This week the Prime Minister John Key announced a great opportunity for arts and cultural organisations in relation to the nationwide festival that will run alongside the Rugby World Cup from 9 September to 23 October next year.

A new $9.5 million contestable fund for events as part of next year’s nationwide festival has been announced. The New Zealand 2011 Festival Lottery Fund will support community events and activities in every part of the country.

“During Rugby World Cup 2011 we will be staging a nationwide festival which will showcase the best of New Zealand’s arts, food and wine, heritage, entertainment, experiences, and lifestyle,” said Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully.

“The New Zealand 2011 Festival Lottery Fund will support all sorts of community events associated with the festival. This could include everything from concerts, fairs and exhibitions, to street markets and parades.”

Funding can go towards management and operating costs, artists’ fees, publicity and production costs.

“Rugby World Cup 2011 will be the largest sporting event ever held in New Zealand, and we want to maximise community involvement,” said Minister of Internal Affairs Nathan Guy.

“With 23 centres hosting either games or teams, the celebrations and the economic benefits are going to be spread throughout the country. This funding will ensure the opportunities to be part of the Rugby World Cup festival are equally widespread.”

New Zealand 2011 Office Festival Director, Briony Ellis, says the Festival Programme already features some quintessentially Kiwi events and this fund will ensure more great ideas can be brought to life.

 “There will be plenty of time between games, so we want to encourage both international visitors and travelling Kiwis to take the long way around from one match to the next, and see the country and meet the people. The festival will be a great way to do that.”

Mr McCully said the lottery fund would complement the significant investment that regions and the government were already making in the nationwide festival.

The fund will be administered by the Department of Internal Affairs, and decisions will be made by members of the 2011 Group – Bob Parker, Sir David Gascoigne, Bob Harvey, Sharon Hunter and Wally Stone. Applications for grants opened on 28 July and close on 17 September. Recipients will be advised in early November.

The funding has been allocated by the Lottery Grants Board, which distributes the profits of New Zealand Lotteries (including Lotto and Instant Kiwi) to various statutory bodies and distribution committees.

For more on this fund and other lottery grants see www.dia.govt.nz

For the NZ 2011 Festival programme, see www.nz2011.govt.nz

Every year since 1975 New Zealand has marked Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori – Māori Language Week. This year the theme is Te Mahi Kai – The Language of Food. The week is an opportunity for all New Zealanders to celebrate te reo Māori and encourage the use of more Māori phrases in everyday life.

What does Māori Language Week mean to New Zealanders and how can we celebrate it? There are four key sites that have all you need to understand, participate in and celebrate the week.

Want to kōrero Māori? Find quality Māori language resources at http://www.korero.maori.nz/home.html.

Do you know the history of Māori Language Week? Find out at http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/maori-language-week.

The future of the Māori language was the subject of a claim before the Waitangi Tribunal in 1985. Find out how the resulting decision helped the resurgence of te reo Māori from late last century. http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/maori-language-week/waitangi-tribunal-claim

Now over 130,000 people of Māori ethnicity speak and understand te reo Māori. Discover the language’s decline and revival. http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/maori-language-week/history-of-the-maori-language

Learn 100 Māori words every New Zealander should know, from greetings to place names. Not only see the word and its translation, but also listen to how the word is pronounced. http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/maori-language-week/100-maori-words

An important feature of the New Zealand encyclopedia, www.TeAra.govt.nz, is its Māori content. The Māori perspective is presented with each of the encyclopedia’s themes, and entries with substantial Māori content are available in the Māori language. A section on Maori has a wealth of information from its people, culture and urbanisation to the impact from the arrival of Europeans. http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealandInBrief/Maori/en

All over the country there will be plenty of opportunities to get out and celebrate the Māori language – from kapahaka performances and concerts to exhibitions and events. And you can find a whole heap of them on http://www.eventfinder.co.nz/theme/2010/whakanuia-te-wiki-te-reo-m-ori-celebrate-m-ori-language-week.

In cafes and homes all over Auckland and Wellington, furrowed faces are furiously pouring over glossy pages armed with pens, highlighters and post-its. Notes are scribbled, messages are sent, timetables scheduled in an elaborate orchestration fit for going into battle. This isn’t a hostile takeover, but an occupation of sorts is about to take hold and other cities will soon capitulate to this madness. It’s time again for the New Zealand International Film Festival.

The annual New Zealand International Film Festival has long been the premier film event of the year, and the cultural highlight of the New Zealand winter. The Festival brings an impressive array of the latest and best films from all over the world to 15 cities and towns around New Zealand.

This year the Festival presents a strong contingent of New Zealand premieres for new and emerging filmmakers who are given the opportunity to debut their work in front of a local audience. The full line-up includes 17 outstanding examples that represent the best in homegrown cinema for 2010.

All of the Festival’s Kiwi selections are now listed on Eventfinder, offering the chance to schedule online with your friends, or drive to another town if you missed the screening in your own. And once you’ve seen them, don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments.

NZ On Screen has launched a significant selection of classic NZ short films.

The first in a series – in partnership with the NZ Film Commission – it showcases award-winning examples of Kiwi short filmmaking. From the seminal Kitchen Sink to the sleazy charms of The Lounge Bar, from Cannes to Ngawi; this collection makes many films available online for the first time since they won festival acclaim and audiences.

A background piece by Barney McDonald (Sunday Star Times film reviewer and Pavement magazine founder) surveys the short filmscape: “a beautiful medium for nailing an idea to the fence post with a piece of No.8 wire.”

Curator and NZ Film Commission Short Film Manager Juliette Veber reflects on the legacy — career spawning and works of art in their own right — of NZ short films. If you scroll the credits of The Lounge Bar (1989) you’ll see that special effects were handled by one ‘Peter Jackson’.

The collection is the ideal primer for watching the emerging ranks of Kiwi filmmakers — in the ‘Homegrown’ sections of the 2010 NZ International Film Festival. Watch the trailer, then get along and support the next generation!

The best of 2010’s shorts — ‘Homegrown works on film’ — premiere in Wellington on Fri 16 July, 6pm at the Paramount.

For screening times elsewhere, and the rest of the MIC Toi Rerehiko Homegrown programme (digital and animated shorts), visit the festival website.

When you’re back from the movies, check into NZ On Screen’s collection. Other iconic Kiwi shorts onsite include: Jane Campion’s Peel; Grant Lahood’s Singing Trophy; Taika Waititi’s Tama Tū; and Rob Sarkies’ Signing Off.

 The annual Survive and Thrive expo is being held in Auckland  on Thursday,  8 July. It’s a great one-day event, run by The Big Idea and Arts Regional Trust (ART), that includes a forum, expo and workshops and it is a fantastic networking opportunity for artists, producers and arts organisations.

Tenacity, flexibility and creative thinking are all hall-marks of businesses and organisations that survive and thrive – even in lean times. And lean times are something New Zealander of the Year, Ray Avery knows all about. Bridging the developing and developed worlds with innovative products that meet the needs of both markets, social entrepreneur, scientist and inventor, Ray  says “if Aussie is the lucky country, then New Zealand is the clever country.” He loves the number eight wire Kiwi ‘can-do’ attitude – being the perfect embodiment of those values with the development of low-cost intraocular lenses for people with cataract blindness, Proteinforte, a superfood for people suffering from protein-energy malnutrition but also for athletes in developed nations and now the low cost Liferaft Incubator.

Making a living and even growing your creative business needs that same number eight wire attitude, and Survive and Thrive 2010 is set to help. “It’s not often that the creative sector has the opportunity to be together and focus on some practical learning from people who understand what it takes to survive in business and enterprise today”, says Candy Elsmore from Arts Regional Trust. “Just the opportunity to meet people from all over the sector can be the start of collaborations and other opportunities.”

Held at The University of Auckland Business School, Survive and Thrive 2010 includes a programme of short workshops, networking and an ‘expo’ of people and organisations working in support and as part of Auckland’s creative sector as well as a presentation from Ray Avery. Participants can speed network (the business version of speed dating) to make valuable contacts in a flash, as well as gain practical tips and tools from specialist advisors in the workshops, and learn more about who can help them strengthen and grow their creative enterprise. The afternoon programme is full of real-world, practical information and discussion that will help anyone thrive in today’s sometimes challenging business environment. Specialist advisors will help participants explore their money philosophy, tune into the marketing and promotion of what they are doing, undertake a ‘health check’ of their creative business, and learn how to self-manage for success.

 The Survive and Thrive 2010 builds on the first Survive and Thrive forum held in 2009 in Manukau City. “The Survive and Thrive series is all about arming the creative sector with the information, connections, networks and tools to make what we all do sustainable. It’s about going for growth now and into the future”, says Elisabeth Vaneveld from The Big Idea.

 More information

A full programme of the day and registration is available on The Big Idea: www.thebigidea.co.nz/survive-thrive

Participation in Survive and Thrive is $25 per person or $18 for students or community services card holders. Places are limited so pre-registration is essential.  To register your attendance, email lena.kovac@thebigidea.co.nz. Survive & Thrive lunchboxes can be pre-purchased for $10, with additional snacks and refreshments able to be purchased at the venue on the day.

 Survive and Thrive: fuelling the business of creativity, is a unique regional creative sector event initiated by the Arts Regional Trust Te Taumata Toi-a-iwi (ART), in partnership with The Big Idea – Te Aria Nui , and significantly supported by ASB Community Trust and Auckland City Council.

The event is co-hosted at the University of Auckland Business School by NICAI, the National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries and The University of Auckland Business School.

Creative New Zealand has just announced the keynote speakers for its 21^st Century Arts Conference: Dream it, Do it, Prove it.

Each year Creative New Zealand runs this excellent and inspiring conference that focus on audience development and the challenges facing arts organisations. This year the conference will be in Christchurch on 21-22 June and the initial announcement indicates that its going to another outstanding line-up of speakers: including the inspirational Richard Gerver, Claire Eva (Head of Marketing at the Tate in the UK), Andrew McIntyre from Morris Hargreaves McIntyre, James Ashcroft (Artistic Director of Taki Rua productions), Emere and Wharehoka Wano (Sounds Aotearoa and WOMAD), Jenny Harper (Director, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu) and Robyn Archer (Artistic Director of Melbourne’s The Light in Winter). I’ve heard both Claire and Andrew present before and they are not to be missed!

The conference is based on the 7 Pillars of Audience Focus, a concept developed by UK arts consultancy Morris Hargreaves McIntyre in partnership with Creative New Zealand which encourages an approach that is: vision-led, brand-driven, outcome-oriented, inter-disciplinary, insight-guided, interactively-engaged and personalised. The themes for this year’s conference are vision-led and outcome oriented.

While the conference is invite only, if you’re really interested in attending you could contact susan.nelson@creativenz.govt.nz and if there are any spaces available you may get lucky!

Creative New Zealand publishes most of the keynotes on its website, so its an excellent resource to check out. At the 2008 conference, the standout was an inspiring and challenging opening keynote from Diane Ragsdale. The 2009 conference, featured the impressive Alan Brown, talking about audience segmentation. You can read the conference reports online and also see videos of some of the presentations.

This post was originally published on NZ On Screen.

The late Merata Mita was a key figure in the story of Māori filmmaking. Through documentaries, interviews, public speaking and her 1987 dramatic feature Mauri, she was a passionate voice for Māori and an advocate for social change.

Swimming against the tide becomes an exhilarating experience. It makes you strong. I am completely without fear now. Merata Mita

Merata Mita grew up in the Bay of Plenty town of Maketu, the third eldest of nine children. She had a traditional rural Māori upbringing, and recalls watching newsreels when films were projected onto the walls of the local wharenui.

Later, during eight years teaching at Kawerau College, Mita began using film and video to reach supposedly unteachable high school students, many of them Māori. “What they were all good at was expressing themselves through art, image, drawing.” The experience taught Mita “how powerful image was in reaching people who don’t have other communication skills”.

Mita worked on her first documentary in 1977, helping a Pākehā filmmaker organise interviews with Māori people. But she soon began to grow disenchanted at Māori misrepresentation on film, and at how Māori seemed to be employed only to liase with Māori communities for Pākehā filmmakers.

In May 1978 Mita got a telephone call telling her “to get a film crew up to Bastion Point”. Mita arrived just in time to film police removing Ngāti Whatua protestors from the site. Lack of funds meant that Bastion Point: Day 507 (co-directed with Gerd Pohlmann and Leon Narbey) would take another two years to complete.

Mita went on to direct and co-direct films about the trade union movement and the Hokianga Catholic Māori community. The Bridge (1982) co-directed with Pohlmann, chronicles the longrunning Mangere Bridge industrial dispute. She also worked as a reporter and presenter for Māori TV news show Koha, and collaborated with Martyn Sanderson on cross-cultural documentary Keskidee Aroha.

Patu! was Merata Mita’s passionate record of clashes between protestors and police during the 1981 Springbok tour. The subject of intense media coverage, Patu! was described by filmmaker/ Listener reviewer Peter Wells as “the hottest documentary ever made in New Zealand”. It was also the first feature-length documentary in New Zealand directed by a woman. Local cinema chains refused to screen it. Patu! went on to screen at film festivals around the world. 

Mita followed Patu! in 1988 with Mauri, only the second feature film drama to have a Māori woman director (1972’s To Love a Māori was co-directed by Ramai Hayward and husband Rudall). Mauri’s plotline centres around issues of birthright and racism in an isolated rural community, with land rights activist Eva Rickard playing the central role of the grandmother. 

The film was a training ground for many young Māori crew members; Mita argued that “what you gain from Māori people is an incredible intensity and passion about the work being done”.

Mauri won a best prize at Italy’s Rimini Film Festival. After some negative reviews of the film at festival screenings back home, Mita argued against Pākehā reviewers who were “not qualified to assess it”. She asked not that people liked the film, but that they view it with an open mind.

In making Mauri, Mita consciously rejected Pākehā traditions of storytelling. Instead she embraced a layered approach, in keeping with the strongly oral tradition of Māori people. “These are differences that Pākehā critics don’t even take into account when they’re analysing the film.”*

1989 saw Mita and longtime editor Annie Collins at a Steenbeck editing bench on Turangawaewae Marae. Mita had accepted the challenge of making Mana Waka (1990), a documentary which used abandoned footage chronicling the creation of four special wakas commissioned by Princess Te Puea, for New Zealand’s 1940 centenary.

Mana Waka met with its own ownership complications: at one point descendants of the original Pākehā cameraman ran off with an early print of the film, despite having already agreed to let Mita direct.

Mita also made documentaries on artist Ralph Hotere (Hotere, 2001), rastafarians in Ruatoria (The Dread) and judicial injustice (The Shooting of Dominick Kaiwhata, 1993). She also directed the video for Che Fu’s Waka, which won the Music Video of the Year Award at the 1999 Hawaii Music Awards. In 1998, Mita was herself the subject of television documentary Rangatira.

Mita spent much of the 90s working in America, alongside then partner, director Geoff Murphy. As an actor, she appeared in Murphy’s Utu and a TV adaptation of Rowley Habib’s The Protesters. She was later on the producing team behind Murphy’s Kiwi-set feature Spooked (2004) and 2010 box office smash Boy, and was executive producer on 2004’s The Land has Eyes, the first feature directed by a native Fijian. 

Mita hosted workshops and spoke on panels about indigenous filmmaking in many countries. She also taught critical studies at the University of Hawai’i.

In 1996 Mita was awarded the Leo Dratfield Lifetime Achievement Award for documentary, by the Robert Flaherty Foundation.

Mita collapsed suddenly outside an Auckland television studio on May 31, 2010. The same year she had received the order of merit in the New Year’s Honours. Her long cherished dream of adapting Patricia Grace novel Cousins into a feature remained unfulfilled. 

Moe mai e te rangatira, moe mai.

* Quotation from Parekowhai, Cushla. “Kōrero Ki Taku Tuakana: Merata Mita and me.” Illusions Issue 9, December 1988.

NZ On Screen celebrates 50 years of television in Aotearoa with some fantastic golden oldies … as well as some recent memorbable moments. Check out Solid Gold Hits from the box.

June 1st 2010 represents half a century of seeing ourselves reflected on the telly. To celebrate, NZ On Screen presents a collection of the gold hits, from The Governor to Gliding On to Gloss, from Country Calendar to Close to Home, from Shortland St to Selwyn Toogood , Billy T and Thingee.

Included in the collection era-defining dramas (Pukemanu, The Governor, Close to Home, Gloss, Shortland Street), cultural cringe-defying comedy (Billy T, A Week of It, Hudson and Halls, Country Calendar’s spoofs and Town and Around’s turkeys in gumboots), iconic newsreaders through the years, current affairs classics (Dennis Conner’s walkout, Post Office strike breakthroughs, Muldoon meltdowns), landmark documentaries (Tangata Whenua, and the Landmarks series itself), national-bonding events (Top Town, Telethon), the shows that generations of Kiwi kids grew up with (After School , Spot On, Under the Mountain, Play School, What Now?, Nice One, Count Homogenized ), magic moments (Thingee’s eye-popping) and much more.

In a background piece, pop culture writer Barney McDonald gets square eyes surveying the best of NZ On Screen. The Sunday Star-Times’ film reviewer and Pavement founder looks at the shows as notches on both a personal and national growth chart.

“… the box was the glue that bound us together as a modest nation, epitomised by televised All Black games, It’s in the Bag and Telethon. Now, perhaps, it’s the Internet, talkback radio and morning TV weather presenters visiting more corners of the country than Selwyn Toogood ever could …”

And screen historian Roger Horrocks provides a history of TV: a précis of the screen-scape from black and white beginnings, and pubic service vs commercial debates, to the challenge of the Internet.

From “you’re not in Guatemala now Dr Ropata” to “Keep Cool ‘til After School”, from “Jeez Wayne” to “Nice one Stu-y!”

Re-live the best of the box … online.

Creative New Zealand has teamed up with The Big Idea for the final smART talk forum –Philanthropy: Getting Enough? – which aims to give arts organisations and practitioners insights into how to raise philanthropic funds. 

From 12 – 30 April 2010, join special guest Margaret Belich in online discussion and debate about  fundraising and philanthropy. Margaret is a respected member of the arts community, a fundraising expert and a member of the new Cultural Philanthropy Taskforce (which was established last year by the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Hon Christopher Finlayson to investigate ways to improve levels of philanthropic giving in New Zealand).

Margaret says arts organisations and practitioners are making choices all the time about how to stretch the arts dollar in pursuit of their artistic mission. “I’m hoping that the forum will add to the sector’s knowledge of fundraising and that we get to expand our horizons as to the extraordinary potential of philanthropy.”

Who is it for?
For any of us in the arts and cultural sector who want to learn more about fundraising and philanthropy we can ask questions, get Margaret’s expert advice, debate topical issues and share our stories – of both successes and failures – in the fundraising field. This forum is for you, if you’d like to know more about:

• Why and when should we fundraise?
• How effective fundraising works?
• How do arts and cultural organisations better communicate their value to potential altruists?
• How much do arts organisations know about philanthropy and philanthropists know about the arts?
• What unique value should arts and cultural organisations be communicating to prospective donors?
• Does the answer lie in a relationship building exercise between the donor and recipient?
• How should arts organisations respond to the innovative potential of philanthropy?

It’s a great professional learning opportunity and it’s free to join in the online discussions. You can participate by asking the questions you’ve always wanted to and by joining in the debate. To get the most out of the conversation, I’d really encourage you to share your stories, questions and challenges with other forum participants, as well as with Margaret. The more we hear stories of both success and failure, the better we can understand what works for our community. 

smART talk Forum 03  | Philanthropy: Getting Enough? is the place to find out all you need to know about how to about the ‘art of fundraising’ in New Zealand’s arts and cultural sector.

The dynamic teams from the Taranaki Arts Festival Trust (TAFT) and TIHI Ltd have put together a much needed music market – Sounds Aotearoa. The inuagural two-day music showcase will be held on 10 and 11 March in New Plymouth just before WOMAD on 12 to 14 March and will:
- promote New Zealand music and culture with artists from across the country
- provide professional development opportunities to enhance capacity and capability.

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