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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Eva Corlett in Wellington

New Zealand pulls funding for school Shakespeare festival, citing ‘canon of imperialism’

Engraving of Shakespeare
One assessor said the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare festival application made them ‘question whether a singular focus on an Elizabethan playwright is most relevant for a decolonising Aotearoa’. Photograph: Classic Image/Alamy

New Zealand’s arts council has pulled funding for a Shakespeare festival that has been running in secondary schools for roughly three decades, after questioning its relevance to the country and because it focuses on “a canon of imperialism”.

Every year, the Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand runs the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare festival – a secondary school competition where students perform excerpts from Shakespeare’s plays.

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