Addressing the severe shortage of cultural practitioners, including Māori and Pacific conservators and curators, is the focus of a new Toi Mai Workforce Development Plan (WDP), currently under development.

Cultural practitioners in Aotearoa are in high demand to manage and care for the thousands of national and significant taonga across the motu, but they experience a significant workforce shortage, with the 2023 Census identifying just three Māori conservators and two Pacific, and 60 Māori curators and 20 Pacific.

“The overall workforce doesn’t have a shortage, but most practitioners in the heritage and culture space don’t have the skills to apply Māori tikanga and appropriate cultural practices to the conservation, preparation and display of these taonga,” explains Dr Claire Robinson, Toi Mai Te Tumu o Toi | Chief Executive. “The significant skills shortage means the workload demands on that small pool of talent are massive.”

The WDP is specifically targeted towards identifying the workforce issues and barriers in the cultural practitioner space and make recommendations to ensure New Zealand can grow and sustain the workforce now and into the future, including for Māori and Pacific peoples.

“We are engaging with the sector’s larger institutions across the North and South Islands, providers, independent cultural practitioners and the wider cultural workforce to understand their career experiences, including opportunities and barriers they may have faced.

“We already know that one important barrier contributing to the shortage of Māori and Pacific conservators is the cost of acquiring skills – most conservation training is offered overseas.

“Māori and Pacific peoples are often unable to sustain and absorb expensive overseas study costs. This leads to them being overlooked when it comes to institutions wanting to hire qualified conservators, despite them often having the whakapapa, experience and connections to taonga that Māori and Pacific peoples inherently bring.”

Toi Mai is also working to understand the different qualification pathways. “We want to know whether these are directly meeting the needs of iwi and hapū, or at the very least creating the workforce supply that will mitigate cultural practitioner gaps, against the backdrop of nationally significant taonga that require the application of indigenous perspectives and tikanga in conservation and or curatorial treatment and care.” 

Dr Robinson says the WDP will work to support key mutual (draft) priorities set out in the Government’s draft strategy Amplify: A Creative and Cultural Strategy for New Zealand from Manatū Taonga | Ministry for Culture & Heritage, which will also involve collaboration with iwi, hapū, other Māori, Pacific and sector groups and education providers.

More details about the WDP and consultation will be available on the Toi Mai website in due course.

If you would like to be kept informed about the conservators and curators workforce development plan, email [email protected]