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The Cultural Sector Innovation Fund provides $60 million over three years to support innovative projects that improve the sustainability and resilience of the sector. Round one of the Fund will be delivered through a nationwide events series, Te Urungi: Innovating Aotearoa. These immersive, collaborative events are designed to harness our collective creative energy and innovative spirit to fuel bold ideas that enable arts, culture and heritage to thrive.
Join us in innovating Aotearoa through a series of 14 regional events held across the country
Join us on Wednesday 05 May to hear author Nigel Robson discuss his book 'Our First Foreign War' at the National Library of NZ.
Come along to our next Public History talk on Wednesday 05 May
Round one funding between $1,000 and $20,000 is available now to create installations and events. They must be free to experience and bring culture and creativity to people in our communities. They’ll be in easy to access spaces people regularly go or are easy to discover, such as community hubs, shopping malls, parks, beaches, marae, churches, reserves, or along a waterfront.
Cultural Installations and Events Fund open now
Kei Roto i te Miru: Inside the Bubble is a podcast series capturing New Zealander’s experiences during the 2020 lockdown. The series uses oral histories collected during the lockdown to reflect on how we responded collectively as a nation to this moment in history, and shares some of the many ways New Zealander’s experienced the lockdown. The series is available on RNZ’s podcast channel.
Kei Roto i te Miru - Inside the Bubble
Minister Sepuloni has announced the opening of the $5.7 million Mātauranga Māori Marae Ora Fund. This Fund is one of 18 initiatives within the wider $20 million Mātauranga Māori Te Awe Kōtuku programme being led by Manatū Taonga in partnership with other government and cultural agencies. There will be six funding rounds between now and June 2022. The first round is open now and closes on 24 March 2021.
New fund to help preserve mātauranga and taonga Māori on marae
Aotearoa’s Alien Weaponry, hailed as one of the most exciting young metal bands in the world, unite with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for two special performances in May 2021.
Metal stars Alien Weaponry set to explode with the NZSO in May
A Governance Group of eight experts has been appointed to lead the next phase of work on a potential new public media entity, Minister for Broadcasting and Media Kris Faafoi announced today.
Governance Group to lead next phase of work on a potential new public media entity
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Hon Carmel Sepuloni launched a unique creative project in Tāmaki Makaurau at the new Media Design School Campus in Wynyard Quarter. Aho Wahine is a series of interactive bi-lingual apps that breathe new life into the traditional stories of Aotearoa, interpreting them from the point of view of the female characters.
Creativity Meets Tech

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Kāinga Te tuakiri, te taonga tuku iho o Aotearoa Ngā whakamaharatanga me ngā huritau

Commemorations & anniversaries

Commemoration means marking an important historical event on or around a meaningful anniversary. Commemoration brings people together in physical and virtual spaces to reflect on the past and its relevance to the present. There doesn’t have to be a formal remembrance ceremony or a physical monument – commemoration could involve sharing historical information through a website, or creating artistic works that respond to an anniversary, for example.

The New Zealand Government has a policy on commemoration of historical anniversaries, first developed in 2009 and updated in 2014. Under this policy, a list of anniversaries to be commemorated is agreed several years in advance. This allows coordination and planning of government involvement in commemoration to take place.

Under the policy, anniversaries are categorised as either Tier 1 or Tier 2. Tier 1 (major) anniversaries relate to events whose impact was felt throughout the nation or changed New Zealand significantly. There should be a significant level of cross-government involvement in marking Tier 1 anniversaries. Tier 2 anniversaries concern events that were still important but had less national impact.

Occasionally, as with the centenary of the First World War from 2014-2019, dedicated funding may be available to support commemorations. However, most commemorative activity (particularly for Tier 2 anniversaries) is funded from within departmental baselines.

Anniversaries on the Government’s list should generally be:

  • of significance to the nation as a whole
  • of events that took place in New Zealand, involved New Zealanders or have a clear connection to New Zealand
  • a multiple of 25 years since the event in question (e.g. 25th, 50th, 100th anniversaries)
  • representative of the diversity of New Zealanders’ historical experiences.

Tier 1 and Tier 2 anniversaries for 2014-2021

The Ministry for Culture and Heritage is currently looking at refreshing the commemorations policy and extending the list of anniversaries beyond 2021.

Other commemorations

Some commemorations take place annually: for example, Waitangi Day commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and Anzac Day commemorates New Zealanders’ involvement in war.

Pukeahu National War Memorial Park also hosts a number of annual military commemorations. All national commemorations scheduled for 2021 will appear on the Pukeahu news and events pages in due course. 

Te Pūtake o te Riri, He Rā Maumhara, was observed for the first time in 2018. It is the national day of commemoration for the New Zealand Wars, and takes place on 28 October. Visit Te Puni Kōkiri’s website for more information about this commemoration, and about Te Pūtake o te Riri | Wars and Conflicts in New Zealand Fund.

There are many important anniversaries every year, and it is not possible to include them all on the government’s commemorations programme. Organisations outside government may decide to mark these anniversaries, and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage is always happy to hear about community-led commemorations. The Ministry may, for example, be able to publicise such commemorations through its online channels.

New Zealanders' views on commemoration

In 2019, Colmar Brunton conducted a public opinion survey for the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, looking at New Zealanders’ views on commemoration. The final report on the survey's findings is available here (PDF 3.36 MB).

Updated on 27th January 2021