4/4 Pacific Music + Arts Volume 2:1 Oct 2016 | Page 16

image: Malosi Pictures
Mal and Deahne take on the bulk of the work, but have
established a great team to work with them. Mal is
behind the delivery of their music programmes and
Deahne looks after the creative aspects to design
and deliver projects, along with administering their
applications for support and reporting requirements. To
support the music programmes and their live events,
their core team involves Tommy Nee, Monty Lakatani,
Ivan Fuimaono, Junior Soqeta and Geoff Soqeta. They
will also bring in other young people to work with them,
for the various projects they undertake.

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the other bit”. With Mal chiming in “Deahne directs
a lot of the community based work, she is our voice
out there in the community. She puts Creative Souls
on the map”. He further confirms that once Deahne
finds a new opportunity, they will sit down together to
confirm what needs to be done.

Mal acknowledged the support of the others in their
team, as he can share the workload when needed –
particularly for the Little Souls Academy. “Tommy is
one of my staff that I pay on the regular that helps me
teach these classes, he is basically me when he goes
out. He is like my voice, my eyes and his energy. And
he does a great job. He does a massive job.” Mal
has developed the music programmes and written a
staff manual for his team. He will also train the others,
which results in them being able to teach a class,
exactly as Mal would.

Deahne confirms they mainly receive support from
Council, Local Boards, businesses, Community Art
Brokers and schools, who will provide the funds for
project and contract work. She also confirmed “we
are getting to the point now, after 3 years, where things
are starting to gain some momentum and people are
starting to come to us.” They are often asked to create
projects for others, especially projects that involve
young people to deliver and/or benefit from the project.
Deahne explains that the “projects usually come with
a social objective and we come up with creative
project that responds to that. They will confirm what
their budget is, what they’re trying to achieve and then
I try and make it fit.” The work and projects will vary
in scale but they are now having the opportunity for
bigger jobs, both in terms of size and budget.

At this point in the interview Mal asks Deahne joins us
to explain more about what they do and who supports
them. Deahne says “we are a social enterprise, I always
say, Malcolm is the enterprise at the moment and I’m

A recent event and the biggest they have undertaken
to date, was the Whau Pacific Festival. It involved
four days of free events in the Whau area, supported
by the Whau Local Board. They worked with other

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