Executive Summary

Currently, Toi Māori in all its forms; music, visual art, film and television, broadcasting and performing arts to name a few is valued so lowly in comparison to other non-indigenous art forms in this country, yet the promotion of Aotearoa is predominantly marketed by the works produced by our Māori creatives.

Access to funding and resource across the board in the Culture and Arts sector is inequitable for Māori. An example of these disparities can be seen in the funding of Te Matatini, who receive $1.9m compared with the Royal NZ Ballet receiving $5.4m and the NZ Symphony Orchestra receiving $16.3m.

Toi Māori is our ahurea Māori. It is not just a tourism strategy or a simple “art” strategy. Toi Māori is our total wellbeing strategy; our mental health strategy, our physical health strategy, our Reo Māori strategy, our Educational strategy, our whakapapa strategy, our tourism strategy, our community development strategy and our cultural defense strategy and must be recognised as such.

For too long the crown has feasted off our cultural intellectual property and have used it as a means to selfishly ignite international relationships and tourism interests without any consideration for the development of our culture here at home and the positive impact it has on our wellbeing. We intend to begin the process of reclaiming our cultural intellectual property and taking full control of the way our culture is projected nationally and internationally.

Māori Party will:

• Allocate $19m to Te Matatini
• Allocate $10m to Community, Hapū and Iwi development of Kapahaka and its accompanying art forms.
• Establish an independent Toi Māori entity worth $57m dedicated to the protection and projection of all Toi Māori. This entity will be funded directly by the government and will be based on a commissioning model.
• Make the new Toi Māori entity a Statutory Body on the Lottery Grants Board by 2023 that receives equal funding to Creative NZ.
• Establish a research fund worth $10m for the purpose of producing an evidence base for how Toi Māori contributes to oranga Māori, with the intention of Toi Māori being funded across all sectors equitably by 2023.

Context

Before colonisation, our world, our culture, our primary method of communication and our oranga sat in the realm of what Pākeha now call “art”. Overtime, the projection of our indigenous voice has been degraded to an “art form” which has aided and abetted a colonisation agenda that has been instrumental in the depletion of the very existence of our cultural intellect.

Our culture, our “art” and our creativity are synonymous with one another. Māori creativity in its entirety is inextricably linked to our wellbeing because it is rooted in Mātauranga Māori.

The current funding model for our entire cultural intellectual property has been relegated to the Ministry of Culture & Heritage and a portion of it sitting in the Ministry of Māori Development. The discrimination against the value of our culture and the crowns tendency to reduce it down to just an “art form” is oppressive and continues to stifle our ability to effectively design and implement our own solutions to our oranga.

In 2016/17 Te Matatini received a funding increase to $1.9 million, and funding for kapa haka has remained at that level since then. By comparison, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) has been allocated $14.6 million per annum and for this current year were given an extra overspend allocation of $1.5 million; $16.3 million in total. The Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB) also receives $5.4 million each year.

Of the three organisations, only Te Matatini reached its target audience of 65,000. Te Matatini is also the only one of the three with a required online / television audience target of 1 million views. Te Matatini will receive, in the year ahead, one-seventh of the funding provided to NZSO but is required to achieve higher audience participation rates.

Solution

Our aim is to assert the notion that Toi Māori is a total wellbeing strategy for Māori and that we must create opportunities for Māori to be in total control of the protection and projection of our indigenous voice. We demand to be the sole determinants of the way our cultural intellectual property is projected locally and offshore.

Our Toi Māori plan will begin the process of reimagining our world, re-writing the narrative, reinstating traditional wānanga and traditional practices, building capability and capacity in the Toi Māori sector for the purpose of oranga and for the protection and projection of our indigenous voice.

Māori Party will:

• Allocate $19m to Te Matatini
• Allocate $10m to Community, Hapū and Iwi development of Kapahaka and its accompanying art forms.
• Establish an independent Toi Māori entity worth $57m dedicated to the protection and projection of all Toi Māori. This entity will be funded directly by the government and will be based on a commissioning model.
• Make the new Toi Māori entity a Statutory Body on the Lottery Grants Board by 2023 that receives equal funding to Creative NZ.
• Establish a research fund worth $10m for the purpose of producing an evidence base for how Toi Māori contributes to oranga Māori, with the intention of Toi Māori being funded across all sectors equitably by 2023.