If you are a post-secondary Māori student studying in the arts then Te Waka Toi want to hear from you by the end of March 2009.

Every year Te Waka Toi, the Māori Arts Board of Creative New Zealand offers two scholarships to post-secondary Māori students of Māori arts across artforms including visual arts, music, theatre and dance and in arts-related areas like curation, arts writing and conservation.

Applications are sought from students who are involved in a course of learning at a formal or informal place of learning (such as a marae). The scholarships of $4,000 per recipient are awarded based on artistic and cultural merit, academic merit and leadership qualities.

Past recipients have come from diverse fields like fashion design, theatre and visual arts. A previous recipient in 2004 was Te Kohe Tuhaka (Ngāti Porou, Tuhoe), best known to television audiences as Kingi Te Wake on TV2’s Shortland Street.

Since graduating from Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School in 2004 with a Bachelor of Performing Arts degree, majoring in Acting, Te Kohe has appeared in other productions including Māui - One Man Against the Gods, and a healthy eating/cooking television series for children.

“It was a humbling experience to receive the Te Waka Toi Scholarship, particularly as I was the first actor to receive it. To have all my friends and whānau with me when I was presented with the scholarship was a pretty special feeling,” says Te Kohe.

Application forms for Te Waka Toi Scholarships can be downloaded from the Creative New Zealand website www.creativenz.govt.nz

The scholarships will be awarded at the Creative New Zealand Te Waka Toi Awards in Wellington on 29 August 2009.

Applications close at 5pm 31 March 2009.