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The Infometrics sector profiles 2022 provide data on a range of employment, business and productivity characteristics for the arts and creative sector.
Arts and creative sector economic profiles 2022
This week the head of the organisation that looks after all Commonwealth War Graves around the world visited New Zealand. Claire Horton CBE, the Director General of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), arrived in Wellington on Monday to raise awareness of the work the Commission does and to meet with officials, Defence personnel, veterans associations, local iwi, volunteers and groups involved with the care of war graves.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s visit highlights 3,500 war graves in NZ
The Ministry's annual history grants have been awarded to 10 projects which will tell a wide range of histories - from the revival of Moko Mataora (facial tattoo) in the North, to a 1795 shipwreck in Tamatea Dusky Sound in the South. The Whiria Te Mahara NZ History Grants supports historians, researchers and writers working on non-fiction projects such as the woolsheds of the Wairarapa. Image is of Tora Station woolshed which originally had 20 stands for blade shearing.
Funding goes to the telling of NZ histories from Hokianga to Fiordland
A new RNZ podcast 'Deer Wars' explores an era before workplace health and safety, when the battle against the exploding population of invasive environmental pest, the red deer, became a 'wild west' industry. 'Deer Wars' is a unique and compelling story told by those who lived it and is a recipient of the Ministry's Ngā Kōrero Tuku Iho, Piki Ake! Kake Ake! New Zealand Oral History Grants. The podcast was launched on 20 October with a new episode every Friday and Wednesday. Listen at rnz.co.nz/deer-wars
RNZ 'Deer Wars' podcast
Following its triumphant premiere in 2019, the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s acclaimed Hansel & Gretel returns for Christmas 2023. Loughlan Prior, with Claire Cowan and Kate Hawley, has created a magical world of memorable characters. Touring nationwide from 26 October to 09 December, learn more on the Royal New Zealand Ballet's website.
Book now for the RNZB's Hansel & Gretel production
RNZ (Radio New Zealand) and CAMA (Community Access Media Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand) have agreed to share content and work together to benefit audiences across New Zealand. RNZ and CAMA, the national representative body for the 12 independent access media stations across Aotearoa signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on 3 November 2023.
Community collaboration for RNZ
A unique limited series podcast is shedding light on a previously overlooked chapter of New Zealand history. With a focus on a seemingly obsolete device - the typewriter - and its users, the Keystrokes Per Minute podcast is a celebration of the lives of women of the New Zealand Public Service Typing Pools from 1945 till the present day.
More than just a typist: new history podcast

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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. 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.

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 Whakaea Treaty Settlement Stories 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 9th August 2023