We as a family were looking long term on what employment would like for Te Ramanui. Working under someone else did not feel so sustainable. As a family we started looking outside the box, Te Ramanui’s Mum was attending lots of workshops regarding what a good life looks like for someone with an intellectual disability.

Focussing on his strengths and passions, which include stages, music, big speakers, and hospitals, and after stealing the show at a wedding reception, the idea of Te Ramanui becoming a DJ became obvious. Te Ramanui also has a great connection with people, and an innate ability to read the room and lift the energy to create an uplifted vibe! This paired with an undeniable natural ability with music, a sense of rhythm, and the ability to pick up the melody and sing along to tunes he has never heard before, gives Te Ramanui the perfect recipe to become a Disc Jockey like no other.

When Te Ramanui’s Mum and partner got married they hired a DJ for the reception, Te Ramanui stole the show, he was so engaging and got everyone up dancing. The guests were surprised with his natural talents. We as his family were watching and participating in the celebrations and were pleasantly surprised. Even after the wedding lots of people would comment how Te Ramanui made their evening with his ability to build on everyone’s energy and get everyone up and having a good time. People and we as his family had never seen this side of Te Ramanui and were so pleased to see his ability.

So, we started looking into what we needed to do for Te Ramanui having his own DJ business. We started doing this in small steps, and drew up a good life plan. DJ Ramanui started with one laptop and the Traktor system; we were offered an opportunity to perform at Delta for the very first time. This gig did not go as well as we hoped for, the laptop was not fast enough and the music was glitching, this was frustrating Te Ramanui as it was not sounding the as good as it could have been. We looked at buying a new laptop that would be able to keep up the speed, and as we were offered more gigs, it was plain to see the improvements being made with every gig we were attending.

The next step was branding, coming up with a name as well as a logo. We worked really hard on Te Ramanui having his own input with this, as have been throughout the whole process.

Purple is one of Te Ramanui’s favourite colours, this could be as a long time ago Te Ramanui’s Mum had a purple poler fleece. Teaching Te Ramanui colours was a challenge when he was younger, purple was the first colour he got correct and would always tell his Mum that “my top is purple”. He would be so proud of himself. The next colour was black.

Te Ramanui told us he would like a smilie face in the logo, this also could have come from Te Ramanui’s learnings when he was younger, from teaching Te Ramanui words like behind, under, on top, in front.

Te Ramanui’s Mum made up some bright yellow smilie faces and would hide these a little ‘behind, underneath, on top of’ objects in his home. When Te Ramanui would find them, his Mum would say “yeah that was underneath the couch, or that was behind the pot plant” with lots of praise.

We now have lights, strobes, smoke machines, along with an impressive repertoire. Busy growing his skills, Te is ready to play your next event. Also keep an eye out for new developments in Te creating his own music, which you may one day hear played out in upcoming gigs!