2025 Speakers & Workshop Presenters
Peter O’Connor
Peter is Professor of Education and Director of the Centre for Arts and Social Transformation at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of AUckland. With over 100 publications he is a world leader in the research of and practice of the arts during disaster. His most recent work includes co-designing the Mitey approach for the Sir John Kirwan Foundation, and leading the Te Rito Toi resource development for using the arts post trauma in schools.
PRESENTATION ON: Teaching: The greatest art. Nonsense phrases like ‘knowledge rich curriculum’ and ‘science of learning’ are thankfully already fading in education jargon. Teachers know there is so much more to learning and teaching. Teaching centred on improvisation creates classroom rich in the imagination. IT lifts the classroom beyond the mundane..Arts educators know this more than anyone.
Jessie Lloyd
Jessie Lloyd is an award-winning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musician, cultural practitioner and Songkeeper dedicated to the continuation of Indigenous music and knowledge. Through her work, Jessie revives and shares songs that carry deep cultural and historical meaning, making them accessible for new generations.
Emily Wilson
Emily Wilson is a non-Indigenous music educator. She is a senior lecturer and head of music education at the Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne. Her teaching and research foci include student engagement, decolonising music education, and showcasing Indigenous knowledges through music.
Jessie & Emily’s Presentation: Aboriginal & Torres Strait Knowledges through Stories and Song
Renowned Aboriginal and Torres Strait musician and cultural historian Jessie Lloyd is well-known through her Mission Songs Project which is widely used by primary and secondary teachers across Australia. Jessie has recently released an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Songbook that is an introduction to a broad range of Indigenous knowledges through stories and songs. Topics include: language and welcome songs, traditional dances, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander instrumentation, songs that explain the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander flags, and Jessie’s family’s story of the Stolen Generations through song. The songs are all public songs and can be taught by Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators both in Australia and internationally. The Songbook is for use across early childhood, primary and secondary schools as well as more broadly by community groups. As part of the creation process, Jessie has been delivering workshops for school students and professional learning for teachers, including pre-service teachers at universities. In this keynote, Jessie and Emily will share stories and songs from Jessie’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Songbook and insights from the process of creating the Songbook.
Horomona Horo, Wiremu Sarich, Christian McDonald, Priya Gain
Tai Orooro Tai Auaha – Taonga Puoro Wānanga
This presentation will be presented by Wiremu Sarich, Horomona Horo, Priya Gain and Christian McDonald. All from differing backgrounds, but with a common interest of providing a space to wananga with our future leaders through Toi Maori. This keynote presentation will focus on the journey of Tai Orooro Tai Auaha – a wananga model birthed by the sounds of Taonga Puoro in mainstream education – its collaborations, challenges, successes, implications, educational and student centered outcomes.
Duncan Ferguson
Duncan is the founder of Learning Ideas Ltd; a business he created to support New Zealand teachers with workbooks, exams, tutorials and professional development in NCEA assessment. He is also the Head of Department at St Andrew’s College where he is known for producing the Prizegiving videos of “Stairway to Heaver” and “Viva la Vida” which have garnered over 4 millions views across social media.
PRESENTATION ON: Student work and exemplars for NCEA 1.1 – Beats Recreation
Beats Recreation is proving to be one of the most popular of NZQA’s tasks for the new 1.1 Music Skills Achievement Standard. In this session Duncan will briefly share his approach to teaching the skills necessary for assessment, before spending the majority of the session looking at student exemplars and how students produced their work using free software.
Jaroslav Tāne Novak
Jaroslav Tāne Novak is the co-founder of Music Ecademy – a web-based platform for teaching music theory and aural skills. He holds degrees from the University of Otago, where his Master’s thesis focused on the application of software and e-learning in education. Music Ecademy is used in schools in Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world and is celebrating its 10th year of supporting music education.
PRESENTATION ON: Teaching Music Theory & Aural Training with Music Ecademy
Music Ecademy is an interactive, self-directed online resource that helps students learn music theory and aural training in a fun and engaging way, using gamified features to keep them motivated. It provides teachers with useful tools for progress tracking, assessment, and classroom management. Aligned with the New Zealand Curriculum and NCEA, Music Ecademy supports a wide range of student levels and classroom situations.
In this hands-on workshop, teachers will explore the platform directly on their own devices, experiencing both the student and teacher perspectives. We’ll cover practical ways to integrate Music Ecademy into everyday teaching – including self-paced learning, differentiated tasks, group work, homework, assessment, and blended learning models. Whether you’re teaching large mixed-ability classes, extension students, or providing extra support, this session will offer time-saving ideas and ready-to-go strategies to fit into your existing classroom routines. Please bring a laptop or tablet to fully participate.