NZ fund brings Māori content to prime

Financing totalling NZ$4m (US$2.9m) has been awarded to six projects for New Zealand audiences featuring diverse and alternative Māori perspectives.

Nevak Rogers

The funding, from New Zealand’s Te Māngai Pāho and Irirangi Te Motu/NZ On Air co-fund, has been allocated to projects including a supernatural anthology drama series, scripted comedy Hui Hoppers and bilingual documentary Meng.

Varying levels of the te reo Māori language will be used across the premium bilingual projects, which also include The Untold Tales of Tūteremoana and Duality, described as a raw look at mixed-whakapapa (genealogy) Māori people aged between 18 and 32 who are on a journey to find their identity.

Irirangi Te Motu/NZ On Air’s CEO Cameron Harland said the Māori Television and TVNZ projects funded in this round will work towards “crucially, normalising the use of te reo during primetime” and bring new stories to the country’s screens.

Larry Parr, kaihautū (leader) of Te Māngai Pāho, added: “Our collaboration with the team at NZ On Air enables us to support premium content that we would not otherwise be able to fund. The partnership provides an opportunity for Māori content creators to extend themselves and reach wider audiences.”

Harland said: “Collaboration across our sector has never been as important as it is now. It’s been a joy to once again partner with Te Māngai Pāho to fund content that works toward our common goal of authentically reflecting Aotearoa [the Māori name for New Zealand].”

NZ On Air and Te Māngai Pāho will soon issue a second request for proposals that support the revitalisation of Māori-language content, to be funded from an underspend in the latest round of funding.

Projects to have received funding from the latest round include a primetime anthology series for TVNZ 2 and TVNZ OnDemand that will explore Māori, Pasifika and Filipino supernatural beings. More details about series are available here.

One of the episodes, Albularyo: The Witch Doctor, will be the first time the Filipino language, Tagalog, will feature in a primetime drama on a mainstream local channel in the country.

“Te Reo Tātaki (TVNZ) is committed to reflecting the diverse communities, people and perspectives that make up Aotearoa. We’re thrilled that this anthology series elevates Māori, Pasifika and Asian creators and provides them with the opportunity to bring their stories to screen in primetime as well as OnDemand,” said Nevak Rogers, TVNZ’s general manager for local content.

“Te Reo Tātaki would like to acknowledge the generous support of Robin Scholes, Lisa Chatfield, Steven Zanoski and Tina Archibald – the consulting executives who provided mentorship to the teams through the development of their scripts and proposals.”