About us | Council and boards | Te Waka Toi
Role
Te Waka Toi, the Maori arts board of Creative New Zealand, allocates project grants and develops initiatives. Te Waka Toi also funds Toi Maori Aotearoa on a three-year basis and Kahurangi Maori Dance Theatre on an annual basis. With the Arts Board of Creative New Zealand, it contributes to the annual funding of Taki Rua Productions. Go to the Funding section for more information on funding through Te Waka Toi.
Members
Te Waka Toi is a seven-member board. Members are appointed by the Minister Arts, Culture and Heritage for a term of up to three years. Anyone can nominate a person to be considered for appointment to the board.
Dr Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Chair, is Professor of Research at the School of Maori and Pacific Development at Waikato University. Originally from Ohinemutu, Rotorua, she has an extensive background in the arts as a curator, lecturer and critic. Her fiction and non-fiction appear in publications both here and overseas. She has been advocate in the cultural sector for more than 30 years, and is passionately interested in visual and performance art, textiles, body modification, kapa haka and new literature.
Kura Te Waru Rewiri (Te Rarawa) is a senior visual artist based in Northland with a long career as an artist and arts educator. She teaches at Northland Polytechnic and previously taught in the Māori Visual Arts department at Massey University, Ilam School of Fine Arts, and at Auckland University.
John Huria (Ngāi Tahu) is a Wellington-based literature specialist. He is a director of Ahi Text Solutions, which provides editing and research services with a focus on Māori publishing. He contributed to the award-winning publication on the painter Shane Cotton and recently updated the definitive encyclopedia Māori Life and Custom.
Darrin Haimona of Waharoa (Tainui) is Chief Executive Officer of Te Hauora O Ngati Haua Trust. He has set up and run a local iwi arts management plan, and has worked on community housing and non-violence networks. He has strong links with Maori communities in Waikato.
Te Kāhautu Maxwell (Te Whakatōhea, Ngāi Tai, Te Whānau-a-Apanui, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Porou, Tūhoe, Ngāti Maniapoto) is currently a Senior Lecturer in the School of Māori and Pacific Development at the University of Waikato. He is an expert in tikanga Māori and has a strong background in the performing arts, as a composer of haka and mōteatea. He is currently a rohe delegate for Te Matatini.
Ranui Ngarimu (to Kati Mamoe, Ngai Tahu, Ngati Mutunga) is a Christchurch weaver with an extensive background of managerial work in the public sector. She specialises in restoring cloaks and has designed and woven pieces for exhibition, presentation and use at major ceremonial events. She is concerned about the preservation of intellectual property of weavers and traditional terminology associated with Maori weaving, and recently co-authored a book on the art of Maori weaving. She has also judged national kapa haka competitions.
Marina Sciascia (Ngati Kahungunu) has represented Ngati Kahungunu nationally and internationally in kapa haka and is a founding member of the Tamateaarikinui team, which has participated in the Aotearoa Traditional Maori Performing Arts Festival for 30 years. She also co-ordinated the New Zealand Festival of Arts Maori programme for four years. She has served on a number of boards, including Te Angiangi Marine Reserve and the Department of Conservation, and is a Ngati Kere Rohe trustee.
