Goldsmith Baynes is a project combining the soulful vocals of Allana Goldsmith and jazz piano prowess of Dr. Mark Baynes, well known as a Tāmaki Makaurau-based musician, composer and educator. Critical acclaim for the duo’s debut album ‘E Rere Rā’ has cemented Goldsmith Baynes’ reputation as pioneers in blending jazz and te ao Māori.

2025 has been something of a break out year for the duo, performing at the International Indigenous Music Summit in Tkaronto (Toronto), and subsequent international festival bookings strongly indicating their star is on the rise. Allana found enough spare moments to provide NZM with this Aotearoa music diary of some of their recent international experiences.

I am vocalist Allana Goldsmith (Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Tai), and together with pianist Mark Baynes (UK/NZ) we make up the jazz duo Goldsmith Baynes. Keeping the intro really short, we released our all-original reo Māori jazz album ‘E Rere Rā’ in 2022.

This tour diary really began late 2024 when Mark and I travelled to the Mundial Montreal, a week long showcasing festival in Northern Turtle Island (Canada). Nōku te whiwhi – I was lucky to receive Creative NZ funding to attend. There we met the Indigenous Music Summit organisation, namely two powerhouse wāhine, ShoShona Kish (Anishinaabekwe) and Amanda (Citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario), not to mention the rest of their kick ass changemaker team.

In January 2025 some of IMS crew came over to Aotearoa and we made more connections. Huia, Rei, Hinurewa, and other Māori artists – showed them our manaakitanga (hospitality). I got to know them a bit more than just on the artist level. By early February Goldsmith Baynes had received an email inviting us to attend the IMS event in June.

We need to mention here, we found out later that Hūhā Music, aka Huia Hamon (Ngāti Porou) and Hinurewa Te Hau (Ngāti Maniapoto, Whakatōhea, Ngāti Hine) from the Matariki Cultural Foundation were advocates for Goldsmith Baynes being chosen as part of the Aotearoa contingent. Attendance was made possible by a mix of agency support and a Boosted crowdfunding campaign, which helped cover the costs of flights, accommodation, food, and logistics.

Mark describes the crowdfunding response as humbling. “People didn’t just donate – they sent messages saying how proud they were to see Māori music represented internationally. It made us realise how many people are behind this kaupapa.”

The Indigenous Music Summit event in Toronto was mīharo (wonderful) as! It took place over five days in June, and summer was just beginning. It was great to be away from the cold Aotearoa winter.

Day 1 – June 2nd

We took a ferry boat with everyone to the Gibraltar Point Centre for Arts, on Toronto Island. We were treated to beautiful smudging ceremony, mihi and welcome, with many of the groups from different countries also introducing themselves, performing short meaningful songs, or offerings from their culture.

“From the moment we arrived, we felt like we were stepping into something much bigger than ourselves,”  says Mark.

Our Māori crew – to my surprise had a waiata complete with actions (tbh I was not well prepared, ha!) We stood on the white sandy shores of Toronto Island with the beautiful lake waters at our feet, indigenous drumming, and special kōrero from elders. Then they took us to a fabulous outdoor feast which included native food sourced from the Tkaronto region, served in gourmet style. It was an unreal day.

Day 2

The International Indigenous Music Summit brought together and centred indigenous musicians, producers, knowledge holders, with industry people to one place.

“It was intense in the best way, and everywhere you turned, there was someone doing something inspiring – artists reclaiming language and telling stories that were very familiar, even though they were from completely different parts of the world.”

Official showcases happened each night, starting from about 6pm. Buses would take us to each of the different bars, venues, wherever the music was being held around downtown Toronto. We were in for seeing around six different bands per night, for the next five nights, with many different genre and languages.

Day 3

First up were meetings for indigenous and allies, with the purpose of creating safe zones for both groups. Smudging blessings were always a welcome start to the day, and kept burning throughout, which kinda reminded me of a Māori mauri stone.

Our own Hinurewa gave a talk titled ‘Soaring together as leaders’, and I spoke in the afternoon as part of a panel session called ‘Speaking the land: Aunties council on indigenous languages’.

Each of us spoke from different personal experiences. For me, it was the struggle to learn my language as an adult, with hope for my children to grow up with reo Māori fluency in their urban city life. I spoke of how important our music and lyric writing was, as part of my creative practice. It was an honour to be on the panel.

That night the other Aotearoa artists – Melodownz, Te KuraHuia, and Lady Shaka were showcasing, with Rei and Huia MC’ing.  This dance party went-off, and included impressive visuals of the beautiful South Pacific scenery. Everybody loved the high energy showcases which really set the bar high.

“It was great to see other Aotearoa artists at the Summit,” comments Mark. “We all ended up supporting each other, and just representing home the best we could.”

Day 4

Speed meetings began at 9:30am. These are pre-scheduled meetings where you’re paired up with either festival runners, programmers, or bookers. I found these so great because it meant you could cut out a lot of the small talk.

Kutcha Edwards spoke in the morning on Community Teachings: yangada, from Te Whenua Moemoeā (Australia). His beautiful songs and words cut straight to my heart, and had much of the room in tears.

Day 5

The last day, Mark and I are focused on our own showcase at 2pm. We hired a small rehearsal space to run through and warm up for our set. We had rehearsed with our Canadian band members, drummer Morgan Childs and bass player Jonathan Meyer, earlier in the week. The IMS chose a beautiful space for us to play – The Royal Conservatory of Music – alongside artists Nancy Bates (Barkindji) and Jonothan Morin (Nehiyaw).

Twenty five minutes really goes so fast! “We were a bit nervous,” Mark admits.

I had wondered how music in te reo Māori would land, but as soon as we started playing, the energy shifted. People really connected to it – not necessarily because they understood the words, but because they understood what it meant. When I sang in te reo Māori, I could feel recognition from others like they were saying, ‘We see you, we get it.’

This experience reaffirmed my confidence about singing in te reo Māori, and has given us both a fresh purpose.

In the following weeks we were excited to be contacted by the programme director at The Ellington jazz club in Perth asking how soon can Goldsmith Baynes could come over. They booked us for the Perth International Jazz Festival, on October 26.  Soon after the Melbourne International Jazz Festival booked us to play The Jazz Lab, aka Bennetts Lane Jazz Club on Oct 18, and then it made sense to organise a gig in Adelaide (October 22), with grateful support from Adam Page. This mini tour will be our first time performing in Ahitereiria (Australia).