Eskavan McCartney reckons music is “the most powerful thing in the world”.
For him, it’s about self-expression.
McCartney was born with Down syndrome and said: “I am the kid who had Down syndrome, and I don’t control my emotions very well.”
Since 2023, he has attended music therapy sessions with Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust in Hastings. Before that, playing sports was an outlet for McCartney’s feelings.
The trust facilitates life-changing music therapy for children experiencing long-term hospitalisations, adults with dementia, children impacted by trauma and those with developmental disabilities.
Since starting, 29-year-old McCartney has attended weekly sessions where he creates raps and songs, and has even been working towards a debut album – something he hopes one day people will buy.
“Music is the most powerful thing in the world.”
Through his freestyle raps, he finds ways to share his feelings, emotions and even address social issues – much like his biggest inspiration, Tupac.
“I want to express myself because I have got more ups and downs and pain and problems.”
He said he likes to make hip-hop, pop, RnB beats and sing about the themes of love and life.
“When I write my own rap, I think about life, and what I am doing with this ... and what life can throw against us.”
He said people needed to embrace music and music therapy as a tool to help understand themselves.
Registered music therapist Sinead Hegarty works with McCartney during his sessions.
She said she became a registered music therapist because she could see the value of the arts for healing and wellbeing.
“I just love how music can bring people through spaces and support people’s wellbeing at different levels.”
She described music therapy as the use of sound and music with an evolving relationship between a participant and a music therapist.
Hegarty said their sessions together were dependent on how McCartney was feeling and were flexible to his needs.
“If you don’t feel like rapping, you don’t feel like singing, we can listen to music, if you don’t feel like listening, we can just sit and talk,” Hegarty said.
In the two years of working with McCartney, Hegarty said she had seen his hauora (wellbeing) shift in big ways.
“His emotional wellbeing has improved through having time and space each week to have his thoughts and feelings heard and expressed through music.”
She said he was able to process difficult life challenges and understood more about himself and others.
“Eskavan experiences a lot of meaning and purpose in his life related to the musical projects we have worked on together in our music therapy sessions.”
Hegarty encouraged people to get involved with World Music Therapy Week, celebrated from April 10-15.
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.
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