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Download AudioMāori film and television guild Ngā Aho Whakaari is challenging the exclusion of Māori productions from a fund to help the screen industry survive COVID-19 disruption.
The Government has put more than $23 million into the Screen Production Recovery Fund administered by NZ On Air and the New Zealand Film Commission.
But Ngā Aho chair Anahera Higgins says there was nothing for Māori funding agency Te Māngai Pāho.
That’s left Māori screen workers, who already have to get by on lower levels of funding, out in the cold.
“The funding is there. It’s just going through different portals, and if you are not NZ On Air funding, and we have many Māori productions that are not NZ On Air funded, they are funded through Te Māngai Pāho, we have many according to NZ On Air, you are not eligible for that funding, so where do they go, that’s the question,” she says.
Anahera Higgins says the Broadcasting Minister needs to talk to the Minister for Māori Development about a fairer system.
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