May 31, 2022
Māori Party wants professional kapa haka
The Māori Party is pushing for Te Matatini funding to match that of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
Te Matatini got another $1 million a year in the budget, giving it almost $3 million a year to organize the biennial kapa haka competition.
Te Pati Māori wants it to get $19 million, and it says if funding were based on audience numbers, it should be $271 million.
Co-leader Rawiri Waititi says kapa haka has been undervalued and underpaid for far too long.
It should be professionalised because the amount of work that goes into Matatini, the amount of skill that goes into performing at that level can go head to head with symphony orchestra and ballet. What kapa haka is over those two things is it is an indigenous platform, it is an indigenous waka that carries the voices of our ancestors,” he says.