History
The Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre was founded in March 2004 by singer Dame Hinewehi Mohi, her husband George Bradfield, and music industry executive and promoter, Campbell Smith, to provide music therapy services to individuals with special needs. The Centre receives its name from Hinewehi’s daughter, Hineraukatauri. Hineraukatauri has severe cerebral palsy and received music therapy for the first time while on a family trip to London in 1999. During these sessions, she was able to engage and communicate in ways not previously thought possible, making her family determined to bring the life changing benefits of music therapy home to Aotearoa-New Zealand.
The name Raukatauri comes from the legend of Hine Raukatauri, the Goddess of Flutes, who is the personification of Music. In Māori legend, Hine Raukatauri is the casemoth who lives in her elongated cocoon that hangs from many natives trees. Māori make a unique flute, the Pūtōrino, in the shape of the casemoth’s home. When Hinewehi came to name her daughter, Hineraukatauri’s severe cerebral palsy reminded her of the goddess trapped in her case, since she is trapped in her body and incapable of much independent movement. Music has been the means of communication and connection between mother and daughter. Hineraukatauri, and many others, have found a way to express themselves through music therapy at the Centre named after her and the ancestress Raukatauri.
Music therapy is still a relatively young practice in New Zealand, and yet music therapy as a credentialed profession emerged in the 1940s. It is widely used across the world, most notably in Europe, Australia and the United States, not only in music therapy centres but also in hospitals, hospices, schools, rest homes, mental health treatment facilities and prisons. However, music therapy is still largely unknown in New Zealand and therefore a large part of the Centre’s work to date has been in raising awareness and education of the field, along with its benefits, especially for children with special needs. The benefits and effectiveness of music therapy are thoroughly supported by research, both in New Zealand and internationally.
Our mission, as the operator of New Zealand’s only dedicated music therapy centres, is to offer a quality, accessible music therapy service to all people, whatever their needs. Our services managed from our base in Grafton, Auckland. As demand for music therapy services has grown, the Trust has expanded through the implementation of Regional Centres. The first, launched in June 2018, was in Hawke’s Bay and was swiftly followed by the opening of the Northland Regional Centre in March 2019. A third Regional Centre, this time serving the Bay of Plenty, opened in 2022, a year which has also saw us establish full-time services in the Far North.
Our services are offered across all these regions in a variety of settings: directly onsite from our Centres, via satellites services in local communities, as well as delivering outreach programmes. Outreach services are delivered in partnership with over 70 schools and organisations nationally, such as Starship, MOE’s Awhi Mai Awhi Atu Counselling in Schools, Corrections ISU’s in Hawke’s Bay & Auckland, and The Selwyn Foundation, all of which allow children and adults to receive music therapy directly in their classrooms, group homes, hospital rooms and rehabilitation units.