Te Waka Toi Board of Creative New Zealand

The Te Waka Toi Board of Creative New Zealand supports all Māori arts through allocating funding to specific Māori arts projects, Māori arts organisations and individual Māori artists. Te Waka Toi is not a governing body. This function is carried out by the Arts Council.

Purpose/Functions:

To allocate funding to specific Māori arts projects, Māori arts organisations and individual Māori artists.

Board Appointments:

The Board has seven members including the Chair.

Members of Te Waka Toi are appointed by the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage after consultation with the Minister of Māori Affairs. They are appointed for a term of up to three years and are eligible for re-appointment.

Skills and Experience:

Specific skills required for this Board include:

• a blend of knowledge of professional and community arts
• the need to balance the inclusion of practising artists from a variety of art forms, and also from around New Zealand, with the risk of an unsustainable level of conflict of interest
• knowledge, culturally diverse backgrounds, and rural and urban backgrounds appropriate to the function of the board
• Mana Māori is an essential requirement
• expertise in Te Reo Māori.

Time Commitment:

9 days per annum: four two-day meetings, one joint Council / arts boards meeting. Some members also sit on peer assessment committees.

Board Membership (expiry of term in brackets):

• Ngahuia Te Awekotuku – Chair (June 2009)
• Sandy Adsett (June 2008)
• Suzanne Ellison (June 2008)
• Darrin Haimona (June 2009)
• Dr Patu Hohepa (June 2008)
• Ranui Ngarimu (June 2009)
• Marina Sciascia (May 2008)