Te Wharekura o Ngā Maungarongo me TKKM o Te Kōtuku perform on the Māori stage at last year's Polyfest. Photo / Ben Campbell
Te Wharekura o Ngā Maungarongo me TKKM o Te Kōtuku perform on the Māori stage at last year's Polyfest. Photo / Ben Campbell
A decision to split Māori events off from Auckland’s popular Polyfest secondary school cultural festival is raising questions of cultural unity.
The move will see next year’s event being held at the current and well-known home, Manukau Sports Bowls, from March 18 to 21 without a Māori stage.
ThePacific Island stages - Samoan, Tongan, Niuean and Cook Islands - will remain there, as will the Diversity Stage - which includes Chinese, Indian, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Sri Lankan, African, Cambodian, Tokelauan, Fijian and Indian Punjabi cultural groups.
However, the Māori stage will move further down the road to the Due Drop Events Centre in Manukau, and will be held about two weeks later, from March 30 to April 2.
Te Wharekura o Ngā Maungarongo me TKKM o Te Kōtuku perform on the Māori stage at last year's Polyfest. Photo / Ben Campbell
Organisers made the announcement today, saying the new Māori stage performances times aligned better with events such as the Te Matatini National Kapa Haka Festival.
New Polyfest Trust chair Simon Craggs said the changes allowed for growth over coming years.
“It also helps to relieve the pressure on the Manukau Sports Bowl venue, which has been the home of ASB Polyfest since 1996,” he said.
“We want to reassure our supporters that Polyfest will continue its focus on unity between cultures - especially our Māori and Pacific whānau, as was intended by our founders 50 years ago.”
Craggs, principal of South Auckland’s Papakura High School, said this was also the next step in the event’s evolution.
“[It] will allow more rangatahi (youth) to showcase their culture on the Polyfest stages.”
Avondale College's Samoan group performing at Polyfest in 2019. Photo / Peter Meecham
The announcement has caused some debate among the community.
Huhana Watene, the national president Māori of the NZ Tertiary Education Union, acknowledged that with growth comes change. But she also questioned whether moving the Māori stage away from the main festival would cause division.
“Is it more important that there is that inclusiveness?” she asked.
“Maybe the original concept of why the kapa haka groups performed - to share, to engage - maybe that’s something that they need to seriously look at retaining.
“Because we will lose it, it will be lost, if it’s only just Māori.”
Polyfest has announced that the Māori stage is to move to a separate venue from next year. Photo / Ben Campbell
Watene, whose whānau perform kapa haka, said Polyfest provides a unique united cultural experience by showcasing diverse group performances in one place.
Kapa haka-only events like Te Matatini already exist, she said.
Kapa haka expert John Tuoro, of the Te Rautahi group based at Hoani Waititi, worked with kapa haka groups for several years before retiring.
The 70-year-old said it was sad to hear Māori performances were being moved to a separate space.
“It’s a shame.”
He said one of the highlights was seeing young people from all cultures coming together to show cultural pride.
“At the end of the day, because they’re going to have different venues, will the Māoris visit it? Are the Pasifika going to visit [the Māori stage]?
“Most probably not because they’re going to have their own thing.”
The annual event celebrated its 50th birthday this year and has grown to be the world’s largest secondary schools’ cultural festival, attracting up to 100,000 spectators over the now four-day event.
Originally involving four high schools, the aim was to promote cultural pride and to bring schools and different cultures together, the festival’s website says.
Vaimoana Mase is the Pasifika editor for the Herald’s Talanoa section, sharing stories from the Pacific community. She won junior reporter of the year at the then Qantas Media Awards in 2010 and won the best opinion writing award at the 2023 Voyager Media Awards.
