Government's Role in the Cultural Sector

Government as guardian, patron and educator

6.1: The role that government has come to play in the cultural sector may for ease of description be divided into three broad types. In brief, these are:

The Government as Guardian/Kaitiaki of Cultural Heritage
In its role as a guardian or kaitiaki of New Zealand’s cultural heritage, the government is involved in the protection and preservation of New Zealand’s cultural heritage, and in making this heritage accessible to present and future generations. The Crown owns and cares for a number of important heritage collections and historic and cultural heritage sites. It has also enacted legislation - such as the Resource Management Act, the Historic Places Act and the Antiquities Act - to protect land-based and movable heritage, whether or not it is in Crown ownership.
The Government as Patron
Alongside, and often overlapping with, its role in the preservation of cultural heritage, the government acts as a patron, or a provider of financial support for the creation and presentation of creative work. This support enables a much greater range and quality of creative work to be produced and presented than would otherwise be the case. In particular, it ensures that New Zealanders can continue to experience works that reflect our own history and society. The financial support provided by the government includes both direct funding of arts organisations - for example, the Crown’s funding for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra - and the distribution of funding through its various granting agencies (Creative New Zealand, New Zealand Film Commission, NZ On Air, and Te Mangai Paho).
The Government’s Role in Cultural Education
Through the education system, the government provides both a general grounding in the arts and humanities - in early childhood education, at primary and secondary schools and at undergraduate level at tertiary institutions - and more specialised training for cultural professions. The quality of this education is crucial in ensuring that New Zealanders have the skills and confidence to get the most out of cultural experiences, and to equip artists and other cultural practitioners with the necessary skills to maintain our cultural traditions, care for our heritage, and develop new works and new forms of expression.
6.2: The sections that follow provide a more detailed discussion of each of these three types of role, and of government’s current performance.
THE GOVERNMENT AS GUARDIAN/KAITIAKI OF CULTURAL HERITAGE
6.3: Cultural heritage, or taonga tuku iho, is fundamental to the health, and even the survival, of individuals, communities and nations. Connections to our heritage provide us with a sense of continuity and various forms of identity, and the psychological and social resilience that comes from these. But that heritage itself is fragile, being at risk from deterioration, vandalism and theft, development, export, and, in its intangible forms, from the vagaries of memory and social change.
6.4: Just as it has acknowledged a role in the protection of the physical environment, the government has developed a guardianship or kaitiaki role in ensuring that objects and places of cultural significance and intangible treasures are preserved and, where possible, are made accessible to present and future generations. This does not mean that central government itself must preserve all significant cultural heritage, but requires it to take the lead in developing policies that identify heritage protection objectives and priorities, and in allocating funding and delivery responsibilities.
6.5: At present, the Crown is the owner of a number of important collections of moveable cultural heritage material, including:

National Archives;
the heritage collections of the National Library, based on the collections bequeathed to the Crown by Alexander Turnbull;⁴
the collections of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa; and
radio and television archives.; Other government departments may also exhibit their own history. Examples include the Armed Forces and the New Zealand Police.
6.6: The Crown’s total spending on National Archives, the National Library, and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in 1997/98 was $109.594 million, of which $21.111 million was capital for the completion of Te Papa’s new waterfront building.
6.7: The Crown is responsible for managing historic places on the land it owns or administers. In particular, the Department of Conservation’s responsibilities include the management of around 125 historic reserves and more than 200 places registered under the Historic Places Act. Some of these are of immense cultural and historical significance: for example, the Treaty House at Waitangi, the old Government Buildings in Wellington, Governor Grey’s house on Kawau Island, and Ruapekapeka and Otatara Pa. The Department of Internal Affairs also administers and maintains Ministerial residences, some historic monuments, and war graves. Other Crown agencies manage heritage properties as part of their own operations.
6.8: The government also recognises a responsibility to provide for the protection of objects and places of national significance that are not in Crown ownership.

The functions of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa include establishing a national service and providing appropriate support to other institutions and organisations holding objects or collections of national importance. The government has also developed a policy under which it may provide assistance towards capital projects at regional museums with collections of national significance. The Antiquities Act 1975 restricts the export of antiquities and assigns the ownership of newly discovered Maori artefacts to the Crown in the first instance.
Through the Resource Management Act 1991 and the Historic Places Act 1993, the government has established a statutory framework for the protection of land-based cultural heritage.
The New Zealand Lottery Grants Board provides grants for environment and heritage and marae development projects.
The National Library, in association with National Archives has established a National Preservation Office. This initiative was designed to remedy a gap in arrangements for the preservation of significant documentary records held in the community, particularly those belonging to iwi and hapu.
6.9: Lastly, the government has a role in the protection of New Zealand’s intangible heritage (heritage that is not associated with particular objects or places).

The Treaty of Waitangi requires it to take action to protect and sustain te reo Maori. The Maori Language Act 1987 established Maori as an official language of New Zealand, and established Te Taura Whiri i Te Reo Maori (the Maori Language Commission) to promote the Maori language as a living, widely used means of communication with the same status as English. Te Mangai Paho, established in 1993, promotes the language by funding regional and national Maori radio stations and services, and Maori language programming for television.
The government also provides support for historical research through the Historical Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs and the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.
Comment
6.10: Although the government acknowledges that it has a role in the protection of New Zealand’s cultural heritage, there are no overall policy objectives to govern how it will exercise this role. Heritage protection, along with other cultural goals, has suffered from the fragmentation of government’s interests in the cultural sector.
6.11: Current initiatives that address aspects of Maori cultural heritage highlight this fragmentation. Heritage protection is an extremely significant issue for Maori, at iwi/hapu level as well as nationally. From a Maori perspective, “cultural heritage” is defined very broadly, including whakapapa, tikanga, whaikorero, symbols, images, natural heritage, ancestral landscape, intellectual property, and art forms. Work in other areas - ranging from intellectual property (for example, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Wai 262 claim over indigenous flora and fauna) to te reo Maori and land-based cultural heritage - is raising similar questions about the ownership, kaitiakitanga, development, and proper care of taonga, and about how the government can appropriately support Maori tino rangatiratanga over taonga (as guaranteed under Article 2 of the Treaty of Waitangi). These initiatives tend to proceed in isolation from each other, however, and are not consistently understood as aspects of the wider issue of protection for Maori cultural heritage.
6.12: Central government’s own collections by no means encompass all moveable cultural heritage that could reasonably be said to be of national significance. At present, the government has no overall policy regarding the protection of moveable cultural heritage. The respective responsibilities of central and local government, private organisations, and individuals are not clearly defined. There is no strategic framework for determining what should be preserved and how and by whom it should be cared for.
6.13: Key issues are:

The status of archival material held by State-owned Enterprises is unclear. This is of particular concern if SOEs or parts of their operations are sold.
Responsibilities for film archiving are confused, with a number of different agencies undertaking the task (TVNZ archives, New Zealand Film Archive, National Archives), funded from a variety of different sources (directly from Vote Cultural Affairs, via the New Zealand Film Commission, via Vote Internal Affairs, by TVNZ, NZ On Air, the Lottery Grants Board, and by private sector sponsorship).
The terms of the Antiquities Act do not enable New Zealand to accede to international conventions such the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. Replacement legislation consistent with the Treaty and these conventions has not been advanced.

While the ownership and export of moveable cultural property over 60 years old is subject to regulation, there is no framework to ensure the ongoing care of items of national importance.
As indicated above, the government has not developed a coherent position on how it should facilitate Maori tino rangatiratanga over taonga; at present, Maori often have to place items in museums to ensure a measure of support for the care and preservation of taonga.
6.14: The management of land-based cultural heritage was the subject of an extensive report by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment in 1996. This report concluded that the current system for the protection and management of land-based heritage “is not effective”, and that “significant losses of historic and cultural heritage are continuing”. The report prompted the Department of Conservation’s current Historic Heritage Management Review. The Commissioner’s report noted that losses of Maori heritage and archaeological sites have been particularly significant.

Strategic Policy Issues for Government’s Role as Guardian/Kaitiaki Include:

To consider the extent to which government should acknowledge ultimate responsibility for the care and preservation of the objects, collections and places of national significance distributed throughout New Zealand.
To consider how consistent national standards of care might be applied to heritage of national significance not held by government.
To consider how best to give effect to Article 2 of the Treaty in making policy for the care of national heritage.
To ensure that domestic cultural legislation gives effect to those international conventions and treaties to which New Zealand wishes to be a signatory.
THE GOVERNMENT AS PATRON
6.15: As noted in the introduction to this chapter, cultural heritage activity is not sustained in New Zealand by private support alone. New Zealand’s relatively small population, the fact that wealth has historically been more evenly distributed than in many other countries, and the lack of a tradition of substantial private philanthropy, mean that it is extremely difficult for arts and cultural heritage organisations and individual practitioners to survive without some form of public support. As the sector has developed, the government has therefore assumed a limited role as a patron, or provider of financial support for the creation and presentation of creative work. Its intention in doing so, however, is not to supplant private support. Instead, the government has aimed to complement market mechanisms in order to enable a wider range of artistic works to be produced and presented than would otherwise be the case and, in particular, to ensure that New Zealanders have access to works that reflect, and reflect on, our history, identity and culture. Public funding is often a relatively small proportion of arts organisations’ total revenue, but underpins their artistic and financial viability. It provides sufficient financial stability for artists and organisations to be able to take the creative risks necessary for cultural growth, while still requiring them to gain financial support - in one way or another - from their communities.
6.16: As the historical survey included with this paper shows, the ways in which the government has supported the arts have evolved over time. At present, this support takes two main forms.

The first is direct funding by annual appropriation. Three arts organisations currently receive this type of funding: the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Royal New Zealand Ballet, and the Aotearoa Traditional Maori Performing Arts Society, which together will receive $14.3 million from Vote Cultural Affairs in 1998/99.⁵ Of these, the Orchestra has received direct funding since its re-establishment as a separate company in 1988; the Ballet and the Society have received this type of funding only from the start of the 1998/99 financial year.
The second form of support is at arm’s length, through a variety of Crown entities whose major role is to distribute grants to organisations and individuals: Creative New Zealand, New Zealand Film Commission, NZ On Air, and Te Mangai Paho. In 1997/98 these agencies projected that they would receive around $12.2 million from Vote, $32.7 million from the Lottery Grants Board, and $98 million (GST-exclusive) from the public broadcasting fee.
Comment
6.17: The New Zealand government’s patronage of the arts has made a vital contribution to this country’s cultural development over the last half century. Without it, artistic creation and presentation in New Zealand would diminish significantly in both variety and quality, with New Zealand works being particularly vulnerable.
6.18: The system is under pressure, however. As noted earlier, the arts are costly and are not always able to make economic gains from new technologies. Further, diseconomies of scale may make it difficult to be as cost-efficient in some areas of cultural production in New Zealand as might be possible in other countries. There is also an increasingly competitive entertainment market, including a growing volume of foreign product entering New Zealand as television and radio stations proliferate, Internet use grows, and broadcasting and computer technologies converge. This means that many organisations and even whole parts of the sector are experiencing considerable stress, both artistically and financially.
6.19: NZ On Air’s annual income (net of public broadcasting fee collection costs) has fluctuated between around $86 million and $90 million over the past six years. NZ On Air’s 1997/98 Statement of Intent noted that “funding limitations now mean that NZ On Air cannot adequately meet the demands for local television programming”.⁶ The requirement that Television New Zealand achieve a commercial rate of return on the government’s investment in it, by obliging it to maximise its income and minimise costs, may further limit the range of New Zealand programming that can be shown.
6.20: Both Creative New Zealand and the New Zealand Film Commission, since the introduction of Lotto, have become heavily dependent on Lotteries Commission profits.⁷ As a result, there is the potential for conflict over objectives and lines of accountability to develop.
6.21: As discussed in the historical survey included with this paper, since the 1970s, Maori have become increasingly active in all art forms, and have sought appropriate recognition of and support for this activity from government cultural agencies. Legislation dating from the 1990s makes specific reference to provision for Maori, but earlier legislation does not.

The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Act 1994 requires the Council to “recognise in the arts the role of Maori as tangata whenua”, and establishes two boards to allocate funding: a Maori arts board, Te Waka Toi, and the general Arts Board (which also funds some Maori arts). The amount of funding that each Board will have to distribute is at the discretion of the Council, however.
Te Mangai Paho was established in 1993 to promote Maori language and culture by funding broadcasting and programme production, and it currently receives 14.4 per cent of the public broadcasting fee for this purpose. NZ On Air also funds programmes intended for a general audience which feature Maori stories, interests and perspectives.
The New Zealand Film Commission Act 1978 makes no specific reference to the interests of Maori.
6.22: The adequacy of support for nga toi Maori, and the appropriateness of the structures in place to deliver this support, are ongoing issues. Current debate on how support should be organised and delivered focuses on the role of iwi, and in particular on questions of rangatiratanga, accountability (to the Crown and to iwi), value for money and expertise. The question of equity - the levels of Maori versus non-Maori funding and support - has remained unaddressed in a static funding environment.

Strategic Policy Issues for Government’s Role as a Patron Include:

To evaluate periodically which cultural sector activities and institutions should be subject to government support, and to what extent.
To consider whether the forms of intervention used in relation to the cultural sector are best suited to contemporary needs.
To consider the impact of a reliance by cultural activities on private sources of income, and the extent to which government should encourage this reliance.
To review the relationship between the goals of supporting excellent achievement and ensuring widespread access to resources.

THE GOVERNMENT’S ROLE IN CULTURAL EDUCATION
6.23: The government is the major funder and, in most cases, the provider of cultural education and training in New Zealand. In broad terms, this education can be divided into general education in the arts and humanities provided by primary and secondary schools and at undergraduate level in tertiary institutions, and more specialised training for cultural professions, such as theatre, music, dance, the visual arts, or design.
General Cultural Education
6.24: The social benefits of cultural activity, as outlined in the previous chapter, depend on widespread interest and involvement in cultural activities. As suggested in that chapter, this interest and involvement in turn depend on the information available to the would-be consumer or practitioner. There is clear evidence that life-time patterns of participation in cultural activities are strongly shaped by people’s exposure to such activities as children. Our cultural heritage is rich and complex, and is the product of many cultures. To engage with it confidently requires a degree of preparation that is not achieved quickly. If New Zealand wishes to benefit from a robust and dynamic cultural life, therefore, it is important that New Zealanders receive a good general cultural education as part of the compulsory education system, one that provides them with an understanding of their, and other peoples’, cultural heritage, and the skills and confidence to participate in cultural life.
6.25: Much early childhood education can be categorised as broadly cultural. Although the government is not directly involved in the provision of early childhood education, it has a strong interest in the quality of that education, which is reflected in its purchase of early childhood services, its licensing and ongoing evaluation of providers, and its provision of fee subsidies for children whose parents are on low incomes.
6.26: The government is the main provider of primary and secondary education, and, through the New Zealand Curriculum, sets the parameters for teaching, learning and assessment at all schools from junior classes to Form Seven. The Curriculum identifies seven Essential Learning Areas that are required for a broad and balanced education. Three of these are of relevance to the cultural sector: the Arts/Nga Toi, Language and Languages/Te Korero me Nga Reo, and Social Sciences/Tikanga-a-Iwi. (A draft curriculum statement on the arts/nga toi is scheduled to be released to schools in early 1999.) Contestable funding is also available for institutions, such as museums, providing learning experiences outside the classroom.
6.27: The 1980s and 90s have seen a significant increase in Maori medium education, primarily through kohanga reo Maori and kura kaupapa Maori, which provide total immersion in te reo in an environment governed by tikanga Maori. Growing numbers of Maori students are also enrolled in bilingual and Maori language immersion classes in mainstream schools.
6.28: University undergraduate courses in the arts and humanities continue the broad cultural education provided at schools. Similarly, some teaching in wananga - teaching and research institutions concerned with ahuatanga Maori and run in accordance with tikanga Maori, but linked into the Qualifications Framework - also falls within general cultural education.
Specialised Cultural Education
6.29: The strength of the cultural sector also depends on the professional skills of those working in it. Therefore, in order to thrive, the cultural sector - like all other sectors of the economy - needs effective training systems that develop those professional skills. Universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, wananga, and private training establishments (PTEs) are all involved in providing this training. The government provides funding for these organisations, and, through the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, co-ordinates post-compulsory training qualifications. It is currently encouraging industries to take responsibility, over time, for developing and managing training systems that meet their needs.
6.30: Some cultural training is provided outside the Qualifications Framework, and with only minimal government support, or none at all. In particular, it should be noted that marae are an important focus for training in traditional Maori arts, outside the formal education system. Many tribal administrations organise their own marae-based wananga, which play a vital role in the transmission of cultural skills and knowledge.
Comment
6.31: The government makes a significant financial commitment to cultural education and training; indeed, the amount spent on general cultural education - up to $800 million, depending on how it is calculated - dwarfs all other cultural spending.⁸
6.32: There are indications, however, that the arts in particular are not given the priority in schools that their identification as one of the Essential Learning Areas would seem to require. Until the combined arts curriculum statement now being developed comes into effect, schools are required to follow the existing arts and music syllabuses, which were published in 1989. The Education Review Office reported in 1995 that many schools, at both primary and secondary level, were not teaching these existing syllabuses effectively, and were not ensuring that all students undertook “continuing study in all the learning areas during each of the first ten years of schooling”. Schools are required to provide a broad and balanced curriculum in accordance with the National Curriculum Statements.
6.33: A preliminary study on cultural training undertaken by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage in 1995 suggested that there was little vocational professional training in New Zealand for most cultural occupations, and noted that organisations in the sector report that they find it difficult to employ people with adequate skills. It was noted that dance, drama, the visual arts and design were better served than many other cultural occupations, while there was almost no professional training in New Zealand for some careers in the film industry (in particular, script writing, directing and producing), and only limited training for the art gallery/museum sector. It also commented that there are a number of factors which prevent the sector from being able to work effectively within the Industry Training Organisation framework to ensure that its training needs are met: in particular, the small size of cultural sector organisations; their diversity; the financial constraints under which they operate; and the high number of cultural practitioners who are self-employed.
6.34: Any review of the availability of cultural training would have to take into account the current policy of funding students rather than institutions.
6.35: Current issues in Maori cultural education and training are in many respects similar to those in the protection of cultural heritage and the support of the arts: questions of equity arise at all levels. There has been a substantial increase over the past two decades in the number of organisations providing this education and training, and in the number of people participating in it, but there are few sources of financial support for Maori cultural education. A key issue for the future is deciding what role iwi administrations should take in determining what education and training is needed, and how it should be delivered.

Strategic Policy Issues for Government’s Role in Cultural Education Include:

To analyse the strengths and weaknesses of New Zealand’s current provision for cultural training.
To establish the level of grounding in New Zealand cultural traditions and skills that should be assumed by cultural and education policies.

4: The National Library’s heritage collections are classed as those that are to be permanently retained.
5: All figures are GST-inclusive unless otherwise stated.
6: NZ On Air’s 1997/98 Statement of Intent does project an increase in public broadcasting fee income to $98 million (GST-exclusive) by 1999/2000.
7: In 1987/88 Lottery Grants Board funding amounted to around 43 per cent of Creative New Zealand’s and 26 per cent of the Film Commission’s total public funding; by 1997/98 the percentages were 84 per cent (Creative New Zealand) and 88 per cent (Film Commission).
8: This approximate figure may be arrived at by including funding for: undergraduate tertiary courses in arts and performing arts; Maori language resources in primary and secondary schools; secondary schools history, languages, art, music, English and drama; and early childhood education (from which a cultural component is difficult to separate meaningfully).

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