‘Forgotten Their Roots': Te Matatini Risks Alienating Regions
Te Matatini risks alienating the regions with its decision not to host the 2027 event in Te Tauhihu, Whakatū Nelson's Māori Ward councillor has warned.
It was announced on Monday that the next national kapa haka competition will not be hosted in the Top of the South, as had been planned since 2013.
Society heamana (chair) Tā Herewini Parata said the decision was not a reflection on Te Tauihu (the Top of the South Island).
'As the festival continues to grow in size and significance, the planning and delivery of Te Matatini must reflect that scale,' he said.
'While this decision is heartbreaking for many, we have had to be realistic and seriously re-evaluate the risks of holding Te Matatini in its current format in our smaller regions.'
The festival had seen 'unprecedented growth' and despite Te Tauihu working hard to find solutions, Parata said concerns remained, particularly around accommodation and transport – about 70,000 people attended the 2025 event in Taranaki.
Te Matatini was now inviting expressions of interest for hosting the 2027 event.
Nelson's Māori Ward councillor said the news was 'outrageously disappointing'.
'We had quite a few options on the table that we've got plenty of time to be able to deliver on those, but… they're not interested in trying to keep Te Matatini connected to the regions,' Kahu Paki Paki said.
'They run the risk, a very serious risk, of isolating some of the regions that won't even get a chance to host.'
He acknowledged that there were some 'challenges' in hosting Ngā Kapa Haka Kura Tuarua, the national secondary schools' kapa haka festival, in 2024 but they had provided 'good learning lessons' for local organisers and ultimately the event was a 'great success'.
Kapa haka was community-focused and community-building, and so the prospect of iwi and hapū around the motu missing out on hosting Te Matatini in favour of the main centres was 'really sad', Paki Paki said.
'If Taranaki could do it, and they did it really well, there's no reason why we couldn't have done it just as well… they have forgotten their roots, they've walked away from the regions. It's a real shame.'
Parata was not able to respond in time for publication, but on Tuesday morning he told Waatea News that he acknowledged that the decision was 'disappointing' for Te Tauihu.
'There's over a million people in New Zealand that have got an opinion on Te Matatini – and their opinions are all right – however it's the board's decision to make,' he said.
But he added that there was still 'a lot of goodwill' for the regions.
'Maybe, I can't say outright, we need to look at the whole festival and ways of hosting Te Matatini in the smaller rohe.'
That could include potentially reducing the number of kapa haka groups that participate down from the current 55 so areas like Te Tauihu could host the festival in the 'near future'.
Nelson and Tasman's mayors are also disappointed in the decision, but understood the capacity concerns from Te Matatini.
Tasman Mayor Tim King said even though the two youth kapa haka events Te Tauihu previously hosted were 'very successful', there were still challenges with many people travelling daily between Nelson and Marlborough.
Nelson Mayor Nick Smith said the benefits of hosting Te Matatini outweighed the costs for the council, and that the organisation had supported hosting the event locally 'at every step'.
Both hoped Te Tauihu would be able to host the event in the future and would be keen to see the return of the youth competitions again.
'We… are keen for this uniquely New Zealand art to still be very welcome in the city and region,' Smith said.
Sonny Alesana, heamana (chair) of the local Te Tauihu o Te Waka-a-Māui Māori Cultural Council, was hopeful the region could have the opportunity to host again sometime in the future.
'We are disappointed, but we also understand the pressure Te Matatini is under, both in terms of its growth and the financial implications of that,' he said.
'We are committed to continuing to work with Te Matatini to ensure Te Tauihu does have its time in the sun and that smaller regions are not automatically disqualified from hosting.'
Alexander Siebentritt, president of Hospitality NZ's Nelson branch said hosting Te Matatini would have had 'very positive effects' for the local economy – the 2023 event in Tāmaki Makarau Auckland generated more than $26 million.
'We just simply have to carry on and focus on how we can find alternatives to fill these gaps.'
He said the region was 'fantastic' and able to cater to large events.
'This is a great opportunity for another great event to be hosted in our region, if there's anyone out there, I've just heard some dates in February 2027, became available.'
Concerns about the region's ability to host the event in 2027 were thrown into the spotlight in March when Te Mauri o Te Matatini was not passed from Taranaki representatives to Te Tauihu.
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'It will all come down to whether you know that's actually being properly supported by professional practice. The quality of teaching is what makes the single biggest difference in schools, not the size of the classroom.' Questions about whether teachers have received the appropriate training and professional development to make the most of open-plan, collaborative spaces to enhance their practice and lift student outcomes have been canvassed by the research. But there's been little discussion about those barriers to lifting the quality of teaching, which has nothing to do with open-plan classrooms. This Government has identified the need for improvement in initial teacher education, ongoing professional development, non-contact time for planning classes, and support for students with additional needs. If these issues are addressed, it is more likely teachers will have the necessary expertise and capacity to make the most of innovative learning environments. Crucially, the research also fails to make a causal link between innovative learning environments and poor student achievement. While there is undoubtedly a lack of research to prove these environments are better for children, there is also nothing to prove they are worse. It is easy for school leaders, parents and politicians to point towards a simple, tangible thing as the reason for falling achievement. Especially when it's something that can be physically altered and sold as a fix. What educational research is clear on is that the single biggest factor affecting educational achievement in the classroom is the quality of teaching. But beyond that, societal factors, including a household's economic circumstances and structural racism in the education system are have the biggest influence on student outcomes. So, while the Government might like parents to think they're going to secure their children's future by doing away with open-plan classrooms, it's not that simple. And perhaps more to the point: they can't. While some schools – like Pāpāmoa College – are taking it upon themselves to upgrade or reconfigure classrooms back to single cells, under the current law the Government can't compel them to ditch open-plan. The Education and Training Act (clause 161) lays out what the Secretary of Education can specify, including minimum health and safety standards. Beyond that – without a change to regulations or this part of the law – the secretary (or the minister) can't direct a school what to do. This is why Hipkins has referred to last week's announcement about open-plan classrooms as 'virtue signalling'. But what the minister will be hoping is that it sends a strong signal to schools and communities that when they do come to do maintenance or upgrades on classrooms that they will think about whether to add in sliding doors that allow for partitioning and single-cell learning. Meanwhile, the raft of schools currently on the list to get additional classrooms to deal with roll growth will be offered the kitset, modular classroom design that are no bells and whistles, and can be used primarily for teaching in a single-cell configuration, with the ability to open into a wider space for certain activities, like assemblies, physical education, art or music classes. Essentially, she's looking for a phase-out. But if a school says they want to remain open-plan, or have new classrooms built in this collaborative style, they retain the power to do so. Stanford says she hopes they won't go that route. 'Overwhelming feedback I've received from schools across New Zealand is open-plan classrooms aren't meeting the needs of students. 'While open-plan designs were originally intended to foster collaboration, they have often created challenges for schools, particularly around noise and managing student behaviour,' she says. 'In many cases, open-plan classrooms reduce flexibility, rather than enhance it. We have listened to the sector and new classrooms will no longer be open plan.' The open-plan announcement came the same week Stanford unveiled a $120 million growth plan for Auckland schools that need to build more classrooms to account for new students in their area. This came alongside an announcement that a new crown entity, led by former National Party minister Murray McCully, will be set up to manage school property. When this Government took power it discovered a list of unfunded school property projects, big builds where the prices had blown out, and a general lack of transparency and mismanagement. Stanford set up a ministerial advisory group and commissioned an inquiry. At the time, an architecturally designed classroom was costing as much as $1.2 million, meaning some schools were missing out on new buildings because the funds weren't there. By focussing on kitset and modular designs, finding efficiencies of scale, and removing duplication, the cost of a classroom is now down to $620,000, Stanford says, adding that she thinks it can drop further still. Next in her sights is improving the maintenance programme for classrooms, meaning they'll last longer overall. One of the key priorities of this school property overhaul – and the new agency – is to increase transparency and accountability.
