Mixit is all about people. Meet our Alumni, our Youth Leaders and the support team that have made Mixit what it is today.
Mixit has a dynamic Youth Leadership programme. This programme offers motivated individuals an opportunity to step up into roles where they face new challenges and opportunities to grow their skills.
Youth Leaders take on organisational and planning responsibilities, gain experience of creative facilitation skills, manage the digital media aspects of the project, have the opportunity and support to initiate events and projects that inspire them. The youth leaders are an integral and dynamic team within Mixit and work hard together to make a difference.
Jake Easterbrook
Youth Leader
At 13 years old Jake Easterbrook made his way into the Mixit programme, having been born in New Zealand with ancestry that traces back to South Africa and Europe. Jake joined Mixit because he was interested in meeting new people, and expanding on his worldview. In the future Jake would like to...
Rivindee Udugala
Youth Leader
Rivindee Udugala hails from Sri Lanka, making her way to New Zealand where she was introduced to Mixit when her aunty took her to watch our 2024 summer show ‘I AM & I AM’. The stars aligned as she quickly felt accepted at Mixit, using this space to grow herself as a role model and leader. Outside...
Hanan Jama
Youth Leader
Hanan Jama born in New Zealand, with her families origins from Somalia, had heard about Mixit through her cousins, but in 2022 that all changed, when she decided to take the steps and become apart of the Mixit whānau. As a shy kid Hanan only had an interest in reading, but Mixit has since...
Team
Kaviesha Abeysinghe-Perera
Outreach Leader
Kaviesha discovered Mixit in 2012 through an article in the Western Leader. After participating in the "Cross Roads" summer project in 2013, she became a Youth Leader, later progressing to join Mixit's Alumni team and eventually serving as a trustee on the board. Originally from Sri Lanka, she completed her...
Wendy Preston MNZM
Creative Producer/Director
Wendy has over 40 years of professional involvement as a choreographer, director, tutor, performer and artistic producer/manager. She has worked extensively with young people on performance projects throughout her career, focusing on cross-cultural and inter-disciplinary creative interaction...
Kauthar Eckstein
Operations Leader
Hailing originally from Cape Town, South Africa, Kauthar Eckstein is a wahine who thrives in a range of creative realms. With a Bachelors degree in Communications, Kauthar has worked across both the screen production and theatre industry as a producer, writer and coordinator...
Board members
Susan Davis
Trustee
Susan has a background teaching and engaging with visual arts and poetry initiatives. As a trustee she brings a set of skills that connects the space between Board and Management and flows through to direct mentoring of the Mixit participants...
Fardowsa Mohamed
Trustee
As a teenager Fardowsa was a Mixit participant, then Youth Leader before she left Auckland to take on medical studies. She’s now a medical doctor working for Auckland Hospital with an interest in surgery. Around her busy professional life she is a respected...
Mark Easterbrook
Mark Easterbrook
Chairman
Mark works as a Writer and Creative Director in the advertising and design industry, as well as volunteering his time for arts and charity organisations. As a creative thinker, he aims to join the dots between ideas and people to help build Mixit’s connections and tell our story...
Alumni squad
Mixit Youth Leaders graduate into our Alumni team. The team actively engage on many levels – as Ambassadors, on the Board, mentoring youth, performing for external events, creating music (check out our videos) and participating in continued training to creatively lead and manage outreach opportunities.
Younis Ahmat Abdallah
Alumni squad
Younis Ahmat Abdallah enrolled in our Youth Leadership initiative in 2018 and progressed to become a member of the Alumni Squad by the end of 2020. Following his completion of an apprenticeship in building, he now works as a builder and has founded his own company...
Oscar Arnold
Alumni Squad
Oscar, who joined Mixit in 2012 as a Mixer, later became a Youth Leader and Alumni, forming lasting friendships and finding creative inspiration. He is graduate in BSC in environmental studies with a minor in Māori studies, earning a scholarship for his research on cross-cultural groundwater management...
Ray Santiago
Alumni Squad
Ray joined Mixit in 2020 as a creative intern during the "In a Curious Garden" summer project while completing his final year at university. Since then, he's become an integral part of the Alumni squad, facilitating Mixit-style sessions nationwide and...
Selected Guest Artists
Sarah-Jane Blake: Visual Installation & Designer
Malia Johnston: Choreographer & Director
Yair Katz: Musician
Tawanda Manyimo: Theatre Director & Performer
Julia Deans: Musician
Bethan Marshall: Artist/ Muralist
Ahi Kahrunahran: Theatre Director
Ella Becroft: Photographer & Graphic Designer
Megan Bardsley: Graphic Designer
Felix Becroft: Performer & Musician
Katy Dugdale: Visual Artist
Bianca Hyslop: Choreographer & Performer
Paulo Rotondo: Director & Writer
Miriama McDowell: Theatre Director
Gino October: Musician
Justin Haiu: Choreographer & Performer
Mike & Bronwyn Baker: Ariel Acrobats & Circus Tutors
Eddie Elliott: Choreographer & Performer
Moss Patterson: Choreographer
Ooshcon Massuers: Choreographer
Andi Crowne: Photographer
Matilde Polard: Visual Artist
Andrew Cesan: Choreographer
Claire Talbot: Garden Designer
Elijah Kennar: Choreographer & Performer
Bert Van Dijk: Theatre Director & Performer
Gemma-Jayde Naidoo: Choreographer
Katy Burton: Choreographer & Performer
Eve Gordon & Dust Palace: Performers & Aerial Acrobats
Don McGlashan: Composer & Musician
Chris O’Connor: Composer & Musician
Daniel Ortiz Rodreiguez: Composer & Musician
Gaby Thomas: Choreographer & Performer
Katy Parker: Visual Theatre Artist
Maisy Conway: Garden Designer
Alexander Holloway: Stage Combat
Ben Crowder: Actor
Jahra Wasasala: Multi-Disciplinary Artist
Tama Jarman: Theatre Director & Performer
Helen Todd: Lighting Designer
Tahi-Mapp Borren: Guest Artist
Ilai Amar: Film maker
Ebon Grayman: Performer & Aerial Acrobat
Mel Bailey aka Kloos: Performer & Musician
Margaret-Mary Hollins: Theatre Director & Performer
Emily Carter & Natalie Keane: Costume Stylists
Chris Jannides: Choreographer & Director
Muhammad Ali Kanwal: Musician & Performer
Sparrow Phillips: Artist Chris Graham: Theatre Director & Performer
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