Toi Māori
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.