Government's Role in the Cultural Sector

What is government’s involvement in the cultural sector?

3.1
The word "culture" has many meanings, some quite narrow, others extremely broad. In its broadest sense, “culture” refers to the whole way of life of a nation or people, and encompasses every kind of phenomenon that gives a significance and identity to that way of life: food, sports, religion, and a host of other things. In this sense, "culture" refers to something broader than the typical interests of government.
3.2
This paper refers in places to "culture" in this total sense. Its focus, however, is on a set of government responsibilities that, while still broad in scope, are “cultural” in more specific and specialised ways. Government’s cultural involvement is largely concerned with celebrating, promoting or preserving our cultural heritage and the arts.¹
3.3
The range of government’s cultural interventions with which this paper is concerned is illustrated by the diagram given on the facing page (“Ministers, Departments and Agencies”). It shows that the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, in addition to its policy advice role, is responsible for government’s interest - as owner or part-funder - in several core cultural agencies. New Zealand’s production of new work in the arts, for example, is supported by Creative New Zealand and the New Zealand Film Commission. Many of its national heritage collections are in the care of Te Papa.
3.4
As the diagram also shows, however, a variety of cultural functions can be found within other departments. The Department of Internal Affairs plays an important role in preserving New Zealand’s heritage and interpreting its past. The Ministry of Education is responsible for the quality of education available to New Zealanders in all subjects, including cultural ones. The Department of Conservation develops policy for historic places and sites; the Ministry of Commerce is responsible for policy in broadcasting, an area of great cultural influence in New Zealand life; the National Library, a department in its own right, holds major heritage collections. Te Puni Kòkiri has broad cultural interests. The spread of ministerial responsibility presents a still more complex picture.
3.5
In 1997/98 around $330 million of public money - from departmental appropriations, from the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board, and from the public broadcasting fee - was applied to cultural sector purposes. In addition, several hundred millions of dollars were spent within the Education budget on areas of learning related to the cultural sector.
3.6
It should also be noted that what this paper refers to as "the cultural sector" is not an exclusive domain. It includes activities that may be regarded as belonging equally to other sectors. For example, historic buildings and sites are usually regarded as belonging to the cultural sector, and are so treated in this paper. In the last decade especially, however, they have also come to be regarded as part of the environment sector.

Click image for larger view.

1
The terms "cultural heritage" and "the arts", which are used frequently in this paper, overlap in meaning, and the activities they refer to are combined in practice. Our cultural heritage is extended by what is created now. The same projects or organisations in the cultural sector may be concerned both with aspects of our cultural heritage and with the contemporary arts. Symphony orchestras, for example, perform a classic repertoire now considered part of our heritage, but they also commission new works that may survive to form part of that heritage in the future. Similarly, museums and galleries interpret the past while also presenting contemporary developments in the arts. Kapa haka groups compose new haka and waiata on a regular basis, some of which are adopted widely by other groups, tribes, generations and cultures and become a part of New Zealand’s identity.

Publications | Contents | Previous | Next