islands, the term Maohi (Mā’ohi in Tahitian language) refers to the ancestors of the Polynesian peoples.

The term can also be a reference to normal, everyday people, just as Māori is accepted among native or indigenous people in New Zealand or the Cook Islands as the way they describe themselves. Te Ao Maohi – the Maohi world – as an expression coined by Oscar Temaru gives an example of this.

History
The Ma'ohi people first arrived to what is known today as French Polynesia over 2,300 years ago. The Ma'ohi include not only Tahiti but 17 surrounding islands in French Polynesia. It wasn't until the 18th century that external influence was introduced to the Ma'ohi people. In 1880 France seized control of Tahiti and its surrounding islands.

La Culture Ma'ohi
La Culture Ma'ohi is a culture movement by the Ma'ohi people to rediscover their culture after colonization by the French in the mid-nineteenth century. Most traditions from the Ma'ohi culture were lost due to colonization, and diverse influences from neighboring islands such as the Marquesas, the Austral and the Cook Islands, helped to reconstruct post contact Tahitian culture. Reinterpretation of traditions such as art and dance as well as reconstructions of traditional Marae's played an important role in recreating a cultural identity for Tahitians. It wasn't until the 1950s that the reconstruction of these traditions began, due to an overall lack of knowledge about Tahitian culture. La Culture Ma'ohi is a way for Tahitian politicians to heighten the awarenesses of the cultural past as well as create and identity for the future of Tahiti.

Dance
Traditional dance was one piece of the Ma'ohi culture that was lost due to colonization by the French. Historical reenactments of the dances, the costumes and the chants had to be reconstructed due to their being no feasible way of knowing what the authentic creations were to begin with. The Heiva is a traditional annual dance event that started in the 1950s as a way to bring traditional Tahitian dance back into Tahitian culture.

Tattooing
Tattoos in Tahiti have become an accepted symbol of Ma'ohi culture. Tattoos demonstrate a commitment to Tahitian cultural identity and can be seen has decorative. Those that are young and involved in other aspects of Tahitian culture such as dance are the majority of people that have tattoos. The practice of tattooing also exists in other islands known as the Polynesian Triangle.

title: Maohi


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Mareikura

In the mythology of the Tuamotu islands, the Mareikura are the attendants of Io. In Māoridom, Mareikura are female spirits, similar to whatukura.

title: Mareikura


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Graham Norton

Graham William Walker (born 4 April 1963), better known by his stage name Graham Norton, is an Irish comedian, actor, author and television host known for his work in the UK. He is a five-time BAFTA TV Award winner for his comedy chat show The Graham Norton Show (2007–present) and an eight-time award-winner overall. He has received the British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance three times for So Graham Norton (1998 to 2002). Originally shown on BBC Two before moving to other slots on BBC One, his chat show succeeded Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in BBC One's late-Friday-evening slot in 2010.

From 2010 to 2020, Norton presented the Saturday-morning slot on BBC Radio 2. From January 2021 to February 2024, he presented his weekend show for Virgin Radio UK. Since 2009, he has served as the BBC's television commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest. He has been noted for his innuendo-laden dialogue and flamboyant presentation style. Before establishing himself as a presenter, Norton appeared as Father Noel Furlong in three episodes of the multiple award-winning Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted. In 2012, he sold his production company So Television to ITV for around £17 million. In 2019, he became a judge on RuPaul's Drag Race UK.

Early life
Norton was born Graham William Walker on 4 April 1963 at 48 St Brigid's Road, in Clondalkin, County Dublin, Ireland to William "Billy" (died 2000), a sales representative for Guinness, and Rhoda Walker. He has an older sister, Paula (born 1959). Because of his father's job, he and his family moved around Ireland throughout his early childhood; they lived in Tramore, then Waterford, then Kilkenny, before settling in the town of Bandon, County Cork, where he grew up. He was raised in a Church of Ireland family, and has said that he felt somewhat isolated growing up as a Protestant in the predominantly Catholic south of Ireland. His father's family were from County Wicklow, while his mother is a native of Belfast. He discovered during a 2007 episode of the genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? that his father's direct ancestors were English, having originated in Yorkshire before emigrating to Ireland in 1713.

Norton was educated at Bandon Grammar School in County Cork and then University College Cork, where he spent two years studying English and French in the 1980s. He did not complete his studies after having a breakdown and refusing to leave his flat. He later received an honorary doctorate from the university in 2013.

In 1981, Norton featured in an episode of RTÉ's Youngline, participating in an audience debate about underage teens attending discos. In 1983, Norton travelled to San Francisco where he lived for one year, in the "Stardance" hippie commune house,   on Fulton Street and worked as a waiter. In the late 1980s he moved to London to attend the Central School of Speech and Drama. He again found work as a waiter during that period. Upon joining the actors' union Equity, he chose Norton (his great-grandmother's maiden name) as his new surname, as there was already a comic-actor called Graham Walker, represented by the union.

Channel 4
In 1992, Norton's stand-up comedy drag act as a tea-towel-clad Mother Teresa of Calcutta in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe made the press when Scottish Television's religious affairs department mistakenly thought he represented the real Mother Teresa. His first appearances in broadcasting were in the UK, where he had a spot as a regular comedian and panellist on the BBC Radio 4 show Loose Ends in the early 1990s, when the show ran on Saturday mornings. He was one of the early successes of Channel 5, winning an award as stand-in host of a late-night TV talk show usually presented by Jack Docherty. This was followed by a comic quiz show on Channel 5 called Bring Me the Head of Light Entertainment, which was not well received as a programme but enhanced Norton's reputation as a comic and host. In 1996, he co-hosted the late-night quiz show Carnal Knowledge on ITV with Maria McErlane.

In 1996, Norton played the part of Father Noel Furlong in three episodes ("Hell", "Flight into Terror", "The Mainland") of the Channel 4 series Father Ted, which was set on the fictional Craggy Island off the west coast of Ireland. Father Furlong was often seen taking charge of the St Luke's Youth Group.

After this early success, Norton moved to Channel 4 in 1998 to host his own chat shows, including the weekly So Graham Norton (1998–2002), followed by the daily weeknight show V Graham Norton (2002–03). As a performer who is not only openly gay, but also camp and flamboyant, it was here that Norton's act was fully honed as a cheeky, innuendo-laden joker. In January 2003 Norton was listed in The Observer as one of the 1,000 funniest acts in British comedy. (Though Norton is Irish, the bulk of his television career has been in the UK.) In January 2004, he was named the most powerful person in TV comedy by Radio Times. Also that year he was the subject of controversy in the United Kingdom when, on his Channel 4 show, he joked, "I bet Maurice Gibb's heart monitor was singing the tune of 'Stayin' Alive'", referring to the recent death of the Bee Gees singer. Gibb's brother Robin described Norton as "scum", threatened to "rip his head off" if he saw him, and demanded an apology from him, the show's producers, and Channel 4. The Independent Television Commission investigated after complaints about this insensitivity were received and eventually Channel 4 had to make two apologies: one in the form of a caption slide before the show, another from Norton in person.

In the summer of 2004, Norton ventured into American television. The Graham Norton Effect debuted on 24 June 2004 on Comedy Central, and was also broadcast in the UK on BBC Three. In the midst of controversy surrounding Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson's Super Bowl performance, Norton was wary of moving into the market.

Television
Norton began his career on the BBC in 2001 when he hosted Comic Relief 2001.

In 2005, Norton moved to the BBC and began hosting the Saturday evening reality TV series Strictly Dance Fever on BBC One, as well as a new comedy chat show, Graham Norton's Bigger Picture. He also read stories some nights on the BBC children's channel CBeebies as part of Bedtime Hour.

In 2006, Norton hosted the BBC One series How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria? in which Andrew Lloyd Webber tried to find a lead actress for his West End version of The Sound of Music. Norton has subsequently presented the three follow-up series: Any Dream Will Do in 2007, in which a group of males competed to win the role of Joseph in the West End production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; I'd Do Anything in 2008, in which Lloyd Webber seeks to find the parts of Nancy and Oliver for Sir Cameron Mackintosh's production of Lionel Bart's Oliver!; and Over the Rainbow in 2010, following a similar format to find a new Dorothy for a Wizard of Oz West end Production.

Norton hosted various other shows for the BBC during this time, including When Will I Be Famous? (2007), The One and Only (2008) and Totally Saturday (2009). Since 2007, Norton has also been a regular host of The British Academy Television Awards. On 7 July 2007, Norton presented at Live Earth and undertook a trip to Ethiopia with the Born Free Foundation to highlight the plight of the Ethiopian wolf – the rarest canid in the world. In the same year, he was the subject of an episode of the BBC1 genealogy documentary Who Do You Think You Are?

Norton's chat show, The Graham Norton Show, began on 22 February 2007 on BBC Two. The format is very similar to his previous Channel 4 shows. On 6 October 2009, the show moved to BBC One, in a new one-hour format.

In May 2010, Norton stood in for Chris Evans' breakfast show on BBC Radio 2. Later that month, it was confirmed that he would be replacing Jonathan Ross's Saturday morning slot on the same station.

In December 2011, the panel show Would You Rather...? with Graham Norton premiered on BBC America in the time slot immediately following The Graham Norton Show. Recorded in New York, it is one of BBC America's earliest efforts at producing original programming, and is also the first panel game the channel has shown, either of British or American origin.

In October 2018, talking to BBC News about his reported 2017–18 BBC salary, Norton said that he genuinely "doesn't know" how the corporation arrived at that figure. "Myself and my agent look at that number and we go 'I wonder how they came up with that'," he says. "It bears no relation to anything I know. But if that's what they say I earn, that's what I earn."

In February 2019, it was announced that Norton would be a judge on RuPaul's Drag Race UK alongside Alan Carr in a rotating basis. Norton and Carr were joined by permanent judges Michelle Visage and RuPaul.

Radio
Since 1999, Norton has appeared regularly on the BBC Radio 4 panel show Just a Minute, appearing in over 100 episodes.

On 2 October 2010, Norton began presenting a Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 2, which he took over from Jonathan Ross. Norton co-hosted with Maria McErlane who featured as an "agony aunt" on the segment "Grill Graham". "Tune with a Tale" is where a listener suggests playing a song with a plot, summarising the story it contains, and "I Can't Believe It's Not Better" is a feature where a listener requests a song that was previously a hit, but might be considered particularly bad now. Unlike Steve Wright in the Afternoon aired from 14:00 to 17:00 on weekdays, it is well established as being a "brand", with its end of each hour style of presentations, although Norton regularly uses the standard BBC Radio 2 jingles along with jingles unique to the Saturday morning show, written and performed by the BBC Radio 2 Orchestra.

In January 2012, Norton asked listeners to his Radio 2 show to help find his car, shortly after it was stolen. He called it "The Great Car Hunt" and told listeners to "Keep your eyes out for it. It was filthy by the way."

On 11 November 2020, Norton announced that he would step down from the show and hosted his final Saturday morning show on 19 December 2020 after 10 years. He was replaced by Claudia Winkleman from February 2021.

Norton joined Virgin Radio UK in January 2021, hosting shows on Saturday and Sunday. In February 2024, Norton announced that "he wanted his weekends back" and would step away from hosting his weekend radio show for the station.

Eurovision Song Contest
Norton, along with Claudia Winkleman, hosted the first annual Eurovision Dance Contest, which was held on 1 September 2007 in London, England. The format was based on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing and the EBU's Eurovision Song Contest. Norton and Winkleman also hosted the 2008 contest in Glasgow, Scotland.

In October 2008, it was confirmed by the BBC that Norton would replace Terry Wogan as the presenter of the UK national selection of the Eurovision Song Contest, Your Country Needs You.

On 5 December 2008, it was announced that Norton would also take over from Wogan as the British commentator for the main Eurovision Song Contest. The 54th Eurovision Song Contest was held in the Olympic Arena, Moscow on 16 May 2009.

In January 2009, Norton hosted Eurovision: Your Country Needs You, a talent show to find who would represent the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest that year. The winning song, It's My Time, was penned by Diane Warren and Andrew Lloyd Webber and was sung in the contest by Jade Ewen, who the public voted to represent the United Kingdom.

Norton's debut jokes received some positive reviews from the British press. The Guardian noted his comments on Iceland's entry, which finished in second place, had "rooted around in a cupboard and found an old bridesmaid dress from 1987" and the Armenian singers, who finished in 10th place, were sporting traditional dress, "which would be true if you come from the village where Liberace is the mayor." The Times noted his highlighting of the arrest of 30 gay rights protesters in Moscow – "heavy-handed policing has really marred what has been a fantastic Eurovision."

In 2015, Norton, along with Petra Mede, hosted the Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits concert show on 31 March at the Eventim Apollo, in Hammersmith, London to commemorate the contest's 60th anniversary.

Norton played a fictionalised version of himself in his role of the British Eurovision commentator in the 2020 Netflix film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.

Norton co-hosted the final of the in Liverpool alongside Alesha Dixon, actress Hannah Waddingham and Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina, in addition to his usual commentary role which was shared with Mel Giedroyc. With this, he also became the second-oldest person to ever host the Eurovision Song Contest, after the French presenter Léon Zitrone in 1978.

ITV
In 2024, Norton returned to ITV to present a revival of Wheel of Fortune, including the celebrity version, featuring Gok Wan and Charlotte Church.

Other
Norton played Mr Puckov in the 2006 American comedy spoof film Another Gay Movie. In 2007, Norton played Taylor in the romantic comedy film, I Could Never Be Your Woman.

Norton was involved in a high-publicity advertising campaign for the UK National Lottery as an animated unicorn, the stooge to a character based on Lady Luck (played by Fay Ripley). He has also advertised McVitie's biscuits.

In 1999, Norton featured in the music video for Boyzone song "When The Going Gets Tough". Eight years later, in 2007, he featured in Girls Aloud and Sugababes' music video for the single "Walk This Way". Both songs were for Comic Relief.

In January 2009, Norton made his West End stage debut in a revival of La Cage Aux Folles at the Playhouse Theatre. In 2009, Norton was the host of the comedy game-show Most Popular on US cable television channel WE tv.

Norton wrote an advice column in The Daily Telegraph newspaper from 2006 to 2018. In October 2010, his columns were made into a book entitled Ask Graham, published by John Blake Publishing. In late 2018, Norton stood down from the role and the newspaper found a replacement as their agony aunt in Richard Madeley.

In 2016, Norton published his debut novel Holding, published by Hodder & Stoughton, about a murder in an Irish rural community. Norton won Popular Fiction Book of the Year award for Holding in the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards 2016. In 2022, an adaptation of the book, directed by Kathy Burke, aired on ITV.

On 7 March 2013, Norton broke the Guinness World Record for "Most Questions Asked on a TV Chat Show" on Comic Relief's Big Chat, which raised £1.02 million.

In 2014, Norton criticised the decision by Irish broadcaster RTÉ to settle out of court with opponents of gay marriage who claimed they had been defamed in an edition of the Saturday Night Show.

In 2014, Norton publicly backed "Hacked Off" and its campaign toward UK press self-regulation by "safeguarding the press from political interference while also giving vital protection to the vulnerable".

In October 2014, Norton released his second memoir, The Life and Loves of a He-Devil. It won in the Non-Fiction Book of the Year category at the 2014 Irish Book Awards. Also in 2014, he was named in the top 10 on the World Pride Power list.

Norton has a shareholding of two per cent in New Zealand winery Invivo Wines. Norton has his own wine range in collaboration with Invivo, the first wine was first released in 2014.

In July 2015, the Bishop of Cork, Paul Colton, hosted an evening with Norton involving 90 minutes of interview, questions, and answers with an audience of more than 400 people. The event, part of the West Cork Literary Festival, was sold out.

On 9 October 2020, Norton announced via Twitter he had been cast as the voice of Moonwind, a spiritual sign twirler, in the Disney/Pixar animated feature Soul, starring Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey.

Personal life
In 1989, Norton was mugged, beaten up, and stabbed by a group of attackers in London. He lost half of his blood and nearly died. He said that an elderly couple were the ones who found him and that they "saved his life" after calling for an ambulance. He did not think the attack was homophobic, as he was walking alone at the time. He was hospitalised for two and a half weeks before eventually recovering from the attack.

In January 2012, Norton's home was burgled. The keys to his Lexus were stolen during the burglary. He appealed for the return of his car during his BBC Radio 2 show the following day.

Norton primarily resides in the Wapping area of London. He had two dogs, a labradoodle called Bailey and a terrier called Madge, which he adopted from the UK charity Dogs Trust in 2012. In September 2020, he said that Madge had died in December 2019, and in October 2020 he said that Bailey had recently died in Cork at the age of 15.

He dated Kristian Seeber, who performs as the drag queen Tina Burner. He split up from his partner of two years, Trevor Patterson, in 2013, and broke up with his subsequent partner, Andrew Smith, in 2015. He said in 2015 that his ex-boyfriends often resented the role they had to play in the public eye as his partner.

On 10 July 2022, Norton held a wedding blessing party, with his new husband, Scottish filmmaker Jonathan "Jono" McLeod, at Bantry House in County Cork.

In October 2022, Norton was involved in controversy over comments he made in an interview with Mariella Frostrup at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. He expressed scepticism over the existence of cancel culture, arguing that "I think the word should be 'accountability'." When Frostrup countered that J. K. Rowling had been "deluged with... anger, rage and attempts at censorship" over her views on transgender rights, Norton responded that it would be better to "talk to trans people, talk to the parents of trans kids, talk to doctors" about the issue than to celebrities like himself. Following criticism from Rowling and supporters, Norton deactivated his Twitter account.

Stand-up videos

 * Live at the Roundhouse (19 November 2001)

Works

 * Autobiography

 * General non-fiction

 * Fiction
 * – American edition
 * – American edition

title: Graham Norton


text:
Mata Upola

In Polynesian mythology, Mata Upola or Marangai was the third wind that Maui took control of. He represented the east wind.

title: Mata Upola


text:
Matagi

The Matagi (マタギ) are traditional winter hunters of the Tōhoku region of northern Japan, most famously today in the Ani area in Akita Prefecture, which is known for the Akita dogs. Afterwards, it spread to the Shirakami-Sanchi forest between Akita and Aomori, and other areas of Japan. Documented as a specialised group from the medieval period onwards, the Matagi continue to hunt deer and bear in the present day, and their culture has much in common with the bear worship of the Ainu people.

With the introduction of modern firearms in the 19th century, and mass-production of reloadable cartridges beginning with the Murata rifle, the need for group hunting for bear has diminished, leading to a decline in Matagi culture.

Matagi hamlets are found in the districts of Nishitsugaru and Nakatsugaru (Aomori Prefecture), Kitaakita and Senboku (Akita Prefecture), Waga (Iwate Prefecture), Nishiokitama and Tsuruoka (Yamagata Prefecture), Murakami and Nakauonuma (Niigata Prefecture and Nagano Prefecture).

Etymology and language
Specialised Matagi hunting vocabulary contains a number of Ainu language words. The word "matagi" itself may be Ainu, from matangi or matangitono, meaning "man of winter" or "hunter".

Ethnic origin
According to Lee and Hasegawa, the Matagi are the historical descendants of Ainu-speaking hunters and fishermen who migrated down from Hokkaido into parts of Honshu. They also contributed several Ainu derived toponyms and loanwords, related to geography and certain forest and water animals which they hunted, to the local Japonic-speaking people.

Spirituality
The Matagi have a unique culture that centers around their belief in mountain gods and distinct law. For them, hunting is a way of life, and not a form of sport. The animals hunted are perceived as gifts from the mountain gods, and the Matagi have a certain way to butcher and prepare the animal. After the animal is killed, it is praised, and the spirit comforted. Then, to recompense for the loss of life, everything, from the fur to the internal organs, is used. Emphasis is put on the act of taking an animal's life through ceremony and reflection, which is then passed along to future generations of Matagi.

Present-day Matagi
The Matagi live in small hamlets of the mountain beech forests of Tōhoku and engage in agriculture during the planting and harvest season. In the winter and early spring, they form hunting bands that spend weeks at a time in the forest.

In the modern day, some Matagi have come into conflict with environmental activists, due to concerns over deforestation and the depletion of certain animal species. The Matagi no longer hunt the Japanese serow, which is protected, but continue to hunt bear by special license.

Literary references
Matagi are referenced and described in the biographical novel Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain by Martha Sherrill, alongside descriptions of a real modern day Matagi named Uesugi, who was a friend of the main characters who helped preserve the Akita breed of dog, which they used extensively for hunting.

Matagi figure as primary characters in the novel, The Girl with the Face of the Moon by Ellis Amdur. In the manga series Golden Kamuy a Matagi hunter named Tanigaki Genjirou is prominently featured, as well as Ainu culture in general.

The main character, Hitomi, of the comic book series with the same name by HS Take and Isabella Mazantini is said to be a Matagi.

title: Matagi


text:
Matariki

In Māori culture, Matariki is the Pleiades star cluster and a celebration of its first rising in late June or early July. The rising marks the beginning of the new year in the Māori lunar calendar.

Historically, Matariki was usually celebrated for a period of days during the last quarter of the moon of the lunar month Pipiri (around June). The ceremony involved viewing the individual stars for forecasts of the year to come, mourning the deceased of the past year, and making an offering of food to replenish the stars. Some Māori use the rise of Puanga (Rigel) or other stars to mark the new year.

Celebration of Matariki declined during the 20th century, but beginning in the early 1990s it underwent a revival. Matariki was first celebrated as an official public holiday in New Zealand on 24 June 2022.

Name and meaning
Matariki is the Māori name for the cluster of stars known to Western astronomers as the Pleiades in the constellation Taurus. Matariki is a shortened version of Ngā mata o te ariki o Tāwhirimātea, "the eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea". According to Māori tradition, Tāwhirimātea, the god of wind and weather, was enraged by the separation of heaven and earth – his parents, Ranginui and Papatūānuku. Defeated in battle by his brother, Tāwhirimātea fled to the sky to live with Ranginui, but in his anger he first plucked out his eyes as a gesture of contempt towards his siblings, and flung them into the sky, where they remain, stuck to his father's chest. In Māori tradition the unpredictability of the winds is blamed on Tāwhirimātea's blindness.

The word Matariki is the name of both the star cluster and one of the stars within it. Other terms for the cluster as a whole include Te Tautari-nui-o-Matariki ("Matariki fixed in the heavens") and Te Huihui o Matariki ("the assembly of Matariki").

Matariki is sometimes incorrectly translated as mata riki ("little eyes"), a mistake originating in the work of Elsdon Best and continued by others.

In other Polynesian cultures
The word matariki or similar, referring to the Pleiades, is found in many Polynesian languages. In the Marquesas the star cluster is known as Mataii or Mataiki, in the Cooks as Matariki, and in the Tuamotu archipelago as Mata-ariki. In some languages it has Best's meaning of 'little eyes', but in most it is a contraction of mata-ariki, meaning 'eyes of the god' or 'eyes of the chief'. In Hawaii, the rising of Makalii in November ushers in the four-month season Makahiki, which honours Lono, the god of agriculture and fertility. In Tahiti, the year was divided into two seasons, named according to whether the Pleiades are visible after sunset: Matarii i nia ('Matarii above') and Matarii i raro ('Matarii below'). On Rapa Nui, Matariki heralded the New Year, and its disappearance in mid-April ended the fishing season.

The nine stars
To the ancient Greeks, the Pleiades contained nine stars: the parents Atlas and Pleione, positioned to one side of the cluster, and their seven daughters Alcyone, Maia, Taygeta, Electra, Merope, Celaeno and Sterope.

Many Māori sources, especially older ones, list seven stars in Matariki: Matariki herself, the central star in the cluster (the kai whakahaere or 'conductor'), and six children. The emblem of the Kīngitanga or Māori King movement, Te Paki o Matariki, includes the star Matariki flanked by three stars on each side. The six other stars are sometimes named as Matariki's daughters; it has been suggested that the idea of Matariki as a group of seven female stars was influenced by the concept of the Pleiades' "seven sisters".

The manuscript of Rāwiri Te Kōkau passed on to Rangi Mātāmua recognised nine stars in Matariki, adding Pōhutukawa and Hiwa-i-te-Rangi (also known just as Hiwa) to make a total of eight children, five of which were female and three male. The father of Matariki's children was Rehua, paramount chief of the heavens, identified by Māori as the star Antares.

The stars of Matariki and their genders as recorded by Te Kōkau are identified with particular traits and areas of influence, also reflected in their positions in the star cluster: The star Pōhutukawa's association with the departed relates to the lone pōhutukawa tree at Te Rerenga Wairua (Cape Reinga), the departing place for the spirits of the deceased as they return to the ancestral homeland of Hawaiki. Mourning the deceased is one component of the Matariki celebration.

Hiwa-i-te-rangi, also known just as Hiwa, is the youngest of Matariki's children and was considered the "wishing star": Māori would rest their hopes and desires on Hiwa, similar to "wishing upon a star", and if it appeared to shine bright and clear on the first viewing of Matariki those individual and collective wishes were likely to be answered.

Māori New Year
Traditional Māori culture was interwoven with astronomical knowledge, with constellations and the lunar cycle used for navigation, planting and harvesting, delineating the seasons, and marking the spawning and migration of fish. This knowledge was passed down by oral tradition, and different regions and iwi recorded different dates, significant constellations, and traditional calendars or maramataka.

The Pleiades constellation (Matariki) is visible for most of the year in New Zealand, except for approximately a month in the middle of winter. Matariki finally sets in the west in the early evening in May, and reappears just prior to sunrise in late June or early July, which begins the first month of the Māori lunar calendar, Pipiri (meaning to huddle together). All the months of the Māori calendar are indicated by this heliacal rising of a particular star on the eastern horizon just before dawn, on the night of the new moon: for example, the tenth month, Poutūterangi, is signalled by the heliacal rising of Altair. Matariki's role in signalling the start of the year means it is known as te whetū o te tau ("the star of the year").

The time in midsummer when Matariki is overhead in the night sky is referred to as te paki o Matariki, i.e. the calm weather of summer – a phrase meaning good weather and good fortune. In Māori historical recollection, the Tainui canoe was instructed to leave the homeland of Hawaiki for Aotearoa in summer, when Matariki was overhead: this being a direct, ancient historical reference to Māori use of star navigation, for long sea voyaging. Because of these associations with peace and calm, the second Māori king, Matutaera Tāwhiao, chose Matariki as an emblem, and the Kīngitanga newspaper was named Te Paki o Matariki.

Most celebration of Matariki begins in the last quarter phase of the moon after the constellation's first appearance, during 3–4 nights known as "the nights of Tangaroa" (ngā po o Tangaroa), and finishes on the night before the new moon. The new moon, or whiro, is considered inauspicious in the Māori calendar, so would spoil any celebrations. Because Māori traditionally use a 354-day lunar calendar with 29.5 days to the month, rather than the 365-day Gregorian solar calendar, the dates of Matariki vary each year. Māori did not use a single unified lunar calendar, and different iwi might recognise different numbers of months, give them different names, or start the month on the full moon rather than the new moon.

Puanga and Matariki
There has also always been regional variation across Aotearoa, in which stars signal the start of the New Year, and what date is chosen to celebrate it. Some iwi (tribes) – specifically those in the far north of Te Ika-a-Māui (the North Island), the mid-western parts of Te Ika-a-Māui around Taranaki, the Chatham Islands, and much of Te Waipounamu (South Island) – celebrate Puanga, using the rising of the brighter star Rigel (Puanga in northern Māori, Puaka in southern Māori) as the marker of the New Year, instead of Matariki. This is sometimes attributed to Puanga being more visible or visible earlier than Matariki, but, as Rangi Mātāmua puts it, "the variation in the rising between Matariki and Puanga is very small, and if the Tangaroa nights of Piripi are observed correctly, then both stars will be seen in the morning sky." It has been suggested that that tradition of Puaka belonged to the first Polynesian settlers to arrive in Aotearoa, and Matariki was brought by a second wave of arrivals, who also brought the first kūmara (with which Matariki is associated).

In Māori tradition the stars Puanga and Matariki were rivals, with Puanga beautifying herself every winter, attempting to be the star beside which the sun rises and signals the New Year, but being eternally frustrated when each year the Sun rose beside Matariki.

Other iwi use Atutahi (Canopus) rather than Puanga, or the setting of Rehua (Antares) in winter, to mark the New Year.

Traditional celebration
Matariki was an occasion to mourn the deceased, celebrate the present, and prepare the ground for the coming year. The ceremony had three parts: viewing the stars, remembering the deceased, and making an offering of food to the stars. This time of the year was also a good time to instruct young people in the lore of the land and the forest. In addition, certain birds and fish were associated with Matariki: to Tūhoe it marked the beginning of the season where kererū or native pigeon could be captured, cooked, and preserved in its own fat, and the rise of Matariki corresponded with the return of korokoro (lampreys) from the sea to spawn in rivers.

Viewing
Because of the frequent poor weather in winter, the viewing of Matariki was spread across the three or four nights of Tangaroa to increase the chance that the stars would be clearly seen. The first clear night marked the beginning of festivities. When Matariki reappeared, Māori would look to its stars for a forecast of the coming season's prosperity: if they shone clear and bright, the remaining winter would be warm, but hazy or twinkling stars predicted bad weather in the season ahead. The colour, brightness, and distinctiveness of each star in Matariki would be assessed, and forecasts made according to each of their associations: for example, if Tupu-ā-rangi did not shine clearly then hunters would expect a poor catch of birds in the coming season. Pōhutukawa was linked to the deceased, so its brightness would signal how many people were likely to pass away in the coming year. These predictions were made by tohunga kōkōrangi, learned elders who had studied and debated for many years in a whare kōkōrangi (house of astronomical learning).

Remembering the deceased
After the forecasts for the year had been read from the stars, the deceased were invoked with tears and song in a ceremony called te taki mōteatea ("the reciting of laments"). The names of everyone who had died since Matariki's last rising were recited. Traditionally, Māori believed that the spirits of the dead were collected during the year and at the setting of Matariki in the month of Hautara they were led into the afterlife. On the rising of Matariki at the start of the year, the deceased of the past year were carried up from the underworld and cast up into the night sky to become stars, accompanied by prayers and the recitation of their names. Beginning the mourning for the previous year's departed at Matariki is still reflected in modern Māori mourning practices.

Offering of food
An important part of the celebration was whāngai i te hautapu, a ceremonial offering of food to the stars. The reasoning was that Matariki, after shepherding the spirits of the dead up from the underworld and turning the sun back from the winter solstice, would be weak and in need of sustenance. A small hāngī or earth oven was built, with heated stones in a pit on which was placed food, a layer of leaves, and earth. The uncovering of the cooked food released steam which rose into the sky and fed the stars, the steam being the hautapu or sacred offering. The food was chosen to correspond with the domains of the stars in Matariki: these might include kūmara for Tupuānuku, a bird for Tupuārangi, freshwater fish for Waitī, and shellfish for Waitā. The offering of food was the final part of the ceremony, which ended at sunrise.

The Matariki ceremony was followed by days of festivities – song, dance, and feasting – known as te mātahi o te tau ("the first fruits of the year"), celebrating prosperity, life, and the promise of the year to come.

Modern observance
With the colonisation of New Zealand by Pākehā settlers in the 19th century, many traditional Māori practices began to decline. Some aspects of Matariki were incorporated into new religious traditions such as the Ringatū church, but its traditional celebration had almost ceased by the early 20th century. The last of the traditional Matariki celebrations were recorded in the 1940s. Dansey records the ceremony being still practised in the 1880s or 1890s, and gives an account of one elderly New Plymouth woman carrying on the custom on her own until her death in 1941.

The revival of the celebration of Matariki can be traced to the early 1990s, sparked by various Māori iwi and organisations such as the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, for example in 1995 there was a festival called Pipitea Marae: Te Whakanui i a Matariki, at Pipitea Marae, Wellington City supported by Te Awa Kairangi Community Arts, Te Atiawa FM, Ernst & Young and Te Taura Whiri.

Te Rangi Huata of Ngāti Kahungunu began in 2000 an annual Matariki celebration in Hastings, which attracted 500 people, which reached 15,000 in 2001. In 2001, the Māori Language Commission began a move to "reclaim Matariki, or Aotearoa Pacific New Year, as an important focus for Māori language regeneration". In 2016 Te Wānanga o Aotearoa promoted a new vision of Matariki in a month-long roadshow called "Te Iwa o Matariki" (iwa being Māori for "nine"), stressing the nine stars recognised by some iwi. Since then it has increasingly become common practice for people – Māori and non-Māori – and institutions such as schools, libraries, and city councils to celebrate Matariki in a range of ways. These have included concerts, festivals of lights, the illumination of Auckland's Sky Tower, and tree planting. In 2017 Wellington City Council announced they would cancel the Sky Show fireworks held on Guy Fawkes Night for 22 years, and move them to a Matariki cultural festival from July 2018.

The celebrations have taken place over the period of a week or month, anywhere from early June to late August, but increasingly coincide with the winter solstice or the traditional dates of Matariki.

Public holiday
A proposal to make Matariki an official public holiday in New Zealand was made by former Māori Party MP Rahui Katene's member's bill Te Ra o Matariki Bill/Matariki Day Bill, drawn from the ballot in June 2009. The Bill would have fixed the date of a public holiday using the new moon in June; this was later changed to the new moon of the heliacal rising of Matariki when the bill was drawn a month later and set down for introduction into Parliament. Mayor of Waitakere City Bob Harvey supported the call to make Matariki a public holiday to replace Queen's Birthday, along with the Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand, which found none of New Zealand's local authorities held celebrations for Queen's Birthday but many celebrated Matariki. However, the Bill itself did not propose abolishing Queen's Birthday, and was voted down at its first reading.

As part of the National–Māori Party agreement subsequent to the 2011 New Zealand general election, both parties agreed to support a "cultural heritage bill to recognise Matariki/Puanga, and to honour the peace-making heritage established at Parihaka."

In July 2020, Laura O'Connell Rapira delivered two combined petitions calling for Matariki to be made a public holiday that were signed by 30,000 people.

On 7 September 2020, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pledged to make Matariki a public holiday if the Labour Party were re-elected in the 2020 general election. The proposed public holiday would not be implemented until 2022, during which businesses could recover from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand. On 4 February 2021, Ardern announced the first date for the public holiday as 24 June 2022. Legislation to give this legal effect would be introduced during the 2021 parliamentary session.

On 2 July 2021, the day the constellation rose, Ardern announced the proposed dates of the holiday for the next 30 years, as determined by a Matariki Advisory Group drawn from iwi across the country. The date of the holiday was formalised as the Friday closest to the 4 days of the nights of Tangaroa in the lunar month Piripi. The dates vary from late June to mid July, but are always on a Friday, to encourage people to travel and spend time with their families, and to give an extra public holiday to people who usually miss out on Mondayised public holidays (e.g. those who normally work Tuesday to Saturday). The date of Matariki varies because the 354-day Māori lunar calendar (with occasional intercalary months) only approximates the 365.24 day solar Gregorian solar calendar.

On 30 September 2021, Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan introduced the Te Kāhui o Matariki Public Holiday Bill to make Matariki a public holiday. The bill passed its first reading supported by the Labour, Green and Māori parties, but opposed by National and ACT. National argued that Matariki should replace an existing public holiday instead of being added as a new holiday, to lessen the impact on businesses which is estimated to be NZ$448 million annually. The bill passed its second reading on 29 March 2022. During the debate, the National and ACT parties expressed concerns about creating a 12th public holiday; claiming that it would cost NZ$450 million and have a negative impact on businesses. The Labour, Green and Māori parties argued that the bill would establish a new Māori public holiday in the calendar and raise awareness of Māori indigenous knowledge.

The bill passed its third reading on 7 April. During the final debate, National MP Paul Goldsmith argued that Matariki should replace a previous public holiday while ACT's Small Business spokesperson Chris Baillie claimed that having a new public holiday would cost businesses NZ$453 million. The Bill's sponsor Kiritapu Allan defended Matariki, arguing that public holidays reduced employee burnout and stress while boosting hospitality and tourism. National MP Simon O'Connor suggested naming the bill a "neutral" name such as Pleiades, which prompted Crown-Māori Relations Minister Kelvin Davis to claim that the former's remarks showed National's contempt for Māori culture. The bill received royal assent on 11 April 2022.

Matariki was first observed as a public holiday on 24 June 2022, including a pre-dawn live broadcast of a hautapu ceremony. It was received positively overall by New Zealanders. Its significance to New Zealanders is also enhanced by being exclusive to New Zealand culture. 43% of New Zealanders regard Matariki as an important holiday.

For businesses, Matariki is treated identically to most other public holidays; employees working on Matariki are required to be paid time-and-a-half and there are no restrictions on shops opening or alcohol sales. However, due to the unique cultural significance of the holiday, Māori cultural advisers and academics have warned companies against commercialising Matariki, citing cultural disrespect. Due to its proximity between King's Birthday and Labour Day, concerns were made regarding overcommercialisation of Matariki in terms of appropriating the extended public holiday as an opportunity for shopping events, such as the sale of fireworks. There are concerns regarding the impact of commercialisation on Matariki in the future, potentially associating the holiday with binge-drinking instead of time with whānau (family) as intended.

title: Matariki


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Matuku-tangotango

In Māori mythology, Matuku-tangotango (Matuku) is an ogre who kills Wahieroa the son of Tāwhaki. In some versions, Matuku lives in a cave called Putawarenuku. Rātā, the son of Wahieroa, sets off to avenge his murdered father, and arrives at last at Matuku's village. He hears from Matuku's servant that at the new moon his master can be killed at the pool where he washes his face and hair. When the new moon has come, Rātā waits until the ogre comes out of his cave and is leaning over with his head in the pool. He grabs him by the hair and kills him. Rātā then sets off to rescue his father's bones from the Ponaturi. A South Island version names the islands where Matuku lives as Puorunuku and Puororangi and also states that Rātā nooses Matuku as he comes out of his lair to perform certain rituals (Tregear 1891:232, 399-400).

Names and epithets

 * Matuku (bittern)
 * Matuku-tangotango ('tangotango' perhaps means 'dark as night', or 'ominous')
 * Matuku-takotako (South Island dialect).

title: Matuku-tangotango


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Wahieroa

In Māori mythology, Wahieroa is a son of Tāwhaki, and father of Rātā.

Tāwhaki was attacked and left for dead by two of his brothers-in-law, jealous that their wives preferred the handsome Tāwhaki to them. He was nursed back to health by his wife Hinepiripiri. She helped him back to their house, and brought home a long piece of timber for the fire, to keep him warm. Shortly afterwards, a son was born to them, and named Wahieroa. The name, meaning 'long piece of firewood', was chosen to fix in their son's mind the wrong that had been done to Tāwhaki, in order that one day Wahieroa might avenge him.

In another version, Tāwhaki told his people to collect firewood, and went himself to gather some. The others were lazy, and brought back little wood, but Tāwhaki returned with a long piece of timber on his shoulder. When he saw what the others had brought, he threw it down, and the noise startled them. Tāwhaki told his wife to call their child Wahieroa when it was born, to remind them of the incident. The child was raised with care, and when he grew to adulthood he married Tonga-rau-tāwhiri When she was pregnant, she had a craving to eat the flesh of a tūī bird, and asked Wahieroa to catch one. Wahieroa did so. It was cooked and she ate it with relish. Some time later she asked him to bring her another. Wahieroa went into the forest with his slave, but could not find any tūī. The two men went further and further into the forest, until they came to the hunting grounds of Matuku-tangotango, who killed Wahieroa and captured his slave. Shortly after Wahieroa had been killed, Matoka-rau-tawhiri gave birth to a son, named Rātā, who would one day avenge the death of Wahieroa.

title: Wahieroa


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Matuu

In Polynesian mythology, Matuu or Matu is the god of the north wind and the second wind to be controlled by Maui.

title: Matuu


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Mauri (disambiguation)

Mauri were the people of the ancient north African kingdom Mauretania

Mauri may also refer to:
 * Moors, North African people known in Latin as Mauri
 * Mauri (life force), a concept in traditional Māori religion
 * Mauri, Estonia, village in Misso Parish, Võru County
 * Mauri River, in Bolivia and Peru
 * AB Mauri, a division of Associated British Foods
 * Mauri (film), 1987 New Zealand film directed by Merata Mita
 * Mauri (fish), a Trichomycterus catfish found in Poopó Lake, Bolivia
 * "hello" in the language of the i-Kiribati

Name

 * Mauri (surname), persons surnamed Mauri

Given name

 * Mauri (1934–2022), Mauri Ugartemendia, Spanish footballer
 * Mauri (born 1994), Mauri Franco Barbosa da Silva, brazilian footballer
 * Mauri Favén (1920–2006), Finnish painter
 * Mauri Fonseca (born 1941), Brazilian Olympic swimmer
 * Mauri Holappa (born 1965), Finnish footballer and coach
 * Mauri König, Brazilian journalist
 * Mauri Kunnas (born 1950), Finnish cartoonist and author
 * Mauri Nyberg-Noroma (1908–1939), Finnish gymnast
 * Mauri Pekkarinen (born 1947), Finnish politician
 * Mauri Repo (1945–2002), Finnish athletic administrator
 * Mauri Röppänen (born 1946), Finnish Olympia biathlete
 * Mauri Rose (1906–1981), American racecar driver
 * Mauri Ryömä (1911–1958), Finnish physician and politician
 * Mauri Seppä (1916–2000), Finnish agronomist, farmer, and politician
 * Mauri Valtonen, Finnish astronomer
 * Mauri Wasi (born 1982), Papua New Guinean footballer

title: Mauri (disambiguation)


text:
Motoro

Motoro is a god in Polynesian mythology, the tribal god of the Ngariki of Mangaia. He is the son of Tangiia and the brother of Ruanuku, Kereteki and Utakea. While travelling to Mangaia he argued with his two eldest brothers, was thrown into the sea, and devoured by sharks. His spirit then floated to Mangaia on a piece of hibiscus. He was known as i'o ora ("god of the living") because his followers could not be used as human sacrifices.

title: Motoro


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Moko (mythology)

In the mythology of Mangaia in the Cook Islands, Moko is a wily character and grandfather of the heroic Ngaru.

Moko is a ruler or king of the lizards, and he orders his lizard subjects to climb into the basket of the sky demon Amai-te-rangi to spy on him. When Amai-te-rangi pulls up his basket, he is disappointed to find it full of miserable little reptiles, which escape and overrun his home in the sky.

title: Moko (mythology)


text:
Pili

Pili may refer to:

Common names of plants

 * Canarium ovatum, a Philippine tree that is a source of the pili nut
 * Heteropogon contortus, a Hawaiian grass used to thatch structures

Places

 * Pili, Camarines Sur, is a municipality in the Philippines
 * Pili, barangay in Danao, Cebu
 * Pili, (or Cerro Pili, 'Pili Hill'), another name for Acamarachi, a volcano in Chile
 * Pili Nadi, a stream or small river that flows through Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh; tributary of the Gomti River

Other uses

 * Pili, another name for jianzi, a traditional Chinese sport
 * Pili (film), nominated for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer in 2018
 * Pili line, a Hawaiian royal house
 * Pili, short form of Pilikaʻaiea, ruler or aliʻi nui of Hawaii, founder of the Pili line
 * Pili, plural of Pilus, a cellular organelle
 * Pili (TV series), a puppet television show from Taiwan
 * Perak, a state of Malaysia, written as 霹雳 or 霹靂 for Chinese

title: Pili


text:
Nabagatai

In Fijian mythology, Nabagatai is a village on the road to Bulu, where the souls of the dead live (Williams and Calvert 1858:245).

title: Nabagatai


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Matthew Shepard

Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6, 1998. He was taken by rescuers to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he died six days later from severe head injuries received during the attack.

Suspects Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson were arrested shortly after the attack and charged with first-degree murder following Shepard's death. Significant media coverage was given to the murder and what role Shepard's sexual orientation played as a motive for the crime.

The prosecutor argued that the murder of Shepard was premeditated and driven by greed. McKinney's defense counsel countered by arguing that he had intended only to rob Shepard but killed him in a rage when Shepard made a sexual advance toward him. McKinney's girlfriend told police that he had been motivated by anti-gay sentiment but later recanted her statement, saying that she had lied because she thought it would help him. Henderson pleaded guilty to murder, and McKinney was tried and found guilty of murder; each of them received two consecutive life sentences.

Shepard's murder brought national and international attention to hate crime legislation at both the state and federal level. In October 2009, the United States Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (commonly the "Matthew Shepard Act" or "Shepard/Byrd Act" for short), and on October 28, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the legislation into law. Following her son's murder, Judy Shepard became a gay rights activist and established the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Shepard's murder inspired a number of films, novels, plays, songs, and other works, including The Laramie Project (a 2000 play and 2002 film) and Judy Shepard's 2009 memoir The Meaning of Matthew.

Background
Matthew Shepard was born in 1976 in Casper, Wyoming; he was the first of two sons born to Judy (née Peck) and Dennis Shepard. His younger brother, Logan, was born in 1981. The two brothers had a close relationship. Shepard attended Crest Hill Elementary School, Dean Morgan Junior High School, and Natrona County High School for his freshman through junior years. As a child, he was "friendly with all his classmates", but was targeted and teased due to his small stature and lack of athleticism. He developed an interest in politics at an early age.

Saudi Aramco hired his father in the summer of 1994, and Shepard's parents subsequently resided at the Saudi Aramco Residential Camp in Dhahran. During that time, Shepard attended the American School in Switzerland (TASIS), from which he graduated in May 1995. There, he participated in theater, and took German and Italian courses. He then attended Catawba College in North Carolina and Casper College in Wyoming, before settling in Denver, Colorado. Shepard became a first-year political science major at the University of Wyoming in Laramie with a minor in languages, and was chosen as the student representative for the Wyoming Environmental Council.

Shepard was an Episcopalian and once served as an altar boy in the church. He was described by his father as "an optimistic and accepting young man who had a special gift of relating to almost everyone. He was the type of person who was very approachable and always looked to new challenges. Shepard had a great passion for equality and always stood up for the acceptance of people's differences." Michele Josue, who had been Shepard's friend and later created a documentary about him, Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine, described him as "a tenderhearted and kind person."

In 1995, Shepard was beaten and raped during a high school trip to Morocco. This caused him to experience depression and panic attacks, according to his mother. One of Shepard's friends feared that his depression had driven him to become involved with drugs during his time at college. Multiple times, Shepard was hospitalized due to his clinical depression and suicidal ideation.

Murder
On the night of October 6, 1998, Shepard was approached by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie; all three men were in their early 20s. McKinney and Henderson offered to give Shepard a ride home. They subsequently drove to a remote rural area and proceeded to rob, pistol-whip, and torture Shepard, tying him to a split rail fence and leaving him to die. It was erroneously reported by the news that he had been tied to a barbed wire fence. Many media reports contained the graphic account of the pistol-whipping and his fractured skull. Reports described how Shepard was beaten so brutally that his face was completely covered in blood, except where it had been partially cleansed by his tears.

The assailants' girlfriends testified that neither McKinney nor Henderson was under the influence of alcohol or other drugs at the time of the attack. McKinney and Henderson testified that they learned of Shepard's address and intended to steal from his home as well. After attacking Shepard and leaving him tied to the fence in near-freezing temperatures, McKinney and Henderson returned to town. McKinney proceeded to pick a fight with two men, 19-year-old Emiliano Morales and 18-year-old Jeremy Herrara. The fight resulted in head wounds for both Morales and McKinney. Police officer Flint Waters arrived at the scene of the fight. He arrested Henderson, searched McKinney's truck, and found a blood-smeared gun along with Shepard's shoes and credit card. Henderson and McKinney later tried to persuade their girlfriends to provide alibis for them and help them dispose of evidence.

Still tied to the fence, Shepard was in a coma eighteen hours after the attack when he was discovered by Aaron Kreifels, a cyclist who initially mistook Shepard for a scarecrow. Reggie Fluty, the first police officer to arrive at the scene, found Shepard alive but covered in blood. Shepard was transported first to Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie before being moved to the more advanced trauma ward at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. He had suffered fractures to the back of his head and in front of his right ear. He experienced severe brainstem damage, which affected his body's ability to regulate his heart rate, body temperature, and other vital functions. There were also about a dozen small lacerations around his head, face, and neck. His injuries were deemed too severe for doctors to operate. Shepard never regained consciousness and remained on full life support. While he lay in intensive care and in the days following the attack, candlelight vigils were held in countries around the world.

Shepard was pronounced dead six days after the attack at 12:53 a.m. on October 12, 1998. He was 21 years old.

Arrests and trial
McKinney and Henderson were arrested and initially charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, and aggravated robbery. After Shepard's death, the charges were upgraded from attempted murder to first-degree murder, which meant that the two defendants were eligible for the death penalty. Their girlfriends, Kristen Price and Chasity Pasley, were charged with being accessories after the fact. At McKinney's November 1998 pretrial hearing, Sergeant Rob Debree testified that McKinney had stated in an interview on October 9 that he and Henderson had identified Shepard as a robbery target and pretended to be gay to lure him out to their truck, and that McKinney had attacked Shepard after Shepard put his hand on McKinney's knee. Detective Ben Fritzen testified that Price stated McKinney told her the violence against Shepard was triggered by how McKinney "[felt] about gays".

In December 1998, Pasley pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. On April 5, 1999, Henderson avoided going to trial when he pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping charges. In order to avoid the death penalty, he agreed to testify against McKinney and was sentenced by District Judge Jeffrey A. Donnell to two consecutive life terms. At Henderson's sentencing, his lawyer argued that Shepard had not been targeted because he was gay.

McKinney's trial took place in October and November 1999. Prosecutor Cal Rerucha alleged that McKinney and Henderson pretended to be gay to gain Shepard's trust. Price, McKinney's girlfriend, testified that Henderson and McKinney had "pretended they were gay to get [Shepard] in the truck and rob him." McKinney's lawyer attempted to put forward a gay panic defense, arguing that McKinney was driven to temporary insanity by alleged sexual advances by Shepard. This defense was rejected by the judge. McKinney's lawyer stated that the two men wanted to rob Shepard but never intended to kill him. Rerucha argued that the killing had been premeditated, driven by "greed and violence", rather than by Shepard's sexual orientation. The jury found McKinney not guilty of premeditated murder but guilty of felony murder and began to deliberate on the death penalty. Shepard's parents brokered a deal that resulted in McKinney receiving two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. Henderson and McKinney were incarcerated in the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins and were later transferred to other prisons because of overcrowding. Following her testimony at McKinney's trial, Price pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor interference with a police officer.

20/20
Shepard's murder continued to attract public attention and media coverage long after the trial was over. In 2004, the ABC News news program 20/20 aired a report that quoted statements by McKinney, Henderson, Price, Rerucha, and a lead investigator. The statements alleged that the murder had not been motivated by Shepard's sexuality but was primarily a drug-related robbery that had turned violent. Price said she had lied to police about McKinney having been provoked by an unwanted sexual advance from Shepard, telling TV journalist Elizabeth Vargas, "I don't think it was a hate crime at all." Rerucha said, "It was a murder that was once again driven by drugs."

The Book of Matt
Stephen Jimenez, the producer of the 2004 20/20 segment, went on to write a book, The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard, which was published in September 2013. The book said that Shepard and McKinney—the killer who inflicted the injuries—had been occasional sex partners and that Shepard was a methamphetamine dealer. Jimenez wrote that Fritzen told an interviewer "Matthew Shepard's sexual preference or sexual orientation certainly wasn't the motive in the homicide...".

Many commentators have criticized Jimenez's views on the attack by classifying them as being sensational and misleading; those views were shared by gay advocacy organizations and cultural critics. Some commentators, however, have spoken up to defend it. Some police that were involved in the investigation have criticized Jimenez's conclusions, while other police said that there was evidence that drugs were an important factor that led to the murder.

Anti-gay protests
Members of the Westboro Baptist Church, led by Fred Phelps, received national attention for picketing Shepard's funeral with signs bearing homophobic slogans, such as "Matt in Hell" and "God Hates Fags".

Church members also mounted anti-gay protests during the trials of Henderson and McKinney. In response, Romaine Patterson, one of Shepard's friends, organized a group that assembled in a circle around the Westboro Baptist Church protesters. The group wore white robes and gigantic wings (resembling angels) that blocked the protesters. Despite this, Shepard's parents were able to hear the protesters shouting anti-gay remarks and comments directed toward them. The police intervened and created a human barrier between the two groups. Angel Action was founded by Patterson in April 1999.

Legacy
In the years following her son's death, Judy Shepard has worked as an advocate for LGBT rights, particularly issues relating to gay youth. She was a main force behind the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which she and her husband, Dennis, founded in December 1998.

Gay rights activist John Stoltenberg has said that to portray Shepard as a gay-bashing victim is to present an incomplete account of his victimization: "Keeping Matthew as the poster boy of gay-hate crime and ignoring the full tragedy of his story has been the agenda of many gay-movement leaders. Ignoring the tragedies of Matthew's life prior to his murder will do nothing to help other young men in our community who are sold for sex, ravaged by drugs, and generally exploited."

In June 2019, Shepard was one of the inaugural 50 American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City's Stonewall Inn. The SNM is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history, and the wall's unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

Hate crime legislation

Requests for new legislation to address hate crimes gained momentum during coverage of the incident. Under existing United States federal law and Wyoming state law, crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation could not be prosecuted as hate crimes.

A few hours after Shepard was discovered, his friends Walt Boulden and Alex Trout began to contact media organizations, claiming that Shepard had been assaulted because he was gay. According to prosecutor Cal Rerucha, "They were calling the County Attorney's office, they were calling the media and indicating Matthew Shepard is gay and we don't want the fact that he is gay to go unnoticed." Tina Labrie, a close friend of Shepard's, said "[Boulden and Trout] wanted to make [Matt] a poster child or something for their cause". Boulden linked the attack to the absence of a Wyoming criminal statute providing for a hate crimes charge.

In the following session of the Wyoming Legislature, a bill was introduced that defined certain attacks motivated by a victim's sexual orientation as hate crimes. The measure failed on a 30–30 tie in the Wyoming House of Representatives.

President Bill Clinton renewed attempts to extend federal hate crime legislation to include gay people, women, and people with disabilities. A Hate Crimes Prevention Act was introduced in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives in November 1997, and reintroduced in March 1999, but was passed by only the Senate in July 1999. In September 2000, both houses of Congress passed such legislation; however, it was stripped out in conference committee.

On March 20, 2007, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was introduced as federal bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Congress, sponsored by Democrat John Conyers with 171 co-sponsors. It would amend the existing federal hate crimes definition and expand it to cover gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability, and require reporting by the FBI of those crimes included in the expansion. Shepard's parents attended the introduction ceremony. The bill passed the House of Representatives on May 3, 2007. Similar legislation passed in the Senate on September 27, 2007, however then-President George W. Bush indicated he would veto the legislation if it reached his desk. The Democratic leadership dropped the legislation in response to opposition from conservative groups and Bush, and because the measure was attached to a defense bill there was a lack of support from antiwar Democrats. On December 10, 2007, congressional powers attached bipartisan hate crimes legislation to a Department of Defense Authorization bill, although it failed to pass. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, said she was "still committed to getting the Matthew Shepard Act passed". Pelosi planned to get the bill passed in early 2008 although she did not succeed. Following his election as president, Barack Obama stated that he was committed to passing the act.

The U.S. House of Representatives debated expansion of hate crimes legislation on April 29, 2009. During the debate, Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina called the "hate crime" labeling of Shepard's murder a "hoax". Foxx later called her comments "a poor choice of words". The House passed the act, designated, by a vote of 249 to 175. Ted Kennedy, Patrick Leahy, and a bipartisan coalition introduced the bill in the Senate on April 28; it had 43 cosponsors as of June 17, 2009. The Matthew Shepard Act was adopted as an amendment to S.1390 by a vote of 63–28 on July 15, 2009. On October 22, 2009, the Senate passed the act by a vote of 68–29. President Obama signed the measure into law on October 28, 2009.

Interment in Washington National Cathedral
On October 26, 2018, just over 20 years after his death, Shepard's ashes were interred at the crypt of Washington National Cathedral. The ceremony was presided over by the first openly gay Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, and the Bishop of Washington the Right Reverend Marianne Edgar Budde. Music was performed by the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington DC, GenOUT, and Conspirare, which performed Craig Hella Johnson's Considering Matthew Shepard. His was the first interment of the ashes of a national figure at the cathedral since Helen Keller's 50 years earlier.

In popular culture
Matthew Shepard's life, death, trial, and its aftermath have inspired numerous works, including documentary and narrative films and television shows, stage plays (such as The Laramie Project), and musical and written works. Additionally, NBA player Jason Collins wore the jersey number "98" in honor of Shepard during his 2012–13 season with the Boston Celtics and the Washington Wizards, and he would come out as gay following the season. After Collins joined the Brooklyn Nets in 2014, NBA marketing reported high interest in his "98" jersey and high sales once the item became available for purchase.

The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed, is a 2009 biographical book by Judy Shepard about her son. Judy Shepard speaks about her loss, her family memories of Matthew, and the tragic event that changed the Shepards' lives and America. The Meaning of Matthew follows the Shepard family in the days immediately after the crime to see their incapacitated son, kept alive by life support machines; how the Shepards learned of the huge public response, the candlelit vigils and memorial services for their child; and their struggles to navigate the legal system.

American musician Tori Amos frequently dedicated her 1998 song "Merman" to Shepard, at the request of fans following her tours at the time.

In 1999, American singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge released the song "Scarecrow" in Shepard's memory, from her sixth studio album Breakdown.

In 2006, American metal band Trivium released the song "And Sadness Will Sear", which was written as a tribute and reminder about Shepard's murder.

title: Matthew Shepard


text:
Nāmaka

In Hawaiian mythology, Nāmaka (or Nā-maka-o-Kahai, the eyes of Kahai) appears as a sea goddess in the Pele family. She is an older sister of Pele-honua-mea.

She is the daughter of Ku-waha-ilo and Haumea, whose other children are Pele, the Hiʻiaka sisters, the Kama brothers, and the bird Halulu. Nāmaka takes as her husband ʻAukelenuiaʻīkū, who had arrived in Lalakeenuiakane or in Kahiki (Tahiti), but he later becomes the husband of her sister Pele, and because of this Pele, the Hiiaka sisters, Malulani, and Kaʻōhelo migrate to Hawaii. When Pele quarrels with her powerful sister Nāmaka, Nāmaka sends tidal waves to destroy Pele's lands and homes. Helped by her family, Pele fights Nāmaka, but Nāmaka defeats her.

In Thrum's Kane-huna-moku myth, Nāmaka is called the chiefess of the Mu and Menehune people when they are summoned to build the watercourse for Kikiaola at Waimea on Kauai.

When Pele causes a conflagration by staying too close to the fire god Lono-makua, Nāmaka drives her away Another legend mentions that Nāmaka's guardian dog, Moela is reduced to ashes when he touches ʻAukele.

Moon
Namaka, the smaller moon of the dwarf planet Haumea, is named after the goddess.

title: Nāmaka


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Nana-Ula

In Hawaiian mythology, Nana-Ula or Nanaulu is the hero who led his people from Tahiti to Hawaii. He was the first King of Hawaii, and began the royal dynasty.

Kalakaua, during his reign as the last king of Hawaii, compiled the Legends and Mythology of Hawaii. He accepted the thesis of Abraham Fornander that the Polynesian "race" originated from "Aryans" in Asia Minor who emigrated to Southeast Asia via India and subsequent dispersal during the first and second centuries. These views were challenged at the time. Their first general rendezvous was in the Fiji group, where they left their impress upon the native Papuans. Expelled from, or voluntarily leaving, the Fijis, after a sojourn there of several generations, the Polynesians scattered over the Pacific, occupying by stages the several groups of islands where they are now found. Moving by the way of the Samoan and Society Islands, the migratory wave did not reach the Hawaiian group until about the middle of the sixth century.

Nanaula, a distinguished chief, was the first to arrive from the southern islands. It is not known whether he discovered the group by being blown northward by adverse winds, or in deliberately adventuring far out upon the ocean in search of new lands. In either event, he brought with him his gods, priests, prophets and astrologers, and a considerable body of followers and retainers. He was also provided with dogs, swine and fowls, and the seeds and germs of useful plants for propagation. It is probable that he found the group without human inhabitants.

During that period——probably during the life of Nanaula——other chiefs of less importance arrived with their families and followers either from Tahiti or Samoa. They came in barges and large double canoes capable of accommodating from fifty to one hundred persons each. They brought with them not only their priests and gods, but the earliest of Polynesian traditions. It is thought that none of the pioneers of the time of Nanaula ever returned to the southern islands, nor did others immediately follow the first migratory wave that peopled the Hawaiian group.

title: Nana-Ula


text:
Daucina

In Fijian mythology (Fiji), Daucina ("torchbearer") is the great god of seafaring Fiji. When Daucina was a toddler, he was only quiet when looking at a lamp. His mother tied fiery reeds to his head so that he would be calm. He has roamed the coral reefs with a hood on ever since. He is a trickster and a patron of adulterers, and a seducer of women.

title: Daucina