People Against Prisons Aotearoa is gearing up to mark Matariki by sending Matariki-inspired letters and cards to inmates.
The organisation has been holding car drive events where people from the community can come and write cards to prisoners.
Emmy Rākete (Ngāpuhi) People Against Prisons Aotearoa said their pen pal programme, called the Prisoner Correspondence Network, sets up card drive events across the country.
“The cool thing about the Prisoners Correspondence Network is that it puts incarcerated people directly in touch with the wider community again... It’s a way of trying to hold onto these whakapapa ties.
“Every year we do the Christmas card project where we write Christmas cards from the community to everyone inside as part as of our network and this year we are doing it for Matariki as well.”
Rākete said the event is another way of celebrating and expressing what Matariki means for Māori and the rest of the country.
“We are really building a new national culture for Māori and for all New Zealanders and so it’s a really cool way of expressing what Matariki means for us.
“We get lots and lots of mail from people inside saying how it touched them to kind of know they were being thought about.”
She said the event is open to everyone and is encouraging people to drop in during their next event.
“Knowing that there’s still light and the stars of Matariki are shining down on us, on all of us I think is a reminder for incarcerated people that they are part of our community and will be back with us soon”
The next card drive events will be held in Wellington and Dunedin over the next couple of weeks.
