Kia Mau Festival

12/08/2026

12/08/2026

05/08/2026

You did that whānau 🙌🏽
Thank you to everyone who heeded the call and voted for us as “Event of the Year 2026”. There was an interesting mix of nominations, yet it was heartwarming to receive the response we did from our community.
We are forever grateful to the artists of Kia Mau Festival- past, present and future. You are the ngakau of Kia Mau and always will be 🖤 thank you for being disrupters, change makers and above all the storytellers that this city, country and world need.
Art is rongoā.
Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou bring on 2027!

02/07/2026

Kia Mau Festival has been named a finalist in the Arts, Cultural or Heritage Event of the Year category at the 2026 New Zealand Event Awards.

We're incredibly proud to be recognised.

Awards don't change our kaupapa, but they do help strengthen our case in the rooms where funding and investment decisions are made. Your vote helps champion Indigenous-led arts and the artists and communities at the heart of Kia Mau.

Voting takes less than a minute:

✨ Click the link -https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/news/2026/06/who-will-be-named-new-zealands-favourite-event3
✨ Select Kia Mau Festival
✨ Submit

Easy as, thanks for your support whānau!

18/06/2026

E kī! We know it takes a village, and our village is award nominated 🌟

Kia Mau Festival is proud to be named a finalist for the Arts, Cultural or Heritage Event of the Year at the NZEA New Zealand Event Awards 2026.

To the visionary artists, dedicated audiences, brilliant technical and venue partners, and the vital funders of the arts: this recognition is yours.

We acknowledge our creative cousin Pati Umaga for Music Portrait of a Humble Disabled Samoan, a finalist for the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Event of the Year 2026.

It takes a village to bring a festival to life 🌟

For the full list of awards and finalists:
https://nzea.co.nz/awards

04/06/2026

Our voices belong in the future of this whenua.

Not just in performance spaces, galleries, and on stages, but in the decisions that shape our lives, our communities, and our rights.

2026 is an election year. We urge our whānau whānui to vote, in order to do so you need to be enrolled by midnight, Sunday 25 October 2026.

If you think you’re already enrolled but not too sure, go and make sure your details are up-to-date!

In the last election about 170,000 eligible Māori did not vote. It’s so important that Māori, Pasifika and underrepresented groups in Aotearoa have their say in who leads our country and what policies are important to them.

Now is also the time to speak up through public submissions:
- The Disability Support Services Bill by 12 June 2026
- The (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill by 2 July 2026
- The Summary Offences (Move-on Orders) Amendment Bill by 3 September 2026

Submissions are one way we protect each other, advocate for equity, and uphold the mana of our communities.

Our stories matter. Our lived experience matters. Our voices matter.

Make sure you’re enrolled.
Make your submission.
Show up for each other.

Links to enrol and submit here: https://linktr.ee/kiamaufestival

12/10/2025

Te utu o te aroha, ko te mamae.

Today we reflected on the art and impact that Rose not only had on us, but many of our whānau, who we know are grieving deeply. E rere ana nga mihi aroha ki te whānau pani i te wā nei. Ngā mihi arohanui ki a koutou ngā ringatoi o te motu nei.
We grieve with you.

Moe mai, moe mai, moe mai rā e Rose.

01/10/2025

With the current government's latest announcement regarding Palestine we thought it important to reiterate where we stand. Christopher Luxon does not speak for us.

We will always stand against racism, genocide and imperialism!

We stand in solidarity with people who are subject to displacement, apartheid, genocide, ecocide, violence and harm in Palestine, Sudan, Yemen and the Democratic Republic of Congo and others all over the world.

30/09/2025

He mihi atu ana i te wā nei o Whiringa-ā-rangi!

Nau mai, haramai ki te hui-ā-tau o Kia Mau.
Welcome to our callout for our Annual General Meeting of Kia Mau Festival.

Join us from 6.30pm, Monday 13 October 2025, online.

This is the delayed AGM from April of this year, so will not include reporting on our most recent festival. We will be covering 2024.

This event will be online, if you'd like to attend please RSVP Link in BIO and we'll send you the link by midday, 13 October 2025.

We look forward to hosting you e te whānau!
Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa,

Kia Mau Festival

16/09/2025

Kia mau is a call to hold fast. Kia Mau is about us all. Here. Now.

As a contemporary tāngata whenua, tāngata moana + indigenous festival our artists bring works that speak to what is at the forefront for them right now, what stories need to be told right now - our programme is the result of this.

“It’s not about holding these people tight to us, it’s about going, ‘I’m gonna shine the light on you and you go away, and if you wanna come back, we treated you well, you will come back’,” says Kouka. “And we find a lot of the artists do wanna come back to us.”