This year we held our inaugural Raukatauri Cook Off fundraiser – just for the guys! Peter Gordon, premiere chef of Homeland NZ, led our guests in a fantastic cooking class in which they baked a Flourless Pasifika Chocolate Mousse Cake, roasted spiced Ōra King salmon, stewed Cloudy Bay Clams with bacon and miso, and smothered broccolini in a ‘cheats’ satay sauce, all while snacking on starters made with bread from The Dusty Apron. We trust our guests learnt a thing or two about being rockstars in the kitchen! The event raised over $24,000 for Raukatauri. Each dollar goes directly into providing life-changing music therapy all over the North Island, and we are thrilled at this result. Thank you to Peter and Homeland for hosting us and to our guests for their generous support of the Trust.

We would love to introduce you to Ella Polczyk, our new Hawke’s Bay Regional Centre Manager! Ella comes to us originally from the UK, and has been training as a musician from a young age. Her specialities are jazz performance, playing the clarinet, and saxophone! We are going to really miss Will Darbyshire who made the decision to return back home to Australia to join his growing extended family, but are excited by the new adventures that Ella is about to embark on.

It was another huge milestone for the Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust when we officially opened our Grafton centre with an intimate cocktail reception on the 18th of March – which was also our 17th birthday! While our new Grafton centre opened its doors in June 2020, our official celebration plans were delayed by COVID, so it was absolutely fantastic to celebrate the growth and success of the trust with long-time supporters from throughout our 18 year history.

Last year we launched a client concert series after hearing from families during our evaluation process that some of our clients would like the chance to perform. Children and young people have the opportunity to show off their amazing musical skills to a gathering of friends and family. Our first concert was held in the Pōhutukawa Room of our Grafton Centre in November 2020 and a full house enjoyed songs, piano and harp performances, and even an underwater animal dance choreographed by one of our clients and her Dance Movement Therapy student. This first concert proved to be such a hit that we immediately organised a Christmas concert which featured rousing renditions of holiday favourites such as ‘Jingle Bells’, ‘Feliz Navidad’ and ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’.

After ten years in our beloved Grey Lynn villa, the sale of the property by our landlords meant it was time to seek a new home. With the considerable expansion over recent years it was an opportunity to find a Centre with a little more space, and one which was slightly more fit for purpose. After an extensive search lasting six months, a new location in Grafton was identified which, having been an open plan office space previously, required quite a few modifications:

Iconic New Zealand band, Six60, is donating valuable musical and personal items to financially support the life-changing work of the Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre!

Six60’s memorabilia went live for bidding on New Zealand auction site Trade Me at 6pm on Saturday 14th March. 100% of auction proceeds will be donated to RMTC, to assist with the transformative work the therapists do for their clients. Items up for sale include the customised jacket Matiu Walters wore at the latest sold-out Western Springs concert, a variety of the band’s instruments and several other personal collector items.