Dame Hinewehi speaks with RNZ Concert's Bryan Crump
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Hinewehi, Hineraukatauri and Will at the Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre Photo: Supplied
Most parents would say the birth of a child is life changing.
The birth of singer Dame Hinewehi's daughter Hineraukatauri in 1996 changed her life in ways she couldn't possibly have imagined.
Photo: Getty Images
Dame Hine's singing career was beginning to take off, but suddenly she had a daughter with severe cerebral palsy.
Cerebral palsy traps those who have it in a body they can not control, but a mind that still seeks contact, stimulation and expression.
Dame Hinewehi wanted the best for her daughter. Her search took her to music therapy classes in London and an epiphany both for her and Hineraukatauri.
"Particularly for Hineraukatauri to be able to express herself through music. She completely lit up, like a light bulb. When she was actually in a therapy session she knew that this was something she could do, and she could be a part of and she could actually create her own sound and her own sense of musicality."
Such was the impact on her life and her daughter's, Dame Hinewehi put her singing career to one side (by this time she'd put out the double platinum album Oceania) to devote energy to bringing music therapy to Aotearoa.
The first of what are now four music therapy centres named after Hineraukatauri around the North Island, opened in Auckland on 18 March 2004.
Photo: Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre,
With the support of Dame Hinewehi's husband, George Bradfield, others have followed in Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay and Northland.
Speaking with RNZ Concert host Bryan Crump, Dame Hinewehi admits she still doesn't fully understand how music works as a healing force, although it's something Maori used through taonga puoro before the arrival of European medicine.
Photo: Michael Stephen
One thing that is certain: twenty years on from the opening of the first Raukatauri Centre, demand for music therapy isn't going away.
And it's something many RNZ Concert listeners can attest to.
When Bryan Crump put the word out for stories on the healing power of music, it didn't take long for them to start coming in.
Everything from "a lifeline" during the Covid lockdown, to "long life to our treasured RNZ in these dangerous days of the Barbarians at the Gate!"
That might be asking a bit much of us, but if we can get some of those angry folks onto a bit of Mozart it might calm things down a little.
A music therapy session at the Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre in Auckland Photo: Michael Stephen