Slashed Matariki funding threatens to leave communities in the dark
Just four years after Matariki became a public holiday, the future of our public celebrations is looking less certain. In Budget 2024, the coalition government slashed funding for Matariki events by 45% – dropping from $5.5m to $3m. For many communities, the impact was immediate, with events cancelled, scaled back, or organisers left scrambling for alternative funding.
Some organisers have described this year's funding process as a 'lolly scramble'. And others say the cuts have made it harder to plan with confidence or secure support for multi-year programming.
The budget decision was made alongside mounting evidence that Matariki is delivering significant benefits – both cultural and economic. According to research commissioned by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, electronic card spending over the Matariki long weekend in 2024 reached nearly $607m. That's a 2.7% increase from 2023 and a 10.8% jump from 2019, the year before the holiday was introduced.
The arts and recreation sector, while making up just 2.8% of total retail spend, saw the largest year-on-year increase, up 32.7% from 2023 and 61.7% from 2019.
But the value of Matariki isn't measured by spending alone. Recent research by Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage also shows a deepening public understanding of the holiday's meaning. The 2024 New Zealanders' Engagement with Matariki report found that while general awareness of Matariki remains steady, there's been a notable increase in people recognising it as a time for reflection, whānau connection, cultural learning and environmental appreciation.
Roughly 70% of survey respondents agreed that Matariki brought people together through local events, helped connect them with te ao Māori and encouraged a deeper connection to the natural world. These are intangible benefits that speak to Matariki's wider role in national identity and social cohesion.
That role has become even more important in a time of increasing political and cultural division. A March 2024 report by the Helen Clark Foundation found that less than half of New Zealanders agreed with positive statements about social cohesion in Aotearoa. The report warned that ongoing polarisation could weaken trust in institutions and make long-term planning more difficult for businesses, communities and individuals alike.
While Matariki alone won't fix social cohesion, it has become a rare moment in the national calendar that brings people together around shared values. The government has defended the decision to cut funding, with prime minister Christopher Luxon telling media during last year's Matariki celebrations: 'We're going through some tough times, we have to make some tough choices across the whole of government spending.'
Some of those choices have already had visible consequences. Free public events like the Tuturu Matariki Festival in Southland and Matariki Kaiapoi in Canterbury have either been cancelled or scaled back due to budget restraints.
Te Puni Kōkiri, which took over responsibility for administering Matariki event funding from Manatū Taonga in 2024, was approached for updated data on this year's funding allocations. No response was received in time for publication.
In 2023, Manatū Taonga allocated $3m across 121 applications through the Matariki Ahunga Nui Fund. By comparison, Te Puni Kōkiri's 2023/2024 Te Pū Harakeke Fund allocated just $211,349 across 46 organisations.
Despite the cuts, hundreds of events are still taking place around the country this Matariki. Many organisers have turned to local councils, iwi authorities or philanthropic partners to keep celebrations going. The official national event will be hosted this year by Ngāti Rangi at Tirorangi Marae in Ohakune, with a national broadcast scheduled for Friday morning.
But with central government support reduced and demand for funding remaining high, organisers say the sustainability of these events is becoming harder to guarantee. As Matariki continues to evolve as a public holiday, questions remain about how it will be resourced – and whether communities will have the support they need to keep the kaupapa alive.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
an hour ago
- Otago Daily Times
PayPal withholds thousands from Kiwis to Palestinians
Photo: Getty Thousands of dollars donated by New Zealanders for families in Gaza is being withheld by PayPal, and no reason has been given. A New Zealand writer who goes by the name of Emily Writes set up the fund 'Aotearoa to Gaza Mutual Aid' through Ko-Fi - a free crowdfunding platform that send funds to PayPal. In just 24 hours, the account had received more than $8000 from about 900 individual donations. Writes would then send the money on to Palestinians in need, but her request to withdraw money was denied and her account deactivated. She told Midday Report PayPal would not tell her why the account was closed, and said the money would be held for 180 days. "It was just frozen with no explanation and no ability to do anything about that. The money is just being held there," she said. Writes said she has spent days going back and forth with PayPal trying to get answers, but the company isn't being transparent. She believes the reason is political as she has heard from others who have also had funds for Gaza frozen. "The minute they said that it was going to be for Palestinians it was shut down," she said. Midday Report has contacted PayPal for comment but has not received a response.
1News
3 hours ago
- 1News
Luxon snaps back at 'frickin' Hipkins over claims of 'flop'
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has challenged Labour to front up with any policy at all as he comes under pressure over National's struggling childcare support scheme. Labour revealed just 153 families had received the maximum FamilyBoost rebate, well short of the 21,000 families the Government said would be eligible for the full amount when it was unveiled last year. Speaking on his way into a Tuesday morning caucus meeting, Luxon rejected Labour's characterisation of the policy as a failure. "I'm not taking any any lectures from frickin' Chris Hipkins or the Labour Party," he told reporters. "They have no idea what to do. They put us in this mess. "You can stand on the other side and criticise as much as you like, but I don't see any policy from Labour." ADVERTISEMENT Luxon said 60,000 families had received some support from the FamilyBoost policy and another 20,000 would soon be eligible due to recent tweaks to the eligibility settings. "Isn't that great?" he said. "We have put a programme in place which Labour didn't support, didn't vote, don't back, because they don't back low-and-middle-income working New Zealanders." The former Labour government extended cheaper childcare to parents of two-year-olds, giving them access to 20 hours a week of free ECE. On taking office, the coalition reversed that policy and instead rolled out its more targeted FamilyBoost scheme — a weekly rebate on childcare costs. The coalition launched a review of the policy in April, given the unexpectedly low uptake and then expanded the initiative in early July. It said Inland Revenue had initially overestimated the number of eligible families despite best efforts. Hipkins labels National's policies 'absolute disaster zone' Responding to Luxon's comments, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said National's refusal to admit the FamilyBoost scheme was "an absolute flop" showed it was completely out-of-touch. "They're getting really desperate. On a daily basis, they're attacking me and attacking the Labour Party rather than talking about their own track record." ADVERTISEMENT Hipkins defended Labour's lack of public policy and said that would all be laid out in full before next year's election. "We're not even close to an election campaign at the moment," he said. "But, unlike him, when we go into the election campaign next year, I will make sure that the policies that we have, add up." Labour wanted to see the Government's next Budget before it outlined significant policies which would cost money, Hipkins said, and suggested a lot of policy work was underway in the background. "The National Party desperately wants to talk about the Labour Party's policy at the moment, because their own policies are turning into an absolute disaster zone." National also came under criticism when it was in opposition for a paucity of policy heading into the 2023 election year, but it had released elements of its tax plan and several discussion documents indicating a direction of travel. Finance Minister Nicola Willis: "I view butter as a beautiful, beautiful thing." The two party leaders also sparred on Tuesday morning over the price of butter which has soared to about $8.60 for a 500g block. ADVERTISEMENT Nicola Willis speaks to media on July 7, 2025. (Source: 1News) In recent weeks, Hipkins has repeatedly drawn attention to the issue, posting on social media last week: "The price of butter is up nearly 50 percent since this time last year. That's it. That's my X post." Asked what Labour would do about it if in power, Hipkins said the onus was on the coalition: "we're not the government... all we've had from them is tough talk." Luxon said dairy prices were largely dictated by global commodity prices and New Zealand dairy farmers were reaping the benefits "tremendously". He said Finance Minister Nicola Willis would be meeting with diary giant Fonterra on Tuesday evening in the context of supermarket competition. If Willis raised the issue of butter prices "good on her", Luxon said. Willis, who previously worked for Fonterra, told reporters she would raise the topic in her conversation as she was concerned butter was becoming out-of-reach for many New Zealanders. ADVERTISEMENT "I view butter as a beautiful, beautiful thing. I eat too much of it," she said. "When you see it on my piece of toast, it looks like some cheese." Willis said Fonterra was transparent about how it determined milk prices but it was less clear to her how that then translated to butter. "What we're talking about here is at the margin — 10 or 20 cents — but 10 or 20 cents really matters when you're a Kiwi family at the supermarket checkout." She also accused Labour of "crocodile tears", given its lack of proposed solutions.
Scoop
3 hours ago
- Scoop
FIANZ On The Harmony Initiative
FIANZ applauds all initiatives in Aotearoa New Zealand and globally which strive for peace, human rights and social justice. These values reflect some of the bedrock principles of our faith. By participating in the Harmony initiative, FIANZ recognises the need to address the rapidly growing Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in our country. The initiative reflects our commitment to achieving social cohesion in New Zealand. No Accord can sanitise the impact of the on-going genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. No nation should remain silent when there is a humanitarian tragedy of mass starvation and indiscriminate killing of Palestinians who seek food from aid-depots. We acknowledge that the NZ government has spoken out and condemned this inhumane approach. FIANZ will continue to raise awareness that such gross violations of basic humanitarian principles have been exacerbated by the over seventy-five years of illegal occupation and the imposition of an apartheid system on the Palestinian people. The systematic displacement of Palestinians (both Muslims and Christians) in the West Bank by Israeli settler violence is part of the ongoing, total and deliberate disregard of international rule of law. This needs to be directly addressed by the NZ government. Sanctions against two Ministers and terrorism lables against In this context, we are also aware that there is a campaign to conflate anti-semitism with criticism of Zionism and the State of Israel. This is unacceptable. We acknowledge that the Prime Minister Rt Hon Christopher Luxon has clearly advocated for a rules-based international order and support for the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) ruling that there is a plausible case that Israel's conduct in Gaza may breach its obligations under the genocide convention. The government's position is that Israel must listen to the concerns of the international community, and the protection of civilians is paramount and a requirement under international humanitarian law. The Prime Minister has also affirmed that New Zealand supports the international rules-based system and International Criminal Court (ICC) and the arrest warrant for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity over their war in Gaza. The government has also clearly stated that it is intolerable that Israel has blocked aid reaching the starving population in Gaza . We have signed the Accord as a recognition that there is a rapid rise of Islamophobia in Aotearoa New Zealand. This has to be addressed. We consider that sitting at a table with many stakeholders and raising our concerns through respectful dialogue is a peaceful pathway to achieve a socially cohesive nation. We look forward to seeing how the government rises to the challenges that we and other vulnerable minorities face. We have taken a step forward for peace. Our request is for the government to now implement the following: Extend the harmony initiative to other faiths and ethnic communities. We all need to collectively share in the social cohesion pathway for Aotearoa New Zealand. Implement the recommendation of the Royal Commission with respect to hate speech. We note that the current legislation on hate speech has existed since 1993, and covers gender, race and colour, but does not include faith as a protected characteristic. The Royal Commission wanted this anomaly to be rectified. On the international front, we seek the government: To remove the visa waiver scheme for Israeli citizens and they should apply for visa like all other nationalities in the Middle East. Alternatively, also extend visa waiver for all Palestinians. To immediately recognise the State of Palestine and establish formal diplomatic relations.
