Maori programmes to double staff

Press, 7 January 1987, Page 3

Maori programmes to double staff

PA Wellington The Maori programmes department of Television New Zealand is more than doubling its staff to produce up to 120 hours of viewing on the screen this year. Television New Zealand’s director-general, Mr Julian Mounter, said yesterday more than half that time would be taken up by the archival programme, “Te Waka Huia,” and 200 “Te Kohanga Reo” (or language nest) programmes. “Tagata Pasifika,” a programme for the Pacific Island community, would screen for a halfhour each week-end. Mr Mounter said

“Koha” would have an extended season with an extra 11 programmes and a change of slot from 6.45 p.m. on Sundays to 7.45 p.m. Staffing is due to increase, from nine at the beginning of July, to 23 when the new season starts, including six trainees recently graduated from a three-month television journalism course run by the Auckland Technical Institute and Television New Zealand. “Specialist staff will be employed to gather material for 'Te Waka Huia,’ an hour long programme in Maori, which would be shown on Sunday mornings,” said Mr

Mounter. • “The extra staff employed will help keep up with the demands of extra programming. Material gathered would form the basis for an archival library for Television New Zealand.” “Much of the Maori culture is being lost with the older generations, and Television New Zealand, and the Maori programmes department, must try to preserve as much of this material as we can.” The head of the Maori programmes department, Mr Ernie Leonard, said the first year had been busy, starting from virtually nothing to a fully operational department.