2017 Student Poster Award

As the subtheme of the 15^th World Congress of Music Therapy was “Inspiring the Next Generation,” there was a good number of events for students, which were organized by 2014-2017 Assembly of Student Delegates. One of the highlights was definitely Student Poster Session. Sixteen student posters from 8 countries covered various topics, population, or approaches, and each poster showed really unique perspective.From all these excellent posters, the student poster award was given to Ms. Katie Boom (New Zealand). She explored the way to meet the individual needs of participants, in respect for their cultural values. Her qualitative research told us how important it is to have a holistic view to support them widely but attentively. Enjoy reading the award-wining poster and speech from Ms. Boom!!Speech from the student poster award winner, Ms. Katie BoomAs a brand new music therapist, the 2017 World Congress of Music Therapy exceeded my expectations. I completed my Master of Music Therapy degree in February 2017, after two years of study at Victoria University of Wellington in my home country of Aotearoa New Zealand. This was my first international music therapy conference, so I was eagerly anticipating sharing my thesis research in the student poster session. Being given the Student Poster Award was the unexpected icing on the cake.My thesis research offers a view of community music therapy in New Zealand, and suggests the integration of indigenous Māori concepts such as rangatiratanga (empowerment, self-determination), and the Māori mentoring model tuakana-teina, currently used in the NZ education system.It also presents the resourcing of music therapy participants in terms of six resources, as demonstrated by my cartoon representation of the journey to musicking.A special thanks to my lovely supervisor and tuakana, Dr. Sarah Hoskyns. A full copy of my published thesis is freely available here: http://tewaharoa.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=VUW&search_scope=64VUW_ALL&docId=researcharchive_vuw_ac_nz10063/6415&fn=permalink