Australia and New Zealand

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Anja Tait, BMus, RMT
Regional Liaison for
Australia/New Zealand
Contact: australianewzealand@wfmt.info[/caption]

Greetings everyone,

Whilst I am living in the tropics of Australia in the midst of the monsoon season, our colleagues in New Zealand are transitioning from Summer into Autumn. Yet despite the contrasts in climate we find commonality across the Tasman. We see our shared contribution to this regional blog as a terrific pathway for Australian and New Zealand RMTs to learn more about each others' work and for us all to begin to reflect upon possibilities for international collaborations. We are setting up reciprocal links on our websites and communicating regularly. I am very pleased to present news of music therapy in New Zealand, with thanks to Megan Berenston-Glass and Daphne Rickson. A brief summary follows:

1. • Music Therapy New Zealand is a small group but growing steadily each year, and almost every year there is an annual conference.
2. • The first students graduated from the Master of Music Therapy course at Massey University (now part of the New Zealand School of Music) in 2006 and there are now a number of people studying at both Masters and PhD level.
3. • The Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre (RMTC) opened its doors in Auckland in 2004 and in late 2008 celebrated the milestone of seeing more than 100 clients per week.
4. • The RMTC is celebrating its 5th birthday on March the 18th 2009:http://www.rmtc.org.nz
5. • Later in 2009 we are expecting visiting international RMTs, so more news then!

For more information please see: http://www.musictherapy.org.nz/

Next month I'll bring news of music therapy in Australia. To catch any recent updates see: http://austmta.org.au/

Anja Tait

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