Whakaata Māori Supports Decisions To Strengthen The Māori Media Sector

Whakaata Māori welcomes decisions announced today by the Minster of Māori Development, Willie Jackson, that seek to strengthen the Māori Media sector.

“We acknowledge the support and leadership of the Minister for Māori Development and the steps taken to address longstanding funding inequities, build a strong workforce, strengthen Māori story telling in te reo Māori and English, and ensure more Māori content is accessible to audiences. The review has reinforced the important role Whakaata Māori plays in enabling Māori to tell Māori stories, in te reo Māori and in Māori ways,” says Whakaata Māori Tāhuhu Rangapū, Shane Taurima.

“It also highlights the urgent need for government to address funding inequities that exist between Māori and non-Māori media. Māori content creators are required to deliver so much more, for so much less. Long standing underfunding and inequity has undermined ours and the wider sector role to keep pace with an ever-changing media landscape. We are optimistic about how both the Māori and Public media address this unfairness.”

The Māori Media sector faces the same issues to attracting and retaining our people, our talent. Whakaata Māori hosted representatives of the Māori media sector today for our third wānanga to collaboratively create the solutions to what we face in growing our workforce now and into the future.

“We are a strong and resilient sector, but we need a well-resourced strategy that creates more reo speakers, content creators and technical experts that bring a Māori view to what they do. The sector must offer attractive career pathways to rangatahi, ensure fair and equitable remuneration and recognition, and support the sector to be fit for the future.”

“We look forward to working collaboratively with the new public media entity to ensure that all audiences are served and that nobody is left behind. We welcome mahi tahi that recognises and upholds our whakapapa and rangatiratanga. There is an opportunity to improve access to content commissioning, distribution and platforms through resourcing and collaboration.”

Whakaata Māori welcomes the decision to modernise the Māori Television Service Act.

“We support the decision to change our legislation, to remove the focus towards a television service and reflect the changes in audience behaviours and technology. This step will better support our role as a media entity that delivers compelling Māori and te reo Māori content across multiple platforms.”

The outcome of the sector review that began in 2018 has been released during Mahuru Māori, and on the eve of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori and planned events to commemorate 50 years since the Māori language petition was presented to Parliament in 1972.

“Whakaata Māori exists because of the efforts of those that fought for the retention and survival of our mother tongue. While there is so much to be proud about, there is so much more to be done, and we look forward to continuing to support language revitalisation efforts that support the use of te reo Māori and build cultural and national identity,” says Mr Taurima.

Whakaata Māori is on track to report an 11% increase in average weekly audience across all platforms and a 21% increase in average weekly audience across digital platforms in our annual report for the 2021/22 year.

Whakaata Māori is part of the World Indigenous Television Broadcasters Network (WITBN), an alliance of indigenous broadcasters from multiple countries including Australia, Canada, Hawai’i, Taiwan and Norway to preserve and promote indigenous language and cultures worldwide. The International Decade of Indigenous languages will be launched later this year.

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