ACT stands up for Shakespeare
Once again, it’s bloody ACT doing the heavy lifting when it comes to free speech and criticising woke cancellations…
“Ideological activists within Creative New Zealand (CNZ) are trying to cancel Shakespeare’s works in New Zealand because of its alleged “canon of imperialism”.
The board that signed this off will be gone under ACT,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.
“After 10 years of funding the Sheilah Winn New Zealand secondary school Shakespeare Festival, CNZ have this year refused the $30k in funding.
Their reason?
They question whether the great bard “is most relevant for a decolonising Aotearoa in the 2020s and beyond.” “CNZ doth protest too much, methinks.
The assertion that Shakespeare is irrelevant to New Zealand is nonsensical.
His works are hugely influential on the English language.
He coined some of the most famous phrases – green eyed monster, cruel to be kind, wild goose chase, love is blind.
“This is activist ideology trying to remake New Zealand. If we are going to respect all cultures, that means all cultures.
“They’re happy to provide $107k to “The Savage Coloniser Show’ which claims to “address James Cook with fury” and “breaks the colonial lens wide open”, but they won’t provide less than one third of the funding to a successful festival that celebrates one of the greatest influences on the English language.
“CNZ actually admitted the festival’s success in their funding assessment document, which stated that it has strong youth engagement and positive impacts on participants. But apparently since it doesn’t fit in their neat ideological box it doesn’t matter.
“The United Kingdom and Australia are reporting in disbelief that New Zealand is cutting funding for Shakespeare’s works because of concerns of ‘imperialism’ and ‘colonial views’. We are becoming a laughing stock on the world stage. “All cultures deserve respect in New Zealand, not just those that fit with the left’s ideology.”
…if only the other 99% of ACTs policy weren’t crazy!
It is unacceptable in the extreme to cancel Shakespeare for middle class woke virtue signalling!
If Creative NZ had said, ‘Look, we’ve decided to go in another direction this year, thanks for the memories’, we would all have to accept that because they have the prerogative and responsibilities to make those calls, but the fact that they wrapped it up in woke cancel culture doctrine demands the rest of us responsible with furious anger!
This is woke cancel culture bullshit at its most inane!
Shakespeare isn’t just a taonga of Western culture, he is a cultural treasure to our collective species!
Don’t tell me we don’t have $30 000 for this, NZ on Air shits gold bullion straight down the throat of The Spinoff for woke social engineering to the tune of $6million!
This outrageous cultural vandalism simply can’t be allowed to stand.
Here are the list of Board-members who need to have Shakespearean curses thrown at them until they rescind the decision…
Stephen Wainwright
Chief Executive | Pou Whakahaere
askthece@creativenz.govt.nz
+64 (04) 498 0743
Gretchen La Roche
Senior Manager, Arts Development
gretchen.laroche@creativenz.govt.nz
+64 4 473 0329
Angus Evison
Senior Manager, Business Services
angus.evison@creativenz.govt.nz
+64 (04) 498 0880
David Pannett
Senior Manager, Planning, Performance and Advocacy Services
david.pannett@creativenz.govt.nz
+64 (04) 473 0880
Paula Carr
Senior Manager, Māori Strategy and Partnerships
paula.carr@creativenz.govt.nz
+64 (04) 498 0706
Makerita Urale
Senior Manager, Pacific Arts
makerita.urale@creativenz.govt.nz
+64 (0)4 498 0729
Haniko Te Kurapa
Senior Manager, Te Kaupapa o Toi Aotearoa
haniko.tekurapa@creativenz.govt.nz
+64 (0)4 473 0182
Richard Knowles
Manager, Funding Services
richard.knowles@creativenz.govt.nz
Renee Casserly
Adviser, Funding Services
renee.casserly@creativenz.govt.nz
+64 (0)27 319 1875
Sarah Stockton
Adviser, Funding Services
sarah.stockton@creativenz.govt.nz
+64 (0)27 309 6815
Margaux Wong
Adviser, Funding Services
margaux.wong@creativenz.govt.nz
+64 (0)27 394 1450
Stephanie Wilson
Adviser, Funding Services
stephanie.wilson@creativenz.govt.nz
+64 (0)27 237 8738
Te Otinga Hohaia
Adviser, Funding Services
teotinga.hohaia@creativenz.govt.nz
+64 (0)27 687 8166
Cathryn Laban
Adviser, Funding Services
cathryn.laban@creativenz.govt.nz
+64 (0)27 255 4208
Tanya Martusheff
Funding Agreements and Reporting Administrator, Funding Services
tanya.martusheff@creativenz.govt.nz
…to rob the next generation of the beauty and majesty of Shakespeares art because he has fallen foul of Professional Managerial Class middle class virtue signalling in Wellington is a crime against beauty.
Let your Shakespearean curses fly at these woke book burners!
1. “A most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.” – All’s Well That Ends Well (Act 3, Scene 6)
2. “Away, you starvelling, you elf-skin, you dried neat’s-tongue, bull’s-pizzle, you stock-fish!” – Henry IV Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 4)
3. “Away, you three-inch fool! “
The Taming of the Shrew (Act 4, Scene 1)
4. “Come, come, you froward and unable worms!”
The Taming Of The Shrew (Act 5, Scene 2)
5. “Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-liver’d boy.”
Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 3) Read more quotes from Macbeth
6. “His wit’s as thick as a Tewkesbury mustard.”
Henry IV Part 2 (Act 2, Scene 4)
7. “I am pigeon-liver’d and lack gall.”
Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2) Read more Hamlet quotes, or our indepth analysis of ‘To be or not to be’
8. “I am sick when I do look on thee “
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Act 2, Scene 1)
9. “I must tell you friendly in your ear, sell when you can, you are not for all markets.”
As You Like It (Act 3 Scene 5)
10. “If thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them.”
Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 1)
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ACT will remove the board.
Decolon-ising.
Sad day when ACT is more inclusive of the arts than Labour and Greens.
Sad day when Act care more about Shakespeare than many NZers.
Okay we are discussing the Arts & Culture, not the homeless and hungry. But it’s a sad day when the state ( BTW The Arts council are the State in this case) cancel Sakespere, while I walk past the homeless on the way to work in the morning.
Being seen to be woke is more important than actually do something to improve the lot of the downtrodden
And the PM saying Creatine NZ is not indicative of the culture wars in NZ.
Really? Please………get real
What ever NZ is doing, differently, stop!
Go back to what worked when NZ had one of the highest literacy rates in the world!
Globalism seems to be a big factor to a lack of literacy and health care in countries. Cuba has one of the highest literacy rates in the world as well as some of the best health care and medical staff – they have not been part of the global economy and train plenty of teachers and doctors.
If NZ wants to solve literacy and health care and stop the ram raids by having an alternative strategy to wayward youth, they need to put the pause button on globalism and start to concentrate on NZ kids not kids coming to NZ on the back of a near minimum waged parent job or takeaway ‘entrenprenuer’.
“In 2016, NZ reading score in a five-yearly international study of 10-year-olds put us 27th out of 30 other OECD countries or regions.
A 2020 Unicef report found that only 64 per cent of 15-year-olds in New Zealand have more than a basic proficiency in reading and maths. In other words, more than a third are struggling to read and write.
It is a trend across OECD countries, but New Zealand is falling faster than most.”
Must be my one day of the year that I actually agree with something the ACT Party says
It’s a Culture War Rumble!
And now watch CNZ flakes play the victim card.
OnceWasTim. “ And now watch CNZ flakes play the victim card. “ Spot on ! But we all knew this would happen, and the alternative is too unpalatable: To stay silent while our culture is further demolished, and most importantly, our students are deprived of a particularly unique experience.
The silencing of William Shakespeare based on a downright lie, is inexcusable and deluded, and they need to show exactly why they came to the surreal conclusion they did. It wouldn’t surprise me one iota if there’s another agenda at play. We pay them. We’re entitled to answers.