A leading screen industry expert is lamenting the possible losses Whakaata Māori could face as it cuts costs to meet a nearly $10m funding decrease.
Nicole Hoey (Ngāti Kahu, Te Aupōuri) is the founder of production company Cinco Cine, and was nominated for Best Reo Māori Programme in the 2019 New Zealand Television Awards for Tākaro Tribe, for which she serves as director and producer.
Speaking to Te Ao Māori News’ Tini Molyneux this afternoon, Hoey expressed dismay at the lack of funding which has forced Whakaata Māori to consider cuts.
“It just breaks my heart again to see we’ve got to apologise for being Māori, when is this going to stop? When is this political football of kicking us... when is it gonna stop?”
Baseline funding for the organisation, which is charged with aiding the revitalisation of te reo Māori through content, has not increased since 2008, a factor Kaihautū / Chief Executive Shane Taurima says forms part of the current financial headwinds.
“In the last few years, under the previous Labour government, we were given temporary time-limited funding to help accelerate the work that we were doing with digital as well as to support our kaihoe, our staff.”
With the conclusion of that time-locked funding in the next financial year, he says the organisation has been forced to review its structure and consider cutting up to a quarter of its costs.
Hoey says her show, which has enjoyed multiple seasons on Whakaata Māori, is intended to inspire tamariki like her son in the kōhanga reo generation.
“Where do our tamariki go for te reo? I know that they go to Tākaro Tribe that’s been watched for 3700 hours per day.
“I make it for around about 30 percent less than my pākehā counterparts,” she said, citing the established inequity between the Māori and non-Māori media sectors.
A 2022 review of the Māori media sector revealed massive funding inequities when compared with the rest of the media sector, prompting the Labour government of the day to implement the time-locked funding.
Hoey says that money still fell far short of what the sector needed.
“The funding that was given in the last five or six years didn’t even bring the funding agency Te Māngi Pāho or Whakaata Māori into a viable space.”
So far, the National-led government hasn’t offered Whakaata Māori a funding increase, despite announcing a raft of changes and support for the wider industry earlier today.
She warns the domino effect of Whakaata Māori cuts could reach well beyond the organisation.
“My fear is, are we going to have an insolvent Whakaata Māori?”
“What underpins culture? Language.”
“What set up Whakaata Māori was exactly that: the revitalisation of te reo Māori, me [ngā] tikanga Māori.”
