Mai i te Kaihautū

Tēnā rā tātou, e rere kau ana ngā mihi ki a koutou te hunga pāpāhō Māori, koutou hoki e arohaina ana i tō tātou reo rangatira. Mauriora!

For those of us working in the te reo Māori revitalisation space, last week was a feast of riches. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori conducted an online Kura Reo from Wellington. Towards the end of the week, Whakaata Māori staged a two-day Kura Whakarauora Reo at the Vodafone Event Centre in Manukau, which was also available online.

Both events were very well attended and provided interesting insights into new approaches to language revitalisation and language planning. Congratulations to both teams.

Of course this week, BUDGET 2022 will be announced. These are challenging times for all of us and the government has a delicate balancing act to perform. No doubt we will all be watching or listening anxiously, hoping that there is an increase in funding for the Māori Media sector. We might also get some more clarity around the pathway for the merger of RNZ and TVNZ. That could also have an impact for our sector.

Ko te manako ia, hei te ahiahi pō ā te Taite e menemene ai ana tātou!

Larry Parr,
Kaihautū o Te Māngai Pāho

Māori music

Te Māngai Pāho welcomes the announcement of Teresa Patterson as Head of Music for NZ On Air.

Ms Patterson has worked in the NZ music and arts industry for more than 25 years in a wide variety of roles across major music labels, artist management, festival management, marketing and PR, mentorship, head of the Music Managers Forum Aotearoa, and most recently as Partnerships Manager at the NZ Comedy Trust/NZ Int Comedy Festival. 

She has been closely involved with the establishment of SoundCheck Aotearoa, is a board member of MusicHelps, and a past member of the NZ Music Commission Board.

Entries for the 2022 APRA Silver Scroll Awards Kaitito Kaiaka are now open. Entries close at midnight on Tuesday 31 May. 

The Maioha Award winning waiata receives $5000, it’s free to enter, and each songwriter can enter two different waiata. Waiata can also be entered in both Maioha and Silver Scroll Award categories.

The key criteria are:

• The waiata must have been written (minimum 33.3% share) by an APRA writer member or members that are residents or citizens of Aotearoa.
• The lyrics must be substantially, but not necessarily exclusively in te reo Māori
• The waiata must be an original work ie. it must not be an arrangement or adaptation of a traditional non-copyright work.
• The work must have been made available for the first time as a recording for purchase by the public or through a streaming service in New Zealand between 1 July 2021 and 30 June 2022.

Waiata Hou

Callan James, an up and coming takatāpui Māori music artist wrote 'Pākia' celebrating all the front line workers who worked tirelessly through the Aotearoa Alert Level 4 lockdowns and connecting with each other. Listen to Pākia now.

'Tukua Te Kūata' by Huia was written in the midst of the COVID-19 rāhui. This song was a free flow of thoughts. Life is too short to hold back your love. Listen to 'Tukua Te Kūata'.

  Project Spotlight:
Moko

MOKO features tā moko artists, Māori academics, and wearers of tā moko speaking directly to issues of colonisation, intellectual property rights, and the tikanga that guides and defines tā moko in Aotearoa.

Watch MOKO on Mondays at 7:30pm on Māori Television

  Project Spotlight:
M9

A new hybrid speaker and performance series celebrating powerful Māori voices that reflect a contemporary te ao Māori. 

Debuting on Friday 17 June at Auckland’s Civic Theatre, the inaugural M9 event, in celebration of Matariki, boasts an impressive line-up of all-wāhine creatives and thought-leaders who will take to the stage to inspire, empower and entertain audiences with unique stories that speak to the event’s theme, Matariki Rau Mahara - the Power of Reflection.