Sonny Alesana, Heamana of the Te Tauihu o Te Waka-a-Māui Māori Cultural Council, has spoken to Te Ao Māori News following the Te Matatini Society’s decision not to hold Te Matatini 2027 in the region, instead opening the tender to Expressions of Interest.
Te Matatini delegates met last week to discuss the event’s future.
Alesana, while disappointed, understands the decision.
“Naturally, we are disappointed.”
“The first thought is disappointed, but then you have got to breathe in and breathe out and understand what the challenges are.”
For us at Te Tauihu, we don’t have any animosity towards anyone."
Exponential growth
This year’s festival, held in Taranaki, was the largest ever in the festival’s history.
Te Matatini o te Kāhui Maunga hosted 55 teams, with every nook and cranny of the region used to not only host teams and supporters, but also the expected groundswell of spectators who descended on the region.
Over five days of competition, approximately 70,000 people attended Te Matatini. It also had tens of millions of views online, across multiple platforms.
Alesana says that in the lead-up to Te Matatini ki te Kāhui Maunga, discussions were held around the suitability of the South Island region to host such a mammoth event.
“Te Matatini had met with us prior to Te Kāhui Maunga, and so we had an understanding that there was a little bit of work that we needed to do to prepare ourselves for Te Matatini 2027.”
Kei hea ngā rohe hei ngā rā ki tua?
I te kaitā rawa o Te Matatini ki te Kāhui Maunga, me te whakatau kia tukuna ngā whakahaerenga o Te Matatini 2027 ki rohe kē atu, ka toko ake te pātai mō te tūranga o ngā rohe iti nei hei ngā tau kei mua i te aroaro.
I raro i ngā whakahaerenga ō-mua, i whakatau kētia ngā rohe ka tū hei kaimanaaki i Te Matatini i mua noa atu.
Koinei ngā rohe, i tōna tikanga, māna a Te Matatini e whakahaere:
- 2029: Tainui (Waikato)
- 2031: Te Tai Tokerau (Northland)
- 2033: Rangitāne (Manawatū / Wairarapa)
- 2035: Mātaatua (Bay of Plenty)
- 2037: Te Tairāwhiti (Gisborne / East Coast)
- 2039: Te Arawa (Rotorua)
- 2041: Waitaha (Christchurch / Southern)
E ai ki a Alesana, ko te manako ia, ka tū tonu ēnei whakataetae ki ngā rohe iti o te motu.
“Te Matatini is about your rohe, all of your rohe that have contributed to Te Matatini. The resources that come into Te Matatini is about the rohe.”
“All the rohe, not just the big seven.”
E ai ki te heamana o Te Matatini, ki a Tā Herewini Parata, ehara i te mea kua hē mai nei ngā rā ki Te Tauihu o te Waka-a-Māui, heoi anō, me tuwhera te ngākau ki te nui o te kaupapa.
“As the festival continues to grow in size and significance, the planning and delivery of Te Matatini must reflect that scale,” te kī a Tā Herewini.
“While this decision is heartbreaking for many, we have had to be realistic and seriously reevaluate the risks of holding Te Matatini in its current format in our smaller regions.”
