Archive for May, 2007

by Hon Judith Tizard, Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage

For the last seven years, May has been the month to celebrate, promote and enjoy New Zealand music.

Over that time, we have seen a real increase in the commercial success of New Zealand music. In May 2000 kiwi music made up 5.45% of sales; in May 2005 this figure had jumped to 28.71%.

It’s not just in May that we show our pride and support for New Zealand music: annual figures for local radio content have also continued to rise from 15% in 2002 to 19.29% in 2006. More good news, too, with the radio industry pledging to maintain the targeted level of kiwi music at 20% for the next five years. This will ensure that New Zealand audiences continue to hear a good amount of locally produced music, and that our musicians and bands continue to get valuable airplay throughout the year.

But it’s not just the success of New Zealand music that I want to talk about; it’s not only commercial music we are celebrating. It’s the shifting face of New Zealand music - a shift that reflects the changing and increasingly diverse face of New Zealand society.

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by Sarah Hughes, Whitireia Publishing student 

Puke Ariki, Taranaki cultural centre, has got a wiki! That’s right, as part of Puke Ariki’s digital strategy, 1 December 2006 saw the launch of what we believe is New Zealand’s only regional ‘wiki.’

‘But what is a wiki?’ I hear you ask. According to techweb, a wiki is ‘A Web site that can be quickly edited by its visitors with simple formatting rules.’ A wiki is used as an informal encyclopedia, and it’s a place where anybody can go online and add or subtract information.

In my discussion with Kate Roberts, Manager of Service Delivery for Puke Ariki, she stated that the purpose of the Taranaki Wiki was to ‘increase community engagement,’ both within the community and with Puke Ariki as a resource. As the site itself states, ‘This Wiki has been set up to allow the people of Taranaki, and elsewhere, to share their knowledge of all things Taranaki.’

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The draft New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2015 was released on 16 May 2007 and is available online. The Ministry of Tourism is seeking feedback on the strategy by Wednesday 27 June 2007 via the electronic template on their website or by email.  

The draft strategy is the result of a mid-term review of the New Zealand Strategy 2010. The 2010 strategy was developed to guide the sustainable growth of the tourism sector. While it highlighted the important role that culture and heritage plays in the appeal of New Zealand as a tourist destination - particularly for Tourism New Zealand’s target market the interactive traveller - it also indicated that the cultural sector was one area that could benefit from further development in order to maximize its potential. 

As a result, a substantial research project was undertaken to identify what cultural experiences tourists were seeking and how they could be improved. In addition, five regions – Northland, Taranaki, Wellington, Nelson and Hawkes Bay - were awarded $10,000 to develop a cultural tourism plan and a further $100,000 to implement that plan.
 
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Did you know we have twice as many museums per head of population as Canada or the UK, and five times as many as France or Sweden? New Zealand has over 500 museums, galleries and related organisations – approximately one for every 8,000 New Zealanders.

 That means there’s plenty of opportunities to check out your local museum or gallery to celebrate International Museum Day - 18 May.

Here’s a sample of what’s available:

• Howick Historical Village has organised a Live Day on Sunday 20 May
• Canterbury Museum has organised behind-the-scenes tours
• Auckland Museum is taking bookings for visiting hidden collections in the botany, conservation and land vertebrates collections
• MOTAT in Auckland is celebrating the newly refurbished Cropper House.

It’s also timely to remind ourselves of the societal benefits - both economic and cultural - that the museum sector delivers. A recent survey by Museums Aotearoa shows that culture and heritage is a growing part of our identity and our economy. A few of our museums have been around for more than 100 years, but over a third have been established in the past 50 years, with more than one in 10 less than five years old.

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Radio New Zealand has received accolades (and lots of visits) for their use of podcasts on their website. It’s certainly worth a look – all your favourite shows are on the site as downloadable podcasts for your MP3 or computer. There’s also plenty of options for listening ‘on demand’ (clicking on a link to hear audio). Visitors have listened to around 4,000 ‘on demand’ audio items.

Richard Hulse and Mark Cubey from RNZ tell me that they are building audiences by making content more accessible – content that listeners may not hear if their personal listening schedule does not coincide with programming timetables. Richard told me about a university student who said he wouldn’t be seen dead listening to the station, but who downloads podcasts and tells his friends about them.

Other initiatives on the website include a blog from Todd Niall at the Amercia’s cup. Over in Valencia, Todd writes content, records audio, takes photos and uploads material to the website. I also really like the photos on the website of kiwis enjoying their national radio station (like the one with this post). A simple way to involve users in the website as well as imparting a strong impression that RNZ is our radio station.

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