Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre

The Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre was named by its founder, singer and songwriter Hinewehi Mohi, after her daughter, Hineraukatauri.

The name Raukatauri comes from the legend of Hine Raukatauri, the Goddess of Flutes, who is the personification of Music. In Maori legend, Hine Raukatauri is the casemoth who lives in her elongated cocoon that hangs from many native trees. Maori make a unique flute, the putorino, in the shape of the casemoth's home.

The male casemoth pupates and flies away, but the female remains in her case. At night as the breeze blows through the cocoon, the call of the female moth to her lover is heard as a sweet but barely audible sound. This has been the inspiration for all Maori flute music.

When Hinewehi Mohi came to name her daughter, who has severe cerebral palsy, she was reminded of the goddess trapped in her case - just as her daughter is trapped in her body, incapable of much independent movement. Music, as in the legend, has been the means of communication between mother and daughter. And Hineraukatauri has found a way to express herself through music therapy, at the Centre named after her and the ancestress Raukatauri.