Funding boost for civil war awareness

The Te Tai Haua¯uru area, including Taranaki, will benefit from a unique fund set up to raise awareness about the country’s war history.

The first round of successful applicants to receive grants given out by the Te Pu¯ take o te Riri/Wars and Conflicts in New Zealand fund were made public last week. The funding is managed by Te Puni Ko¯ kiri (TPK).

The grant announcement coincided with the inaugural national commemoration day to mark the 19th-century New Zealand Wars, known as Ra¯ Maumahara, which was held on October 28 and will be an annual event.

TPK received 16 applications in total and approved $385,000 in grants to iwi and community groups for projects designed to raise the awareness about historical encounters between Ma¯ ori and Pa¯ keha¯ .

It included financial support for events, movie screenings and a theatre show.

Of the successful applications, three were directly connected to the Taranaki region.

A $9000 grant was given to Tihi Consulting Limited for a series of events in Ha¯ wera in the lead up to the national commemoration day.

Te Ru¯nanga o Nga¯ti Ruanui Trust were granted $61,500 to help organise a hı¯koi to the South Island to learn more about the history and final resting place of its uri (descendants) who were imprisoned in Dunedin in 1869. The trip is planned for March 2018.

The Waiokura Marae and Reserves Trust, based in Manaia, received a $30,000 grant for a special commemorative service to be held on April 25, 2018.

Among the other funds approved was a $30,000 grant for historian Dr Vincent O’Malley, who has written extensively on the New Zealand wars, to talk to 20 schools within the Te Tai Haua¯uru region in early 2018.

TPK chief executive Michelle Hippolite said the funding applications proved there was an ‘‘appetite’’ from Ma¯ori and communities around the country to host events which raised awareness about Aotearoa’s war history.

Each application to the fund needed to show how the event or initiative would commemorate a New Zealand war or conflict, along with the significance the event had to the country’s history.