Puaka Matariki Festival

31 Jul 2015

Funding Stories

The Otago Community Trust continues to support Dunedin’s annual Puaka Matariki Festival.

The Matariki festival is celebrated in three ways over June – a marking of the Māori New Year, the “Wananga Season” of discussions, and a Māori arts festival.

The Festival welcomes the increasing number of organisations, including many schools, which are marking the Māori New Year with a wide variety of celebrations within communities.

The “Wananga Season” now involves a full public programme of discussions, forums, consultations on contemporary concerns, traditional workshops and the opportunity to pass information on.

Dunedin’s Festival of Māori Art showcases a wide range of toi Māori, visual art, literary works, music and dance performance events, bringing in national artists to feed in new ideas as well as providing a platform for local artists. It attracts around 90 artists across various exhibitions and events, which are mostly free.