Auckland City Public Policy and Māori Arts and Culture

Last night, I attended a Māori arts and culture policy consultation event for Auckland City. Not surprisingly, it prompted me to think about my views of Māori artmaking and how public policy ought to respond to and enable it. It was an opportunity to share a few thoughts…. and so here are some of my points, in brief, shared at last night’s event:

A concern that New Zealand’s view and vision of the arts is too small, consequently NZ continues to underinvest and devalue the arts. Significant opportunities for New Zealand are therefore missed.

New Zealand’s vision for the arts, in my view, remains too small. It is not informed enough of the potential role that the arts can play in a successful society, economy and culture. This issue has to be addressed by artists and public policy makers equally. Artists, too, need to be challenged with respect to the place of the arts in a successful society and the ‘public good’ that is generated by the arts.

Auckland City becomes a powerful advocate for the arts – it values, extols and invests in artists and the arts.

I would like to see Auckland City becoming a powerful advocate for the arts. It leads the nation with respect to its vision for the arts. It advances a powerful and inspiring ‘value proposition’ regarding the role and place of the arts in society. It sees the arts as fundamental to being human and a positive citizen in the 21st century. Consequently, Auckland City invests heavily in the arts and in artists.

Auckland City therefore becomes a powerful advocate for Māori arts

Māori arts too – those that express the experience, identity and history of Māori people and those distinctive Māori artforms – are therefore supported heavily by Auckland City, again, for the role the arts play in a people’s understanding and articulation of themselves. Auckland City is particularly interested in Māori arts because these artforms and the experience of Māori people is distinctive to Auckland City, it does not appear in any other city in the world (outside of NZ).

Public policy and Māori artmaking ought to have two goals

In my view, any public strategy or plan for Māori arts and culture ought to have two interconnecting goals, as follows:

• Achieving the aspirations and goals of Māori people in the arts. This includes increasing Māori participation and success in the arts, supporting the creation of art that reflects and expresses the experiences, identity and histories of Māori people and increasing the capacity and capability of Māori people, organisations and communities to conduct artmaking.
• Yielding the contribution of Māori communities, people, knowledge, organisations, resources and assets to general New Zealand artmaking. This includes enabling Māori communities to invest in and fund general New Zealand arts through to yielding the artistic and cultural imagination of Māori communities to assist New Zealand artmaking and expression overall.

More powerful use of Māori imagery to express New Zealand identity and experience

The great opportunity available to New Zealand is the harnessing and expression of the Māori cultural imagination that has been suppressed for so long – and the expression of this imagination of life for the benefit of both Māori communities and for New Zealand generally. I envisage a much more powerful use of Māori cultural symbols, expressions and ideas in the way in which New Zealand expresses its identity, its understanding of itself and its history. Thus far, the use of Māori knowledge in NZ general creative expression has been hamstrung.

Understanding the difference between tangata Māori and tangata whenua

Tangata Māori is an identity that first took hold in the 19th century and has been constructed and experienced in the context of the encounter between Māori and Pākehā. Tangata Whenua is an identity that first began life – we can’t be sure of exact dates and exact origins – when our Polynesian ancestors arrived in Aotearoa in the 12th century. This identity is based upon relationship to whenua and moana. Much of public Māori performative and artistic culture is expressive of ‘tangata Māori’ – it is about asserting an identity toward others in the world. This is its primary purpose. Interleaved within this, however, are the tangata whenua artistic expressions, artworks inspired by land, flora and fauna, water and more. These two identities overlap in contemporary Māori communities.

Seeing the Treaty of Waitangi as an opportunity, not an obligation only

I have been an advocate for changing the paradigm, the lens through which we view the Treaty of Waitangi. For a long time, and rightfully so, the Treaty has been seen through the lens of conflict – an instrument for the alleviation of grievance. Hence, for many, the Treaty represents conflict, issues and ‘the Māori problem’. In my view, breaches, both historical and contemporary, to the Treaty must be addressed and appropriate compensation achieved. However, this ought not be the only reason for which we turn to the Treaty. Rather, I see the Treaty as envisaging possibilities for the way in which New Zealand administers its affairs. Kāwanatanga is in full swing. However, there is an opportunity before New Zealand to understand and embrace the enrichment to New Zealand that is possible through an empowerment of tino rangatiratanga - chief among them being the opportunity to refashion tangata whenuatanga in Aotearoa today. This means liberating the Treaty out of the Māori vz Pākehā paradigm and into a paradigm that speaks to the creative intersection between kāwanatanga and tino rangatiratanga.

Overcoming fragmentation, increasing cohesion

As we know, the great challenge facing Auckland City, on many levels, is fragmentation and disconnection. This problem affects artists as well as the general population. Information flows are still inadequate and thus there is much duplication of effort and wasted opportunity.

Getting away from project funding only

As someone who has been involved in the arts for many years, I have to say that it is demoralising to have to continually justify oneself and one’s plans. Every time I turn to prepare a project application, I, once again, have to restate my credentials, explain what I am trying to achieve and often with no knowledge to whom I am directing my application (the actual individuals who will be assessing my application). Whilst there is a place for project funding, it is time for Auckland City to consider investing in individuals as the Arts Foundation does.