It was over 18 years ago, in 2004, that singer Dame Hinewehi Mohi and her husband George Bradfield founded the Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre with support from Aotearoa’s music industry. In June 2018, we undertook our most significant venture since opening our doors when we launched our first Regional Centre in Hawke’s Bay. Hot on its heels was our second Regional Centre in Whangārei opening in 2019. In 2022, we took another exciting step in opening our THIRD Regional Centre, snuggled in the Eastern Coast of the North Island, in the Bay of Plenty.

This project was visualised long before it was actualised, with preparation starting back in 2020 in response to the many music therapy enquiries that both Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust and Music Therapy NZ had received from the Bay of Plenty community. With a population of over 300,000 people and not a music therapist in sight, the Bay of Plenty definitely felt like the right next step to furthering our mission of providing quality and accessible music therapy to all people, whatever their needs.

While the global pandemic pushed the opening date back again and again, we didn't let the time go to waste and instead set to work making sure that the Regional Centre would have a strong foundation to be established on. In 2021, the Trust applied to the Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s CARE (Creative Arts Recovery and Employment) Fund in order to do this. We were not only awarded a grant from the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, they believed in our vision so strongly, that they awarded us enough funds to underwrite our Bay of Plenty Regional Centre through 2024! The Ministry for Culture and Heritage dedicated $450,000, the largest grant in Raukatauri's history, over three years to help us open in the Bay.

The Ministry for Culture and Heritage's support has made it possible for Raukatauri to set fees in the Bay of Plenty that are even more highly subsidised than those we offer in other regions, allowing even more people to access music therapy. We were obviously thrilled by this outcome and incredibly grateful to the Ministry. Before we even had an opening date or location, we received an outpouring of enquiries and interest in our upcoming brand new music therapy centre.