About the community group/organisation/individual

Murihiku Maori Secondary Schools Teachers Trust is made up of representatives from 12 secondary schools in the region.

In addition to running Te Hautonga, the annual Otago/Southland Secondary Schools Kapa Haka competition, the trust also co-ordinates a Maori speech competition for the region.

What the grant went towards

Murihiku Maori Secondary Schools Teachers Trust received $5000 from the ILT Foundation towards staging Te Hautonga – the 2019 Otago/Southland Secondary Schools Kapa Haka competition in Invercargill in August 2019.

Te Hautonga is a bi-annual event, the only competitive secondary school kapa haka event in Otago and Southland.  Two winning groups from the competition will go on to represent the Otago/Southland regions at the National Secondary School Kapa Haka competition in Wellington.

What the grant means to the community group/organisation

“Being a charitable organisation, without the grant the competition wouldn’t have gone ahead,” Murihiku Maori Secondary Schools Teachers Trust treasurer Gary Davis said.

“It’s gets more and more expensive to run the event as time has gone by and the ILT is there to support its’ own to get our cultural narratives of our province out there through the medium of kapa haka.”