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The COVID-19 Cultural Recovery Programme Impacts Report 2021/22 looks at the impact of COVID-19 funding for the arts, culture, heritage, media and broadcasting sectors delivered between June 2021 and July 2022. 
COVID-19 Cultural Recovery Programme Impacts Report 2021/22
An Artist Resale Royalty Scheme is being established to ensure the creators of visual arts are recognised and rewarded when their work is resold on the secondary art market.
Artist Resale Royalty Scheme
Celebrations leading up to Matariki have begun as Aotearoa looks set to mark its newest public holiday for the second time. A booklet containing karakia for each of the nine stars of Matariki was launched today at an event at the Dark Sky Sanctuary in Takapō.
Matariki 2023 launched under stars in Tekapō
Significant damage caused at the National Erebus Memorial site by recent extreme and unprecedented weather events in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, means a new enduring home for the memorial needs to be found.
New site required for National Erebus Memorial due to safety concerns
Firmly entrenched as part of our cultural landscape, the month of May has gone from a period of encouraging radio to play more local tunes, to a 31 day celebration of homegrown talent across the length and breadth of the country. Check out events and news on the NZ Music Commission's website.
Welcome to NZ Music Month
Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa is calling for public nominations for ngā toi Māori artists, arts practitioners to be recognised at this year’s Ngā Taonga Toi a Te Waka Toi Awards 2023. The purpose of Ngā Taonga Toi a Te Waka Toi Awards is to recognise artistic excellence, achievement and the contribution of Māori artists working in customary and contemporary ngā toi Māori to Aotearoa New Zealand. Three awards are open for public nomination from 5 May to 12 June 2023.
Nga Taonga Toi a Te Waka Toi 2023 Nominations Open Now
Shakespeare’s greatest love story returns to the Royal New Zealand Ballet in May 2023, in a passionate re-telling choreographed by Andrea Schermoly (Stand to Reason, Within Without). Exquisite sets and costumes by Academy Award-winning designer James Acheson (The Last Emperor, Dangerous Liaisons), first seen onstage in 2017 to universal acclaim, bring to life all the splendour and seduction of Renaissance Verona, swept up in Prokofiev’s exhilarating, sensuous score.
RNZB presents Romeo & Juliet
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra takes audiences on a musical journey from Aotearoa to Italy with exciting performances in Kāpiti, Wairarapa, Hastings, Taupō and Hamilton in June. NZSO Music Director Emeritus James Judd conducts a breathtaking collection of music in Stravinsky & Mendelssohn Portraits of Italy as part of the Orchestra’s popular Setting Up Camp winter tour
Take a musical trip from Aotearoa to Italy with the NZSO in June
Crabs, shrimps, lobsters, barnacles, slaters and other crustaceans are the stars of a new mini exhibition presented by NIWA and Te Papa. Now open, Mawhiti Tino Rawe | Clever Crustaceans is a playful exploration of the bizarre and diverse world of five marine crustaceans. They can change their shape, circle the globe – crustaceans are the unsung heroes of the sea.
Crustacean celebrities of Aotearoa New Zealand on display at Te Papa

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Home About Us Overview Key roles & responsibilities

Key roles & responsibilities

The Ministry for Culture and Heritage leads government work in the arts, heritage, broadcasting and sports sectors.  We provide advice on legislation, policy, and sector development to the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Minister for Broadcasting and Media and the Minister for Sport and Recreation. 

Arts, culture, heritage, media and sports are part of our everyday lives

We work in a sector that contributes $11 billion to New Zealand's GDP and over 90,000 jobs, ranging from screen production to symphonies, broadcasting to ballet, kapa haka to heritage, and more. Our mahi helps the government promote Aotearoatanga, our unique cultural identity – from policy to programme delivery. With our partners – Māori, public sector agencies and our funded agencies – we connect local communities to cultural experiences to enrich our mātauranga. Our sector funds and tells stories reflecting who New Zealanders are today, helping us to navigate our future and building the inclusive and cohesive country we want our tamariki to grow up in and call home.

COVID-19 has hit our arts, culture and heritage sector hard. To help with the recovery, in late May 2020, the Government announced a landmark investment in the sector. We are leading a suite of initiatives in partnership with our funded agencies and sector stakeholders to deliver this funding over four years. This funding includes both short-term relief, and longer-term support allowing people and organisations to survive, adapt and thrive. We also have a range of initiatives underway to support the media sector in the short term and to shape a more sustainable media eco-system in the long term.  

We connect people from all walks of life to our culture and heritage and bring our past to life in many ways.

The Ministry’s websites include our comprehensive encyclopedia Te Ara and NZHistory. The Ministry works with national cultural agencies such as NZ On Air, Creative New Zealand, the New Zealand Film Commission and Te Papa Tongarewa. We administer their funding, monitor their activities and support appointees to their boards. The Ministry administers key cultural and heritage legislation, including the Flags, Emblems and Names Protection Act 1981 (to protect objects and symbols of national identity) and the Protected Objects Act 1975 (to protect taonga tūturu).

Critical to our future strategy is our relationship with Treaty partners

We have Treaty settlement protocols and relationship arrangements with more than 50 iwi, hapū and whānau groups. We’ve also had input into the development of the Māori language strategy and given advice on Māori heritage sites, taonga tuturū, Māori arts and performance and commemorations for Waitangi Day. The successful biennial Te Matatini festival has tremendous economic and social benefits which sit alongside its cultural aspirations. Equally significant in our distinctive history and heritage is the Crown-Māori relationship. Reflecting this, the Ministry has developed a major project Te Tai charting the history of the Treaty Settlement process which seeks to collect, preserve and share the broad and multi-faceted history of Treaty settlements. It aims to educate and inform people of Treaty settlements and their impact by connecting and engaging them with a diverse range of Treaty settlement stories.

Updated on 15th July 2022