From left: ASB Polyfest Director Seiuli Terri Leo-Mauu, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and MPP chief executive Gerardine Clifford-Lidstone - key voices in the call for sustainable government support for Polyfest. Photo: LDR / Christopher Luxon / Facebook / MPP / PMN News
With the prime minister in attendance, Polyfest's 50th anniversary transformed from a mere celebration into a powerful call for the government to invest in Aotearoa New Zealand's largest cultural youth festival.
Over the past four days, 11,000 student performers lit up the ASB Polyfest stage, rain or shine, while behind the scenes, a strong plea for government support resounded.
This time, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was there to hear it firsthand.
Luxon's visit to Polyfest 2025 was not just a photo opportunity. It provided a front-row seat to a heartfelt request for long-term support.
With leaders from education, culture, and the community uniting behind the call, the question now is not if Polyfest deserves more support but what the next steps will be.
Seiuli Terri Leo-Mauu, the festival director, seized the moment, welcoming Luxon to the Manukau Sports Bowl on Saturday with a speech celebrating Polyfest's scale and impact while outlining a bold vision for its future: sustainable funding, formal recognition, and a permanent home.
"Prime Minister, welcome to ASB Polyfest 2025," Seiuli said.
From left: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, ASB Polyfest Chair Steven Hargreaves, and National MP Greg Fleming as Festival Director Seiuli Terri Leo-Mauu speaks on Polyfest’s legacy and supporting youth. Photo: LDR / Mary Afemata
"We run this event and this ecosystem on half of what it costs to run it. But we continue to steer the waka because at the heart of it is our young people and their families, who want to see this happen every year."
Seiuli said the Māori Stage alone was bigger than Te Matatini, featuring 64 groups this year compared to 55 at the national kapa haka competition.
"50 years of bringing pride, indigenous radical joy, and educational excellence to the world stage. I say world because we are the biggest of its kind in the world," she said.
"We have 77 schools, 291 groups, of which 119 of those groups performed on our Diversity Stage on Wednesday and Thursday."
She emphasised the need for sustainable funding, a permanent cultural home, and dedicated NZQA-recognised Polyfest credits.
"We need Polyfest credits, and it won't just benefit us - it will benefit the other Polyfest and Pacific festivals around the country," Seiuli said.
"Use our festival as the catalyst for educational indigenous achievement. We'll show you how to achieve excellence in our young people, who, by the way, come back to school every year because of Polyfest being in Term One."
ASB Polyfest Director Seiuli Terri Leo-Mauu delivers a powerful welcome to the Prime Minister, calling for sustainable funding, formal recognition, and a permanent home for the world’s largest cultural youth festival. Photo: LDR / Mary Afemata
Her closing message to the prime minister was straightforward: "FTK - For The Kids."
Luxon: 'Events like this drive our people-to-people connections'
Luxon responded with a speech acknowledging the cultural and regional significance of Polyfest, affirming the importance of building people-to-people relationships between Aotearoa and the wider Pacific.
"We've got a great family relationship across the Pacific, and we want to continue to strengthen those family bonds," he said. "Events like this drive our people-to-people connections."
He said fostering these connections through culture, investment, trade, and shared values ultimately creates more opportunities for Pacific communities.
"When you have strong people-to-people connections… we end up then creating more opportunities for our people."
Luxon also encouraged community advocacy and referenced Pacific Peoples Minister Dr Shane Reti, who attended the event on Friday.
"You keep advocating strongly… I will hit him up on a phone call on the way out of here, on the way home as well," the prime minister said.
MPP Secretary: 'We need things like this to continue'
Gerardine Clifford-Lidstone, chief executive of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, said Polyfest plays a crucial role in supporting the well-being and future of Pacific youth.
"There's no two ways about it. We've got a youthful population, and when you come to Polyfest, you see all that population and more here with their parents," she said.
"Absolutely, we need things like this to continue because, as Seiuli said, it's so important - your identity, contributing to your well-being, your ability to be confident, and your ability to get a job and do well for our society. You know, no two ways. Things like Polyfest contribute to that."
Clifford-Lidstone acknowledges that while securing funding is the responsibility of the organisers, agencies like MPP can assist in developing more sustainable strategies.
"The funding issue is another challenge, so the challenge there is how then do we work with the organisers over the next year to have a look at their fundraising strategy, to look at the various income streams.
"Granted, this is the work of the Polyfest team and organisers, but what can we do to help in the intervening time so that this time next year, we're not hearing the same challenges come up. So those are probably things that I will be working or talking to my minister about, given the questions that were raised to ministers yesterday."
Clifford-Lidstone has committed to discussing these issues with ministers and collaborating with other government funders as needed.
"And working with other funders - there's a number of other government funders as well - so I think MPP has a coordination role there, but it has to be something that the organisers want to work with us on, and so I'll follow that up."
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
