Longtime festival Programme Partner, kaupapa Māori organisation Tui Ora signs on as Event Partner

We're thrilled to announce the details of our new partnership on a mission to showcase and celebrate Māori culture, traditions, and stories.

Māoritanga is being woven deeper into the fabric of our award-winning WOMAD festival, with a new partnership with kaupapa Māori organisation Tui Ora.  

Our longtime festival partner has signed on as an Event Partner, joining TSB, and elevating the celebration of Māori culture, traditions, and stories. 

As well as giving WOMAD audiences the opportunity to connect more meaningfully with Te Ao Māori, Tui Ora Pou Tū Kūrae (CE) Alana Ruakere (Taranaki/Te Atiawa), said the partnership will also make the popular festival accessible to more Taranaki whānau. 

“WOMAD is all about the beauty and value of diverse cultures and lived experiences. That’s an empowering perspective for the whānau we work with to see,” she said.  

“We are looking forward to inviting whānau, who might never otherwise not get the opportunity, to join us and experience WOMAD’s joyous inclusivity first-hand and see Te Ao Māori celebrated as the taonga it is.” 
 
TAFT CEO Suzanne Porter said the festival organisers are thrilled an existing partner is taking over the space previously held by Todd Energy. “We’ve celebrated a long partnership with Tui Ora that has generated several great initiatives and this new level of partnership will be a powerful vehicle for celebrating Māori culture.” 

“There are strong synergies between WOMAD’s ethos of manaakitanga, giving stage to indigenous voices, and Tui Ora’s whānau-centric wellbeing initiatives that make this a partnership made in heaven.” 

The 2024 festival will mark seventeen years of WOMAD partnering with Tui Ora and the move to Event Partner level comes with plans to refresh and amplify Te Paepae’s presence and offering at the festival.  

WOMAD NZ’s Iwi Liaison Manager Wharehoka Wano describes Te Paepae as the cultural heart of the festival, and “a welcoming space for artists and attendees, where Māori culture and specifically Taranaki Māori narratives are woven into the WOMAD experience through workshops, activities and performances.” 

As much as Te PaePae is about Māori culture it’s also a celebration of multiculturalism and the home of WOMAD’s artist workshops – a true celebration of indigenous people and practices.