Supporting Māori Cultural Aspirations (strategic priority linked to Ministry for Culture and Heritage work programme)
Māori culture and heritage is a defining feature of New Zealand identity in the world. The preservation and expression of Māori language, arts, culture and heritage need to be well supported. Cultural agencies are committed to working in partnership with iwi-Māori to advance their long-term cultural aspirations for the benefit of Māori and all New Zealanders. In the post-settlement (settlement of Treaty of Waitangi claims) environment, iwi are better positioned to advance their own cultural aspirations and will demand a high level of responsiveness from government and its agencies.
By 2018 the Ministry for Culture and Heritage intends the Ministry, iwi-Māori, and cultural sector organisations to have strengthened capacity to advance Māori cultural aspirations for the benefit of Māori and for all New Zealanders.
The priority has been incorporated as a theme in the Ministry for Culture and Heritage's work programme and those of our relevant agencies. The Ministry has a number of initiatives that relate to the shared outcome of Supporting Māori cultural aspirations. These include:
- Treaty Settlement Stories: the production of a comprehensive, historically rigorous account of the recent history of Treaty of Waitangi settlements from all perspectives
- Treaty settlement protocols: as one of the core group of government agencies to support the Treaty settlement process, we have over 50 relationship agreements with iwi which is likely to rise to 100 by 2017
- managing post-Treaty relationships: provision of guidance to iwi in the development of their cultural plans to support their cultural aspirations in a post-Treaty environment
- supporting Māori cultural talent: targeted initiatives to address gaps and opportunities in the delivery of support for Māori practitioners, including Te Matatini
- protection of taonga tūturu: managing the conservation of newly found taonga tūturu and the process of assigning ownership (taonga tūturu is a category of New Zealand protected objects that relate to Māori culture, history, or society defined in the Protected Objects Act)
- working with the cultural sector: leading the cultural sector in delivering more than our legal obligations and building recognition that iwi/Māori are intrinsic to New Zealand's identity.
Improvement in:
- proportion of iwi with whom the Ministry for Culture and Heritage has an 'active' relationship
- number of publicly funded cultural agencies with co-designed iwi initiatives
- te reo capability programmes in publicly funded cultural agencies.
Unable to determine