The challenges to running the ‘most prestigious Māori event’ - Te Matatini CEO

Muriwhenua opened Te Matatini on Day 1. Photo / Supplied

It’s been a spectacular few days seeing Māoridom on full display as Te Matatini Herenga Waka Herenga Tāngata nears the end of its pool action, with day three about to finish.

Te Matatini chief executive Carl Ross, speaking to Whakaata Maori, took time to reflect on the tough road he and the body of representatives have had to get the 50th edition of the festival up and running, while making sure kaihaka are looked after and able to partake.

“We’ve had Covid, we’ve had floods, then we went through the cyclone.

“When you have an excess of 1800 performers who have practised for six months, where their whānau have gone out and fundraised and got as much pūtea as they can to let their whānau come here, everyone’s dying to get on stage and we’ve just got challenge after challenge after challenge,” he says.

Te Matatini CEO Carl Ross. Photo / Supplied

“A lot of people see Te Matatini as an event organisation – we run the most prestigious Māori event.

“That’s one of the roles that we have and I suppose the tiakina whakapapa, how we can support our whānau and rohe, is just as important in what we are doing.”

The organisation has made many contributions to help whānau and the wider rohe come together, including money distributions throughout the motu to help whānau cope with Covid-19.

But with Covid-19 came many kaihaka having to move away from their homes to take up jobs elsewhere if they found themselves without mahi due to the pandemic’s impacts.

That would result in some rohe having fewer kaihaka, while in others the number of kaihaka would be much more.

After the cyclone, the Te Matatini board came together to see which of the regions had been affected and whether the festival should go ahead. When it gave the green light, it did all it could to get as many kaihaka as possible to the festival.

“The reason we went down this track, I had a korero with the kaumātua [in Wairoa]. They said to their teams: ‘If you can get there, we want you to represent us and take our struggle to the people’.

“We supported them the best we could and it was good to say that the 45 [groups] that were going to perform were the 45 groups that were going to perform.”