2
MUSIC AND HEALING IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND: EXPLORING THE
HARMONY OF LAND, PLACEHOOD, AND COMMUNITY IN MĀORI AND PĀKEHĀ
HEALING PRACTICES
Introduction
This section highlights the intricate connection between music and healing, focusing on
how cultural identity and heritage play a role in the therapeutic power of music. The quote from
Jodie Owen encapsulates a key theme: music's ability to heal by reconnecting individuals with
their ancestry and cultural identity. This perspective extends beyond technical aspects of music,
emphasizing its deeper, symbolic rhythm as a source of healing and self-discovery.
In January 2024, I embarked on fieldwork in Aotearoa, New Zealand, to explore the
interplay between music, healing, and bicultural identity. Over three weeks, I traversed the
country, visiting locations from Kerikeri in the Bay of Islands to Queenstown. The fieldwork
included interviews with Māori individuals—Aotearoa's Indigenous people—and Pākehā music
therapists, as well as visits to historical landmarks and music therapy centers. My interest in
Aotearoa stems from its unique bicultural framework, where Māori narratives and practices are
interwoven into the national culture. This bicultural context provides a rich ground for
exploring the dialogue between Western and Indigenous music and healing practices.
The timing of my research aligns with the ongoing Māori cultural revival that began in
the 1970s, a movement that has significantly shaped New Zealand's cultural landscape. This
revival emphasizes the celebration and integration of Māori identity into the mainstream,
fostering a dynamic bicultural society. It also underscores the influence of Indigenous
3
knowledge systems, such as Māori ontology, on healing practices, including music therapy.
Existing research on Māori perspectives highlights the profound connection between land,
community, and healing through music—an area that captivated my interest.
My interviews included conversations with three Māori women: Huitau Elkington and
Jodie Owen in Hamilton, and Vera Cheffers in Gisborne. These discussions provided insights
into the ways in which music acts as a bridge to cultural identity and collective healing. I also
visited the Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre in Auckland and Whangārei, along with its
satellite locations in the Bay of Islands region. Interviews with Pākehā music therapists,
including Rachel Foxell (Auckland), Holly McPhee (Kerikeri), and Emily Wills (Whangārei),
enriched my understanding of how music therapy operates within Aotearoa’s bicultural
framework.
This fieldwork seeks to answer fundamental questions: How does music contribute to
healing beyond its technical or melodic properties? What role do cultural identity and heritage
play in this healing process? How does the bicultural nature of Aotearoa inform the practice of
music therapy? By exploring these questions, this research aims to deepen our understanding of
the complex and culturally embedded relationship between music and healing.
I come to my interview with questions and curiosities regarding my interlocutor's
personal experience with music and healing, such as the type of music or song that gives them a
sense of healing, what that healing feels like; for the Māori women I spoke to, I wondered how
their Māori identity connected to their experiences with music and healing, and for music
therapists, how practicing in New Zealand's Aotearoa bicultural society informed their practice.
I quickly learned that there is no particular genre or song that heals, but the context and delivery
4
of the larger music is where healing happens. I was hoping to hear a more explicit situation
about how music is used, with examples of songs or instruments or melodies, but my
interlocutor spoke about the use of music in general, pointing out that the quality of the music
itself is not important in healing, and that the external context of music and healing is essential.
Regarding this external context, my interlocutors spoke about their relationship with the land,
with their communities, supporting my previous research with their own testimonies. However,
they also talk about their relationship to the concept of place – how the place they call home,
their family calls home, and even their ancestors call home, connecting them to their identity
and giving them a sense of healing. In engaging with music that connects them to their
individual conception of place, they experience healing. This is a major theme in my fieldwork,
although not as large as my previous research. Throughout this paper, I explored the role that
land and community play in healing through music, and as a result of my interviews, the role
played by place as well, contributed to existing research on the ontology of music and Māori
healing, and explored emerging themes of place.
In each interview, I begin by explaining not only my research, but who I am and what led
me to music, healing, and New Zealand's Aotearoa. I have chosen to include this in my paper as
well, to acknowledge my presence and narrative in my research.
I always feel myself when I visit the ocean. Maine's rocky coastline has always had a
certain mysterious sheen to me – raw, wild, and very beautiful. Listening to the rhythm of the
crashing waves, the singing of seabirds flying overhead, I was reminded that this was the first
music the earth had ever sung for me. My parents, and their parents before them, loved the ocean
as much as I did, and I can only assume that they heard their own unique songs as they walked
along the shore. My identity is tied to my love of music, the love instilled in me by my family,
5
and intertwined with my love for the seaside land where I grew up. It is the first place I call
home, with its significance to my family, who always lives by the ocean and all its songs.
I was drawn to Aotearoa New Zealand partly because of its resemblance to Maine, with
its coastal cliffs, towering mountains, and miles of hills, and partly because of the integration of
Indigenous beliefs and practices into the culture of Aotearoa New Zealand as a whole, and what
that integration reveals about the relationship between music and healing. As a bicultural Māori,
the indigenous people of New Zealand's Aotearoa, and the Pākehā (non-Māori New Zealand),
there is a presence of Māori beliefs and practices that exist and are increasing in everyday life in
New Zealand's Aotearoa, from the Māori (Māori) greeting te reo "kia ora" which is used
interchangeably with "halo" to haka, a type of Māori ceremonial dance, performed before a
match by the All Blacks national rugby team.1 In addition, the Māori healing perspective, which
is centered on improving not only one's physical well-being, but also spirituality, has become
more prominent in mainstream culture in Aotearoa
New Zealand, as providers have indigenised their practices to better serve their Māori patients.2
All my life, I have lived in the land of the Wabanaki people in Dawnland
Confederation. However, it was only in my college years that I began to learn about the presence
and lasting impact of indigenous peoples in the place I call home. Before delving further into the
Māori experience in Aotearoa, New Zealand, I would like to acknowledge
Wabanaki, and expressed my hope that in the future, the state of Maine and the United States can
live in bicultural societies as New Zealand's Aotearoa did, centering Wabanaki and other Native
American narratives and celebrating their culture.
1 "Haka." New Zealand Rugby All Blacks, 2024. https://www.allblacks.com/the-haka.
2 Cram, "Mapping out a theme."
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I specifically observed the integration of these Māori beliefs and practices in music
therapy centres in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and further explored the relationship between music
and healing through my interviews with Pākehā music therapists and Māori individuals.
Throughout this interview and my research, there is a theme of physical and spiritual well-being
achieved through various methods. Regardless of the specific method, all use music as a means
for healing, with the primary delivery of healing stemming from individuals' relationships with
the land, their concept of place, and community – all basic concepts in the Māori worldview.
Essential to Māori healing is the concept of the Māori model of health and mauri, or
Māori life force. The Māori health model is built on the concept of "te whare tapa whā," which
means four foundations, or four-walled houses – at its simplest, referred to as wharenui, or
meeting houses. This model expands on the physical and spiritual health duo, identifying four
aspects of the same health: Taha tinana (physical health), taha wairua (spiritual health), taha
whānau (family health), and taha hinengaro (mental health). Without health and well-being on
all four platforms, wharenui cannot stand.3 Moreover, the Māori understanding of mauri is the
same, if not more important. All living beings are thought to have mauri, which is derived from
Io, the supreme god. Mauri is a person's life force, and is equated with the Chinese idea of chi or
qi and the Japanese idea of ki. Mauri is essential in birth, death, and healing, as it has the power
to unite one's physical and spiritual existence, giving life to one.4 My interlocutor spoke about the
importance of mauri and wharenui in the Māori belief system, and highlighted the value of
spiritual healing, which is often overlooked in the Western medical system, because the concepts
of mauri and wharenui emphasize health beyond the purely physical, which is not the definition
3 Mason Durie, "Maori health models – The House of Four Centuries." Government department
Kesehatan NZ. 1 Desember 2023. https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/populations/maori-health/maori-
health model/maori-health-models-te-whare-tapa-wha
4 Rollo Rollo, "With Water – Health Rises." Research Commons, December 7, 2014.
https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/8917.
7
of healing used in Western healing. Indigenous healing in Aotearoa, New Zealand, is to include
practices that recognize and centralize the definition of Māori healing.
There are several areas of study that examine the relationship between music and healing,
not only asking the question of "what is healing?" but also "how and why is music used to heal?"
The main fields of study that explore this relationship are medical ethnomusicology and music
therapy. Music therapy is a field that adheres to scientific methods and clinical trials to drive new
discoveries, and uses those discoveries primarily in biomedical contexts to develop new
applications of music as a form of healing.5 However, the biomedical focus of music therapy does
not emphasize on interpersonal, conversational interactions that come with ethnographic studies,
which are central to medical ethnomusicology in its research process. My exploration of music
and healing, and the intersection of land, place, and community in New Zealand's Aotearoa, is
done through a combination of ethnographic research and fieldwork, and falls within the field of
medical ethnomusicology.
Medical ethnomusicology is a holistic study of the various applications and definitions of
music used to heal in cultures and communities around the world, and was first coined by
Stephanie Thorne in 1999, while working on her master's thesis in music history, and further
defined by Benjamin Koen in 2008, in the Oxford Handbook of Medical Ethnomusicology.6;7 The
field is simultaneously still in its infancy and veterans in the academic realm of scientific
humanities. It was only defined in literature 25 years ago, but the relationship between music and
healing is traced back centuries. For example, the Tibetan concept of tri-kâya, which treats music
5 Muriel E. Swijghuisen Reigersberg, "Collaborative Music, Health, and Well-Being Research Globally: Some
Perspectives on the Challenges Faced and How to Engage with Them." Journal of Folklore Research 54, no. 1–2
(2017): 133–59.
6 Stephanie Thorne, "Healing Songs: Native American Music Therapy, A Study of Medical Ethnomusicology," in
Travels with Frances Densmore. UNP - Nebraska, 2015. 302-. Web.
7 Benjamin D. Koen, dkk, Buku Pegangan Oxford Etnomusikologi Medis. New York, NY: Oxford University Press,
2012.
8
as multi-functional, in a way that heals the whole soul, or the use of flute and harp music as a
treatment for gout in ancient Greece, in addition to the worship of Apollo, the god of music and
medicine.8 Indigenous communities also use music as a form of healing, which Thorne
acknowledges in his definition of medical ethnomusicology, in his 2015 work, "Songs of
Healing":
From a musicological point of view, medical ethnomusicology serves as a musical bridge
between Western medical concepts and non-Western understandings of healing and is not
intended to present a redefinition of indigenous peoples' healing cultural knowledge into
Western clinical and bioscience terminology.9
Thorne's definition highlights the distinction between "medicine" and "cure", and that the latter is
often associated with Indigenous communities. By using medical ethnomusicology as
"bridge" between these two worlds, he positioned the field as a unique interdisciplinary, which
Benjamin Koen supported in his definition of medical ethnomusicology, defining it as:
A new field of integrative research and applied practice that explores holistically the role
of music and sound phenomena and related practices in cultural and clinical contexts,
health and healing. In general, these roles and practs are seen as closely intertwined and
intertwined with the domains of biological, psychological, social, emotional, and spiritual
life, all of which frame our experiences, beliefs, and understanding of health and healing,
illness and disease, and life and death.10
Both Koen and Thorne point out that at its core, medical ethnomusicology is truly
interdisciplinary, developing a framework for research and fieldwork at the intersection of music
and healing. It rejects a single definition of medicine or healing, as well as a single definition for
music, seeking to find ways in different pockets of the world to use music as a form of healing.
8 Max Peter Baumann, "Foreword: Music and Healing in a Transcultural Perspective." Dunia Musik 39, no. 1
(1997): 5–9. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41699127.
9 Thorne, "A Song of Healing," 507.
10 Koen, Oxford Handbook on Medical Ethnomusicology.
9
In Thorne's case, it seeks to bridge the gap between Western and Indigenous schools of thought
as it relates to healing.
Music therapy is often presented in the literature as a scientific counterpart of medical
ethnomusicology. Western music therapists are trained to utilize music to assist clients in
achieving their own personal goals, whether it is physical rehabilitation, reducing symptoms of
stress and anxiety, or utilizing past memories that have been affected by memory loss disorders.
This goal is achieved through a variety of methods, but they are all clinical and evidence-based.11
In Aotearoa, New Zealand, music therapists, i.e. those in the North Island and especially in the
Northland, work with a large population of Māori clients. My interlocutor talked about how due
to the large number of Māori clients they work with, music therapists in Aotearoa New Zealand
have adapted their practices to incorporate Māori culture, such as singing waiata (songs) in te reo
(language), in accordance with the nature of Aotearoa New Zealand as a bicultural society. Music
therapy in Aotearoa, New Zealand, deviates somewhat from the typical biomedical model of
Western music therapy or even contemporary psychosocial therapy, due to the integration of
these Indigenous beliefs and practices. The study includes perspectives from Māori individuals
and music therapists, to acknowledge this integration and incorporate this narrative into the
conversation around music therapy in relation to music and healing in New Zealand's Bicultural
Society of Aotearoa.
Before New Zealand's Aotearoa existed as a bicultural society, before the "Māori revival"
in the late 20th century, the Māori faced forced displacement, violence, and cultural oppression
for centuries. The origins of the Māori can be traced back to the ancestors of Polynesians, the
world's most extensive people in 1300 AD, reaching from Hawai'i to Easter Island, Samoa,
11 Muriel E. Swijghuisen Reigersberg, "Collaborative Music, Health, and Well-Being," 133–59.
10
Tonga, and Aotearoa New Zealand. By the time the Māori arrived in the archipelago in the late
13th century with waka, or canoes, traveling through the aforementioned Polynesian islands,
there was a solid network of shared cultures, traditions, and worldviews among the Polynesian
Indigenous communities, with priests from the various islands gathering annually on the island
of Ra'iatea to unite in their common religion. In New Zealand's Aotearoa, Māori are spread
mainly on the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, but also inhabit the South Island, or Te
Waipounamu, for more than 350 years before the arrival of Europeans in 1642. Coming
Europeans brought with them the origins of the Treaty of Waitangi, the main governing
document of Māori and Pākehā relations, which was signed in 1840.12 From 1907 to 1962, the
Tohunga Suppression Act restricted all forms of traditional Māori healing. Tohunga, which
means healer in te reo, is responsible for being a mediator between one's physical beings and Io,
to heal one's mauri, the relationship between their physical and spiritual beings. The act was met
with deliberate resistance, and continued behind closed doors, but it still had a severe impact, as
the tohunga was replaced by Western medicine and doctors, and centuries of knowledge and
traditions were lost. This led to trauma and cultural disconnection from generation to generation
– because Māori could never be truly cured by Western doctors, the lost knowledge in the
Tohunga Suppression Act resulted in harm from generation to generation, which was only now
beginning to be corrected through the revival of the Māori.13 The rise of Māori has been an
ongoing process since the 1970s, with the slow and steady inclusion of te reo in everyday
speech, increased political representation, and an increase in Māori musical traditions, such as
haka.14 Now, children and adults are learning and speaking te reo with pride, older waiata are
12 Samuel Timoti Robinson, "Spiritual origins" in Tohunga: The Revival: Ancient Knowledge for the Modern Age,
(Auckland N.Z: Reed Books, 2005) 75-82.
13 Rollo, "With Water – Health Improves."
14 Charlotte Graham-mclay, "Maori language, once shunned, is experiencing a resurgence in New Zealand." The
New York Times, September 16, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/16/world/asia/new-zealand-
11
being reviewed and rewritten, and the original place names are back, such as the use of Aotearoa,
which is New Zealand's original name, meaning "land of long white clouds." The wounds of
intergenerational trauma are beginning to heal, and music is at the forefront of this process.
Music is the basis for many aspects of the Māori worldview. It is a way to honor one's
ancestors, a method of learning te reo Māori, or to teach children in kura or kōhanga reo
(immersive school or language nest) about their culture. In all these applications of music, there
is healing from generational trauma, bureaucratic violence, and centuries of cultural oppression
and erasure. Healing, then, is not about diagnosing and solving problems, but experiencing a
reconnection with the essence of one's existence – their mauri. Both before, during, and after the
Tohunga Suppression Act, the cultural oppression faced by many Māori has made the experience
of learning, speaking, singing, and engaging with te reo deeply healing, as it connects them to the
larger Māori community. Similarly, the words of the many waiata, shared through the Māori
community, refer to the land, making chanting a healing experience rooted in reverence for the
land. The taonga pūoro, a traditional Māori instrument, is made of, and is often inspired by, the
earth as well, which is best illustrated by the kōauau, an instrument similar to a flute but carved
out of wood or bone. It is traditionally used to heal fractures and relieve labor pain, but also to
welcome new spirits into the world and help others on their journey.15 Its use is very varied, it
suggests that the waiata sung or the taonga pūoro played is not healing, but it is the situation
and intention behind the music that gives meaning and significance to healing. In the music and
healing scenario in New Zealand's Aotearoa, there is a constant interaction between the land (te
whenua), the place (ūkaipō), and the community (whānau).
In my musical and healing explorations in New Zealand's Aotearoa, I interviewed both
maori language.html .
15 Samuel Timoti Robinson, "Pourima: tohunga-rongoa – the fifth level of healing priests" in Tohunga: The
Resurrection: Ancient Knowledge for the Modern Age, (Auckland N.Z: Reed Books, 2005) 214-249.
12
Māori and Pākehā (non-Māori) individuals, and choose to follow the Māori Kaupapa Research
(KMR) methodology. While most of the literature in medical ethnomusicology points to Koen et
al.'s "quadruple framework", published in the Oxford Handbook of Medical Ethnomusicology, as
a leading model for research in the field, I feel that KMR will be a more ethical and applicable
methodology.16 Usually used in anthropological or ethnographic research related to Māori in
some way, Kaupapa means "by Māori, for Māori," and centers Māori perspectives, desires, and
beliefs in the research process. An integral part of KMR is the focus on not only avoiding
damage to Māori communities, but also having a positive impact on them, which this research
does by illuminating the relationship between music and healing in Indigenous communities, and
centralizing Māori narratives throughout the research process.17 The principles of KMR were
fundamental throughout my research, especially given my positionality as a white, American
woman and interviewer in the context of this project. Usually, Māori approach a conversation by
first learning about a person's background: their family, their home, their relationship to their
home and the land in it, and/or what makes them, them. Adhering to this style of interpersonal
and conversational interviews and in keeping with the KMR, I prioritized creating a space that
centered on Māori narratives and beliefs.
This research contributes to knowledge in the sciences and humanities, and seeks to
narrow the gap between and broaden the horizons of music and medicine. My own research will
not fully integrate Indigenous and allopatric medicine practices, but will contribute to increasing
existing knowledge regarding holistic medicine and healing practices. The importance of using
16 Benjamin D. Koen, Jacqueline Lloyd, Gregory Barz, and Karen Brummel-Smith, "A Quadruple Framework for
Cross-Cultural, Integrative Research on Music and Medicine" in the Oxford Handbook of Medical Ethnomusicology,
New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2012, 18–46.
17 Cram, "Mapping out a theme."
13
Aotearoa New Zealand as a case study for musical exploration and healing is that Aotearoa New
Zealand is unique. There is an ongoing conversation about how to
best to integrate Indigenous peoples' beliefs and practices of music and healing into the allopatric
healthcare system, as revealed in a study on the well-being perspective of Māori physicians, but
the efforts go beyond that – New Zealand's Aotearoa bicultural society means that mainstream
Western culture is intertwined with Māori culture, ensuring that New Zealand's Aotearoa national
identity is not only practicing but also celebrating Māori beliefs and traditions.1819 In a 2018 New
York Times article discussing the Māori language revitalization movement, Ella Henry, a lecturer
in Māori studies at the Auckland University of Technology said "This is not a point in the
cultural landscape. This is what New Zealand is all about: a truly integrated place."20 This quote
exemplifies the fortitude of the Māori revival, and the growing harmony in bicultural societies,
as a wide-ranging source of news such as the United States reports on this aspect of life in
Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Music is an important vehicle for other variables in any healing environment to lead the
way for healing to occur – what surrounds the music is more important than the technical quality
of the music itself. In New Zealand's Aotearoa, music facilitates healing through a triad of land,
place, and community. The Māori te reo words that best represent these aspects of the
individual are te whenua, ūkaipō, and whānau. Te whenua means native land, and also the
placenta, thus symbolizing its relationship. Ūkaipō means tribal homeland, and underscores the
importance of places called homes, or places that have significance in their lives. Whānau means
18 Glenis Tabetha Mark and Antonia C. Lyons, "The Maori Healer's View of Well-Being: The Importance of Mind,
Body, Spirit, Family, and Land." Social Sciences & Medicine 70, no. 11 (2010): 1756–1764. 1982. TEAMS:
19 .1016/j.socscimed.2010.02.001.
20 Charlotte Graham-mclay, "Maori language, once shunned, is experiencing a resurgence in New Zealand." The
New York Times, September 16, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/16/world/asia/new-zealand-
maori language.html .
14
family, but the word also translates to a larger family structure, which consists of a community of
people around an individual, regardless of blood.24 There is a harmony between these three
interconnected aspects. Like the triad, the most basic chordal structure, 21these three aspects work
together to provide healing.
The importance of te whenua, ūkaipō, and whānau in music and healing has been
discussed by Māori scholars such as Dr. Peter Mataira, Dr. Te Manaaroha Rollo, Dr. Pikihuia
Pomare, among many others in the field of Māori studies and medical ethnomusicology.22;23;24 My
fieldwork in Aotearoa, New Zealand, only strengthens this relationship. However, existing
research shows a relationship between land, music, and healing, or community, music, and
healing, but previous research has not concentrated on the triangular relationship between land,
place, and community in terms of music and healing, as this paper does, nor has any previous
research on Māori music and healing addressed the role of place in healing at all. My research
and fieldwork have shown that engaging with any of these aspects is engaging with all of them,
and they are all present in the music and healing scenario in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Most
significantly, my work contributes to conversations about place and place, and how to connect
with a sense of place where one can provide healing. For many Indigenous communities around
the world, including the Māori, the places they call home have been stolen from them, altered,
and renamed by their colonizers. Whether these violations occurred on physical soil, or cultural
erasure or trauma to society, damage to these places caused damage to Indigenous identity.
Through the process of the Māori revival, the bicultural society of New Aotearoa
21 Jayhuia Pomare, dkk, "The Murray of The Kauri And The Jungle: Pengetahuan Pribumi, The Environment
(Lingkungan) dan Kesejahteraan." Budaya pengetahuan 11, no. 1 (2023): 55–83.
22 Peter Mataira, "Te Kaha o Te Waiata — The Power of Music: A Maori Oral Tradition Illustrated by E Tipu e
Rea," in Indigenous Religious Music, (English, English: Routledge, 2000,) 22-34.
23 Rollo, "With Water – Health Improves."
24 Pomare et al. "Murray from Darkness and Forest" 55-83.
15
New Zealand restored Māori identity and culture, through actions such as the return of original
place names and the increasing prevalence of te reo – giving back the physical and metaphorical
places inhabited by Māori in New Zealand's Aotearoa, and contributing to Indigenous healing.
When I think of the coastal land where I grew up, I feel a general appreciation for the
land, that the ocean I grew up in connects me with people on distant shores, staring at the same
sea. I felt a sense of belonging and place when I visited the coastal town where my parents grew
up – I was connected to my family, but also to the land they once called home, and the sense of
home it gave me. A triad is incomplete, disharmonious, without all three tones – similar to how
wharenui cannot stand without prosperity on its four foundations. In New Zealand's Aotearoa,
music and healing find harmony through a triad of land, place, and community, and by
understanding this harmony, we can begin to understand further how and why music is used to
heal.
Literature Review
The discipline of medical ethnomusicology was first defined by Stephanie Thorne in her
master's thesis on the history of music in 1999,25 a field intended to explore the relationship
between the healing of mind, body, and soul through music, although this has evolved over time
to include indigenous conceptions of healing in addition to Western conceptions. Since then, the
field has continued to take shape, but the framework for research and fieldwork has continued to
evolve. The most well-known and used framework for research in medical ethnomusicology was
published in 2012 in The Oxford Handbook of Medical Ethnomusicology, by authors Koen et al.
They write that the goal of medical ethnomusicology is to use a culturally informed approach to
studying and translating forms of "musical healing," and potentially apply them in clinically and
25 Thorne, "Healing Song."
16
culturally sensitive ways, and has developed a quadruple framework to achieve this goal. The
quadruple framework they propose is "musical", "sociocultural", "performative", and
"biomedical", with an emphasis on incorporating ethnographic techniques into research methods,
spending time learning from people, living in the culture being studied, and asking what diseases
are being treated and how they are treated – overall approaching a holistic cure.26 This framework
is seen as the standard for many researchers in medical ethnomusicology, as other works by Dr.
Koen apply his framework and lend credibility to his work. His 2011 publication, "Medical
Ethnomusicology and the Ontology of Oneness," a chapter of his longer work Beyond the Roof of
the World: Music, Prayer, and Healing in the Pamir Mountains, discusses how many patients in
Western countries with Western health care systems are beginning to opt for integrative,
complementary, and alternative medicine, or ICAM. He claims that, although this is changing, it
is only in
A West where medicine and music are separated, and in traditional countries around the world,
music "almost always centers of healing" because of its ability to connect the physical and
spiritual aspects of the body. For Dr. Koen, he sees the future integration of music and medicine
in Western medicine led by ethnomusicology and medical ethnomusicology, with their passion
for human and music and a common goal to look beyond social and political boundaries to truly
"serve and benefit" people in the culture they are studying.27
Another proposed model for research in medical ethnomusicology and the intersection of
music and healing is "team science" – the collaboration of ethnomusicology and folklorists and
other applicable professionals in the sciences or humanities. Suggested by Dr. Allison and co-
authors, "team science" uses the depth of ethnographic research and a results-centered approach
26 Koen et al., "The Quadruple Framework."
27 Benjamin D. Koen, "Etnomusikologi Medis dan Ontologi Keesaan" dalam Beyond the Roof of the World: Music,
Prayer, and Healing in the Pamir Mountains, (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2011), 3-24.
17
to scientific research to answer questions about music and healing in a more limited way.28 In
support of collaboration, Dr. Amanda Berman, when examining the disconnect between music
therapy and medical ethnomusicology, argues that cooperation between disciplines is essential
for furthering the study of music and healing. He stated that in particular, the study of Indigenous
music and healing is underrepresented and can be helpful in the process of linking music therapy
and medical ethnomusicology.29
Stephanie Thorne coined the term "medical ethnomusicology" in 1999. Since then, he has
continued to contribute in the field, centralizing Indigenous narratives and beliefs throughout his
work. His 2015 publication "Songs of Healing," a medical ethnomusicological study of Native
American music therapy, discusses the "epistemological hybridism" that is present when
engaging in medical ethnomusicology work. Unlike the "team science" model proposed by
Allison et al., Thorne suggested that since the concept of science itself is a "westernized
terminology", to begin medical ethnomusicology fieldwork pertaining to Indigenous
communities is to expand the practice of medicine beyond the treatment of diseases with Western
methods. Epistemological hybridism recognizes the mind, body, and soul in the conception of
healing, and the idea that healing means "restoring wholeness in all aspects of existence." Using
an epistemological hybridism mindset supports the various healing ontologies present in
Indigenous communities around the world, creating a bridge between Western concepts of
science and medicine, and Indigenous concepts of healing and wholeness. Music therapy and
medical ethnomusicology differ less through this lens, as they both seek to answer the same
28 Theresa A. Allison, Daniel B. Reed, and Judah M. Cohen, "Toward a Shared Goal: Music, Team Science, and
Global Health." Journal of Folklore Research 54, no. 1 (2017): 1-. Gale Academic OneFile (accessed October 3,
2023).
29 Amanda Berman, "Medical Ethnomusicology: Where Does the Potential Lie?" Voices - World Forum for Music
Therapy, 9 November 2015. https://voices.no/index.php/voices/article/view/2288/2043.
18
questions about music and healing, but have historically used different methodologies to do so.
Epistemological hybridism can change that.33 reviews
Music and ethnomusicologist Jane Edwards and music therapist Oonagh MacMahon view
the two disciplines as "distinctive and connected." They agreed with what other scholars said
about the ongoing collaboration of the two disciplines, stating that music "enhances our
interconnectedness and humanity." They expanded Dr. Berman's argument about the benefits of
integrating Indigenous culture into the study of music and healing with the term "cultural
security." The term originated from nursing training in Aotearoa, New Zealand in response to
Māori individuals who felt that their cultural identity was not protected in the field of healthcare,
and was also present in research on supporting Aboriginal identity in Australia, from Davidson,
Hill, & Nelson in 2013.34 As discussed in their work, and further explored by Edwards and
MacMahon, "cultural security" is a health care approach that requires caregivers to acknowledge
and take into account their own cultural background, values, and potential power imbalances as a
result of colonization. Aotearoa New Zealand has been a key player and pioneer in the
incorporation of Indigenous beliefs, practices, and cultures into clinical settings, as evidenced by
their priority on "cultural safety." Furthermore, Edwards and MacMahon have identified that
studying the benefits of music experience leads to improved feelings
"Cultural security" is a valuable exploration for music therapists and medical ethnomusicology,
hopefully encouraging more collaboration between the two fields.
Prioritizing "cultural safety" with immigrants, indigenous groups, or any minority group in a
population allows for further advances in indigenous health care – an overall process that can be
led by a music therapist and medical ethnomusicology.35 reviews
19
33 Thorne, "Healing Song."
34 Bronwyn Davidson, Anne E. Hill, and Alison Nelson, "Responding to the World Report on Disability in Australia:
Lessons from Collaboration in Urban Aboriginal Schools and Torres Strait Islander Islands." International Journal
of Speech-Language Pathology 15, no. 1 (2013): 69–74. doi:10.3109/17549507.2012.732116.
The process of indigenization of health care is constantly evolving, and is often explored
in the field of medical ethnomusicology. On this topic, Dr. Carolyn Kenny, Indigenous
ethnomusicologist and music therapist, writes about her conversation with Dr. Richard Vedan, a
medical social worker, cottage keeper, musician, and member of the Secwepemc First Nation in
British Columbia. They talk about the different definitions of "medical" between biomedical and
Indigenous health systems, and that Indigenous definitions of medicine or healing are rooted in
seeking a balance between a person's intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and physical needs and
capacities, whereas biomedical definitions often focus solely on a person's physical needs. The
interview discusses the challenges of "walking between the worlds" of Indigenous and
biomedical practices and perspectives, and the function of music in Indigenous medical contexts.
For example, Dr. Vedan says that some chants are used for biorhythm and cardiovascular
movements, or act as rites of transition or communication from spirit beings. Many of these
songs have been passed down from generation to generation, despite the suppression of Potlatch's
laws, which banned this practice. However, a balance between the worlds is slowly forming,
exemplified in one of Dr. Vedan's anecdotes when he uses music as healing in a biomedical
context: singing a song to calm himself down while getting a CT scan. The balance between
Indigenous music and healing and the Western biomedical model of music and medicine is an
ongoing process, explored within the field of medical ethnomusicology, and slowly but surely,
music therapy and other clinical settings as well.36 reviews
20
35 Jane Edwards and Oonagh MacMahon, "Music Therapy and Medical Ethnomusicology: Distinctive and
Connected." Voice: World Forum for Music Therapy, 2015.
https://voices.no/index.php/voices/article/view/2289/2044.
36 Carolyn B Kenny, "The Balance Between Worlds: A Conversation with Dr. Richard Vedan". Sound: World Forum
for Music Therapy 15 (3). 2015. https://doi.org/10.15845/voices.v15i3.826.
Beyond medical ethnomusicology and music therapy, Indigenous practices are slowly but
surely integrated into Western healthcare systems, spaces, and practices. A 2023 study by Smith-
Yliniemi et al examined the use of ceremonial-assisted mental health care for Indigenous and
non-Indigenous individuals, discussing the ubiquitous existence of cross-cultural rituals
throughout human history, and the positive impact of the implementation of rituals on the
reclamation of Indigenous practices in North America. One of the treatments is the drum, which
allows clients to celebrate, grieve, and heal, through a connection to the "heartbeat of Mother
Earth", which is believed to be represented by the drum. Smith-Yliniemi used drums in many
scenarios, an example of which was in group trauma therapy, which encouraged community
building among group members. The basic Indigenous belief in healing through connection with
community and land works here, with music serving as a guide.30 The application of this
Indigenous practice in North America is evidence of the parallel development of indigenous
healing that occurred in various countries of the world – from North America to the South
Pacific.
At the intersection of music and healing, literature on Māori, a native of New Zealand's
Aotearoa, has explored the relationship between music, the land, the people, and their stories
amidst what scholars consider to be a "Māori revival" or "revival."38 Similar to Dr. Kenny's
conclusions from his conversations with Dr. Vedan, Māori music and healing have a long-term
30 Julie Smith-Yliniemi et al, "Harnessing Collective Wisdom: Ceremonial-Assisted Care for Indigenous and Non-
Indigenous Clients." Professional Counselor (Greensboro, NC), 13(4), 448-. 2023.
https://doi.org/10.15241/jsy.13.4.448
38 Robinson "Asal-usul spiritual" 75-
82.
21
relationship, with traditional healing practices that have existed for centuries, persisted for
centuries of cultural oppression and erasure, and some that have adapted to New Zealand's
Aotearoa bicultural society, and celebrate the increasing presence of Māori beliefs and practices.
Samuel Robinson's 2005 book Tohunga: The Revival: Ancient Knowledge for the Modern
Era was written in the midst of the Māori revival, and chronicles the history of Māori and
traditional Māori healing practices. Tohunga, a traditional healer, is likened by Robinson to a
"knowledge expert" educated in whare-mauri, a school that teaches tohunga how to confront the
"life force of the world", mauri. Mauri is a basic Māori belief, and the core focus of tohunga, as
mauri allows the merging of the physical and spiritual sides of a person. Throughout history, the
tohunga worked to keep their practices unchanged from the original traditions, but became more
difficult over time in the face of colonization and cultural erasure by Europeans, especially
during the Tohunga Suppression Act.31 Relating specifically to music and healing, Robinson
discusses the traditional use of karakia, which is the reading of sung genealogy, the myth of
creation, and prayers to the gods to summon their powers. The power of karakia comes from
wairua, or spirit, from ancestors, gods, or oneself. Robinson reports that modern healing is no
longer limited to trained tohunga, and that one's personal creation of karakia must come from
the heart.40 Overall, his work provides an overview of existing traditional healing practices, which
are largely focused on tohunga providing physical and spiritual well-being using karakia or
taonga pūoro, and creating a space to usher in modern music and healing in New Zealand's
Aotearoa.
Peter Mataira's essay "Te Kaha o Te Waiata—The Power of Music: A Maori Oral
Tradition Illustrated by E Tipu e Rea," published in Indigenous Religious Music in 2000,
31 Samuel Timoti Robinson, "Schools of Learning" in Tohunga: The Revival: Ancient Knowledge for the
Modern Era, (Auckland N.Z: Reed Books, 2005), 83-106. 40 Robinson, "Pourua: purakau," 107-147.
22
discusses the value of music in preserving Māori history and culture and providing a sense of
healing through that preservation. He described Māori music and oral traditions as "immersive"
in nature, and music as "useful and integral to healthy function," which is meant to help one
focus on the subconscious, their internal world, and build their own meaning into music, both
lyrically and melodically. In addition, he writes that recent developments and an increase in the
attendance of fully immersed Māori schools at all levels show an emphasis on music as a
medium of teaching to teach Māori youth about their culture and traditions. The revitalization of
the Māori language allows for a newfound reconnection with one's spiritual and cultural roots,
and at the same time, a reminder of the power that music has to heal: "There is an understanding
of music as the ultimate source of healing, especially in times of great sadness and adversity."
Mataira argues that musical pairings and oral traditions allow for the reflection of cultural actions
and events, and the processing of inner struggles through externalization. Putting these emotions
into words and then into music increases the power of the words held, and psychologically,
makes them easier to remember and reflect on later. Mataira's work highlights the importance of
music and oral history, as they strengthen an individual's connection to Māori culture, and more
specifically to their ancestors, and the spiritual healing they can experience from this process.32
Existing research in the fields of Māori studies, medical ethnomusicology, and music and
healing addresses the emphasis of land and community in healing situations, either separately or
as a duet.33 However, there is little discussion in the Māori literature across the fields of medical
ethnomusicology and music and healing/well-being about the importance of connection to be
placed in healing situations. Although this is a theme that has been present in Māori-centered
32 Phoenix, "The Strong of Song," 22–34.
33 For further reference, see Rollo, "With Water - Health Goes Up," Pomare et al, "The Silence of The Dark Me
Te Ngahere," and Glenis Tabetha Mark and Antonia C. Lyons, "The Maori Healer's View of Well-being."
23
research, it has not been identified as a key concept, as it is often included in conversations about
soil.
Although absent in Māori research, the concept of placehood is one that is increasingly
explored in the field of ethnomusicology. Kimberly Cannady, professor of ethnomusicology at
the University of Wellington in Aotearoa, New Zealand, discusses the importance of place in her
2022 publication "Ethnomusicology and place." He seeks to explore the relationship between
music and place with respect to popular music around the world, and especially in the digital age.
While the study of popular music is a departure from music and healing in New Zealand's
Aotearoa, Cannady identifies research "which does not inherently privilege Anglosphere popular
music" as a major contribution to the study of places in ethnomusicology. The value that
Cannady placed on non-Anglosphere and non-Western music gives further meaning to the
conversation in Māori's research on the influence of placehood in musical healing situations.34
Mataira's aforementioned work addresses the importance of place in Māori belief, and while it is
not the focal point of this work, it does provide context and validity to the scope of this research.
He wrote that the search for truth, as defined personally, is an "important earthly search" for
Māori, and in that search, there is a lifelong relationship with one's wahi tapu, or their holy
stand, where they can return and be revitalized. This concept of revitalization through wahi tapu
is similar to other scholars' emphasis on the power of land and community, although in
separating the idea of place from land and community, it is more in line with the themes that
exist in my work.35
34 Kimberly Cannady, 'Ethnomusicology and Place', 57–66, 01 2022.
https://doi.org/10.5040/9781501336317.ch 005 .
35 Phoenix, "The Strong of Singing," 22–34
24
Anthropologist Margaret Critchlow (quoted by her previous surname, Rodman) argues
that place is often misunderstood and misinterpreted in anthropological studies simply means
location. Although not an ethnomusicologist, his work, "Empowering Place: Multilocality and
Multivocalisty" is referenced in Cannady's previously discussed ethnomusicological exploration
of place and popular music, for the stance he takes that "the meaning of place too often seems
needless to say." In simplifying place only means location, the anthropological significance of a
place is ignored, along with the physical, emotional, and experiential narratives of those who are
there. Critchlow not only advocates for the recognition of the importance of place in
ethnographic work, but demands an exploration of place, its various aspects, and its impact on
the people of a particular region, as I have done through my fieldwork.36
In my exploration of place in relation to music and healing in Aotearoa, New Zealand, a
common theme is the relationship between place and identity. This relationship was the focal
point of Louise Wrazen's 2007 ethnomusicological study of place and music in the identity and
imagination of the Górale community, and their migration to North America from their homeland
in the Tatra mountainous region of Poland. Wrazen's central question is how one can be
somewhere without being in that place, and the answer lies in one's personal perception of their
identity, and how they imagine themselves fitting into the world and the place they are in. Similar
to the distinction I made in this paper regarding the difference between land and place, Wrazen
distinguishes between place and landscape in the same way, pointing to the presence of a
personal identity that makes place a more subjective and complex term than landscape. Górale's
identity is intertwined with landscapes and places, and landscapes are represented through song
in a manner similar to Māori's conception of land, making Wrazen's study an applicable example
36 Margaret C. Rodman, "Empowering Place: Multilocality and Multivocality." American Anthropologist, 94(3),
640–656. 1992. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1992.94.3.02a00060.
25
of potential learning to be found in the relationship between music and place as I did in this
research.37
Dr. Te Manaaroha Rollo, a lecturer at the University of Waikato, researched the use of
waiata and taonga pūoro in relation to fresh water and spirituality as a means of healing in "Mā
Te Wai - Ka Piki Ake Te Hauora," which translates to "through water, music and spiritual
connection produce the 'well-being' of man." Rollo defines waiata as a traditional song for
healing purposes, which is one of the more specific definitions of the word, usually defined
simply as "song" or "song". In this work, healing is intertwined with the concept of mauri, and in
all the uses of music as a form of healing, the purpose of music is to restore health by curing
one's mauri. Traditionally, this is done by trained tohunga, but Rollo acknowledges that this has
changed over time, and healing is a process carried out by non-tohunga in modern healing
situations. Specifically, the use of oriori (lullabies) to heal uses music through a connection to
the human voice. Singing about one's ancestors, important family events, and critical Māori
historical events connect them to whānau (family/community) and whakapapa, which Rollo
considers a center of healing. While this work addresses the traditional use of healing, it
acknowledges the changes that the Māori have adapted to during forced assimilation and cultural
oppression, contributing to the narrative of the Māori perspective in the midst of the Māori
revival. This work underscores the presence of waiata, taonga pūoro, and whānau in healing,
both traditional and contemporary, and positions individual mauri healing as an important piece
in the puzzle of how and why music is used to heal.38
Publikasi Dr. Jayhuia Pomare tahun 2023, ""The Murray of The Dark and The Jungle:
37 Louise Wrazen, "Relocating the Tatras: Place and Music in Górale's Identity and Imagination." Ethnomusicology,
51(2), 185–204. 2007. https://doi.org/10.2307/20174523.
38 Rollo, "With Water – Health Improves."
26
Indigenous Knowledge, Te Taiao (Environment) and Welfare" examines how Mātauranga Māori
(Māori knowledge, wisdom, and practice) and Kaupapa Māori Research can be used to
understand and care for taonga (precious/indigenous) species. Although not primarily exploring
music, the study found that waiata, broadly defined as "song", was used to connect with the land
and Mātauranga Māori in a new, less "didactic" way, acknowledging the various gifts and
approaches of community members. Throughout the work, Pomare underlines the
interconnectedness of land and people, showing that the relationship with land is inherently
connected to Mātauranga Māori. He concluded that to improve health and well-being in New
Zealand's Aotearoa, the health of the soil and the community must be prioritised. Continuing to
restore the Māori Indigenous practice of respecting and caring for the land will help with this
healing, but so will it strengthen the connection and whakapapa (ancestry/lineage) between the
Māori. He writes that with many environmental problems that are the result of human activity,
the way forward for the healing of the soil is through the healing of the people beside it,
especially "revitalizing the mauri and hauora," which, in this work, translates into life force and
health, respectively. The emphasis on spiritual healing and healing of one's mauri in Pomare and
Rollo's recent study, which focuses more on traditional healing practices, reinforces the concept
of mauri as a central principle of Māori healing and well-being.39
The importance of spiritual healing is a common theme discovered by Cram et al's 2003
study "Mapping the themes of Māori talk about health," published in the New Zealand Medical
Journal. This is a qualitative research project looking at Māori health, how Māori talk about
health, and experiences with Māori and Pākehā health care providers, and part of a larger study
in which Pākehā GPs (general practitioners) are also interviewed about Māori health. Cram et al.
state that Māori health used to be centered around tinana (physical), hinengaro (mental), wairua
39 Pomare et al., "Murray of Darkness and Forest" 55-83.
27
(spirit), and whanau (family), well-being, but is now incorporated into the context of te whenua
(sense of belonging and identity from the land), te reo (Māori), te ao turoa (environment), and
whanaungatanga (extended family), which is no different from the healing aspects identified in
my research, except for my emphasis on healing through ūkaipō, the place.
Participants in the Cram et al study emphasized the importance of a holistic view of health,
including whānau as an integral part of Māori healing. Most importantly, they emphasized
wairua (spirit) as "the key to understanding health and disease, as it provides access to the whole
person, not just their physical symptoms, allowing healing to occur." While wairua and mauri
are separate terms, they both refer to a person's spirits and spiritual beings. There is a consistent
emphasis in Māori research and literature on spiritual healing, which is achieved through a
relationship with the land and one's family or community, and often by the use of music to
facilitate this relationship. 40
Similar to Cram et al's study, Mark and Lyons' 2010 publication, "The Māori Healer's
View of Well-being: The Importance of Mind, Body, Spirit, Family and Land" explores the
perspectives on healing and well-being of Māori healers through a series of interviews over a
period of six months. They found that Māori cultural perspectives influenced the overall cultural
outlook on mind, body, and soul in New Zealand's Aotearoa, and in interviews, physicians
identified whānau/whakapapa (family and genealogy) and whenua (soil) as significant and
fundamental to health.41 Although it uses a social science approach, as opposed to KMR, to study
Māori culture, this research still supports the aforementioned conclusions regarding the
importance of land and society, suggesting that the importance of land and community in healing
is ubiquitous and implicit.
40 Cram, "Mapping out a theme."
41 Mark and Lyons, "The Maori Healer's View of Well-being."
28
While there is existing evidence of the importance of land and family and/or community
with respect to healing, there is limited literature on the triadic relationship between land, place,
and family in the context of healing, with the exception of the wahi tapu concept of Mataira's
work mentioned earlier.42 In addition, existing research in medical ethnomusicology or the wider
intersection of music and healing in New Zealand's Aotearoa is limited, and although there is any
mention of a link between musical healing and land and community, the relationship with the
sense of place, or place-hood, has not been explicitly explored. My research is significant and
new because of its focus on the triad of soil, sense of place, and family/community in the context
of music and healing in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Country/Land
[Waiata] is one with the people. It blends with the soil. Everything is connected and
because that history has been taken, it has been revealed – no, more than just revealed.
This is like illegal speech. There is a lot of strength and healing in bringing it back when
something has been taken away for so long.43
January 14, 2024. Interview with Emily Wills. Whangārei, Aotearoa, New Zealand
Before I left for Aotearoa, New Zealand, I spoke with Professor Peter Mataira, an
educator in social work and the decolonization and indigenization of health systems, and author
of "Te Kaha o Te Waiata — The Power of Music: Māori Oral Traditions Illustrated by E Tipu e
Rea," published in Indigenous Religious Musics.44 In addition to sharing her real love for New
Zealand's Aotearoa and the excitement for my trip there, she told me that when I get there, I will
see that the land sings. He's right– New Zealand's Aotearoa is basically musical.
42 Margaret Thatcher, "The Power of Song."
43 Emily Wills, interview by author, Whangārei, Aotearoa New Zealand, January 14, 2024.
44 Margaret Thatcher, "The Power of Song."
29
With some of the world's most fascinating ornithology – more than 200 species, many of
which are endemic – New Zealand's Aotearoa is filled with birdsong.45 My journey through
Auckland and Northland was spent with the windows rolled down, listening to the melodies of
birds I had never heard before mixed with the sounds of sheep and goats, and gaping at the
seemingly endless hills they occupied. A gentle summer breeze was added to the symphony, with
the occasional roar of passing cars – Northland did sing for me. I was not surprised but equally
amazed by the visual and sonic beauty of the country's diversity, as my journey took me south
through te Ika-a-Māui/North Island to Gisborne, where rolling hills turned into vineyards and
dunes, and a breeze accompanied by the waves of the South Pacific. Experiencing the sonic
landscape of New Zealand's Aotearoa only reaffirms my understanding of the extent to which
music and land are intertwined. There is an innate respect and respect for nature, the beauty it
possesses, and what it gives to the people who occupy it. This appreciation of the land results in a
reciprocity between the Aotearoa people of New Zealand and their land, with traditional and
contemporary songs inspired by the natural environment and instruments made from the
materials found. Just as the land sings for the people, the people sing for the land. The triad of
land, place, and community that facilitates healing through music is not harmonious without soil.
With the importance of the land, its spirit, and the resources it provides being a fundamental
principle in Māori ontology, one's relationship with the land is a relationship with their identity,
and in the midst of a Māori awakening, the connection and reconnection to one's identity is
central in the healing process.
Sungai Whanganui, The River City, di Ika-a-M/Pulau Utara mengalir dari
45 Colin Miskelly, "Taksa Bird." Te Papa New Zealand Museum. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/topic/2872#:~:text=The%20modern%20New%20Zealand%20bird,37%20(18%25)
%20adalah%20diperkenalkan.
30
Mount Tongariro to the Tasman Sea, providing physical and spiritual well-being to the
Whanganui River iwi, or tribe, which says "Ko au te awa. Ko te awa ko au" (I am the river. That
river is me.) In the 2014 documentary Te Awa Tupua - Voices from the River, Māori shared the
importance of the river in their lives, saying "It's not just a river, it has a physical and spiritual
life force." After the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840, the river and the surrounding land
suffered for centuries, as Pākehā cut down forests, made new developments along its shores, and
extracted sand and gravel from the riverbed. This decline in welfare is owned by the river and the
iwi, because the mauri, the life force, the iwi comes from the Te Awa Tupua stream, from the
volcano to the sea. Mauri have the ability to join the physical and spiritual side of a person
meaning that the destruction of the river causes physical and spiritual damage to the Whanganui
River. As shown in the documentary mentioned above, the Iwi people protested, performing
haka both on land on the banks of the river, and on the river in Waka. Hakas, a traditional Māori
song and musical performance, has been used throughout Māori history in combat situations as
an expression of ferocity and strength.46 In my conversation with Jodie Owen, program manager
and lecturer at Te Wananga o Aotearoa, she elaborated on the importance of haka, down to the
translation of the word, by saying that "a lot of our Māori words, we break them down because
they are small. For example, the word haka. It's four letters, two words, ha and ka. Ha, is our
breath. Ka is fire. So haka is fiery words." In order for the Whanganui River wives to use the
haka as their form of protest, they not only equated the violation of violence against their land
with fighting, but they concentrated traditional Māori music as the main form of resistance and
disobedience. In performing haka in their homeland and in their river in waka, music is used as a
tool against colonialism, for the restoration of the health of Te Awa Tupua and his iwi, and the
mauri they share. Subsequent healing from river mauri and
46 "Haka." New Zealand Rugby All Blacks.
31
Iwi The Whanganui River is a direct result of the Iwi protests, where music is at the center.47
After the longest legal battle in New Zealand's Aotearoa, the Whanganui River was
granted personality rights in 2017. Te Awa Tupua now have the same legal rights as a person, and
their health and well-being are now legally equivalent to the iwi of the Whanganui River,
although they have always felt their health and mauri are tied to the river. Te Awa Tupua and its
people
The Iwi Whanganui River has been intertwined for centuries, and the meaning of the name "Te
Awa
Tupua" encompasses the entire river, its spirit, and its iwi. To hurt the river is to hurt his spirit
and his iwi, and likewise, to heal him is just as meaningful.48 The story of Te Awa Tupua
reinforces the extent to which Māori identity is intertwined with the land, and how the Aotearoa
government of New Zealand once wrongly disrespected the relationship. The power of Māori
defiance and resilience to colonial power was channeled through music, forcing the government
of New Zealand's Aotearoa to attribute the right value to the relationship between Māori identity
and their land, allowing for the healing of the environment and society simultaneously.
Music in New Zealand's Aotearoa, both traditional and contemporary, has its roots in the
country. The most explicit example is the taonga pūoro, a traditional Māori instrument often used
for sound healing, made from materials found in the environment. Traditionally, taonga pūoro is
used by tohunga (healers) in the healing process of the physical body, with certain instruments
playing a specific role in the healing process. For example, the kōauau, a Māori musical
instrument such as a flute made of wood or various animal bones, has been used to mimic the
call of birds while hunting, but also to relieve labor pains and heal broken bones. Different styles
47 Te Awa Tupua - Voices from the River, directed by Paora Joseph and Janine Martin (Auckland, NZ, 2014).
48 Te Awa Tupua, directed by Paora Joseph and Janine Martin. 58Robinson,
"Pourima: tohunga-rongoa" 214-249.
32
of play, such as blowing directly into the top hole of the kōauau, or blowing at an angle, are
more like Western flutes, creating changes in timbre intensity, and allowing for the application of
varied sound healing with kōauau.58 While taonga pūoro was traditionally played by trained
tohunga, the Tohunga Suppression Act forced the traditional use of taonga pūoro to diminish and
almost disappear over time. With the rise of the Māori has come an increase in the use of taonga
pūoro, and no longer limited to the trained tohunga alone – the rise of the Māori has given new
meaning to the healing provided by the tools of this land. Many traditional uses may be lost, such
as the use of sound healing to treat physical ailments. But some remain, such as playing taonga
pūoro as a method of calming the mind and body, alongside new ones, such as its use as a tool to
connect Māori with traditional works of their musical heritage.49
This connection between music, healing, and the land has been explored by many
scholars, the most prominent of which is Richard Nunns. Richard Nunns was a New Zealand
Pākehā who had a major impact on the study of taonga pūoro in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Although she did not grow up as a Māori, Nunns dedicated her life to the revitalization of the
taonga pūoro with Dr. Hirini Melbourne and instrumentalist Brian Flintoff. Regarding the
relationship between these healing tools and the soil, Nunns has made a comparison between the
musical and linguistic dialects of the different regions of the North Island/Te Ika-a-Māui and the
natural environment of this region:
The area has one of the heaviest remaining layers of rainforest in the world. They
(people) speak slowly, and they speak quietly, and have a lilt that echoes the slow-moving
movement of water[...]The wind blows in one direction or blows in the other direction. I don't
think there was ever a time when the wind wasn't blowing. The people up there were talking like
49 Ibid.
33
the wind.50Nunns suggests that the connection between music, healing, and the soil is innate –
built into what it means to exist in the natural soil called home. When making music, whether it
is a waiata sung or a taonga pūoro played, Nunns points to the land as one's greatest teacher:
When young people from different regions say 'how I play', one of the things we say to
them is, 'come back and listen to the environment, come back and listen to how your
people are talking . . . You live between this and it is yours. This is your orchestra. This
is your music. See what you can do by imitating those sounds with an instrument'.61 reviews
Nunns acknowledged that the taonga pūoro was not only made and inspired by the soil, but was
an expression of the people who occupied the physical land from which the instrument was
made. The rise of Māori has changed the use of the taonga pūoro; it is no longer limited to being
played by the tohunga in explicit healing situations, but is still a healing tool.51 To reconnect with
taonga pūoro is to reconnect with the soil, to reconnect with the basic Māori belief that we all
come from the soil, that our spirit, our personality, is intertwined with the spirit of the natural
environment, as discussed earlier regarding Te Awa Tupua. The nuns likening one's land to their
orchestra shows that reconnecting with the ground is essential in the healing sound that the
taonga pūoro provides – playing a musical instrument is not enough. In playing musical
instruments, there is recognition of the environmental materials used to create them, the
inspiration provided by the natural environment in shaping the instrument physically, and the
ability to make music from instruments that come from the same land that everyone lives in. To
fully create, celebrate, or engage with Māori music and the healing it provides is to connect with
everything that surrounds the music – the instrument, created from the ground; the land, which
has nurtured the people who have created music; and stories that have taught generations of
Māori how to love and respect te whenua, the land. Māori healing through reconnection, music,
50 Ian Whalley, "New Zealand's Traditional Māori Instruments, Composition, and Digital Technology: Some
Recent Collaborations and Processes." Organized Voices 10, no. 1 (2005): 57–65.
doi:10.1017/S1355771805000671. 61 Ian Whalley, "Traditional New Zealand Māori Instruments" 57-65.
51 Robinson, "The Battle: The Experts," 214-249.
34
and taonga pūoro, occurs with the recognition of the roots of this music, which flows deep into
the ground. Playing taonga pūoro is a direct expression of the symbiotic relationship between
music, healing, and earth, and as the use of the instrument becomes more widespread, this
relationship is only strengthened.
The Raukatauri Music Therapy Center on the North Island/te Ika-a-Māui is one of the
places where taonga pūoro is used, and the connection between music, healing, and the earth is
constantly evolving. Māori singer-songwriter Hinewehi Mohi, her husband George Bradfield,
and music industry executive Campbell Smith created the Raukatauri Music Therapy Center in
2004, after Hinewehi's daughter Hineraukauri received a highly impactful music therapy
treatment for her cerebral palsy. Hineraukatauri, Hinewehi's daughter name, is the personification
of Māori music, and the Goddess of the flute. The Hineraukatauri is a lizard in its cocoon, and
the pūtōrino, another Māori flute similar to the kōauau, is shaped like this cocoon. The
Raukatauri Music Therapy Center is named after Hineraukatauri, and the power of music as a
means of connection and communication in the lives of Hinewehi and her daughter, and the story
of the Goddess.52 The centre has received national recognition throughout the literature in music
therapy and medical ethnomusicology, including in Rollo et al. for the use of taonga pūoro in the
context of music therapy, motivating me to visit while in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
When I visit the Auckland Raukatauri location, I hope to see, feel, and hear taonga pūoro
firsthand. So, as a woodwind player, I was very excited when I was given the opportunity to play
kōauau. The instrument is as I have read it – played like a flute, by blowing into one end at an
angle, and covering the tone hole with your fingers to change the pitch. Despite my efforts, I was
unable to produce sounds, but could hear the kōauau and pūtōrino played by one of the music
therapists. Although both instruments are often classified as flutes, they have different sound
52 "History." Raukatauri Music Therapy Center. Retrieved 15 May 2024. https://www.rmtc.org.nz/history.
35
ranges. Timbre kōauau is light and airy, with the tone of the player's breath, their embouchure,
and whether or not they articulate their notes dictating timbre as well. Pūtōrino has many holes
into which players can blow into them, each creating a different timbre. It can be played like a
Western flute, held horizontally and with the player blowing at an angle into a hole centered
along the length of the instrument, or held vertically, blowing at an angle to the exposed end of
the instrument. The former produces a timbre similar to kōauau, but with more fullness, and
some players can add ornaments by shaking the instrument slightly, adding a vibrato-like quality
to the sound. The latter is even lighter than kōauau, but to my ears, a little less airy and with a
clearer tone. To
I, pūtōrino sounds like the wind whistling through a tall grass field, or, reminiscent of the story
of Hineraukatauri, like the subtle power required from the cocoon of a casemoth. The force of
the breath and the articulation of the player, the wind, affect the dynamics and timbre of the notes
spoken by the instrument, the cocoon.
Both kōauau and pūtōrino can be made from anything, but are traditionally and most
often made of wood or bone, and have carvings on the outside of varying degrees of complexity.
However, since the taonga pūoro can be made from anything, there are some barriers to making
music with this instrument – this land is inhabited by everyone, and the instruments that come
from this environment, which were originally used for healing, are for everyone to create and
play, supporting this national love for the land, and the impact of the soil on the healing of
music.53 While most music therapists in Raukatauri do not use taonga pūoro in their sessions, the
Māori revival can change this. I spoke with Rachel Foxell, a music therapist at the Auckland
Raukatauri site, who shared that because music therapy is led by the client, the use of taonga
pūoro during the session is a decision left to the client, that if they "have Māori whānau and
53 Whalley, "Traditional New Zealand Māori Instruments," 57-65.
36
Māori clients, it will be a big priority for the therapist to be able to respond respectfully and
flexibly using taonga pūoro, if that's what the family wants." In the future, Māori clients can
interact with the taonga pūoro to connect with their heritage, underlining the connection between
these instruments from the ground, and the healing they provide.54
Many Māori people choose to engage with waiata as a means of connecting with their
Māori heritage. After the end of the Tohunga Suppression Act and in the midst of the Māori
revival, the increased use of te reo, especially through waiata passed down from generation to
generation of Māori, was a healing experience. Many waiatas are centered on love and respect
for the land, such as "Aio Ki Te Aorangi," which is a hymn to Mother Earth written by Dr. Rose
Pere. The song is often sung in pōwhiri, which is a traditional ceremony that welcomes people to
marae, a land belonging to a particular iwi or whānau. This waiata comes from Dr. Pere Te
Wheke's book - A Celebration of Infinite Wisdom, where he discusses the growth of Māori
through life by moving forward like Te Wheke, the octopus, on eight tentacles: authenticity,
spirituality, respect, traditional knowledge, current knowledge, emotional sensitivity, and
bonding with the land and community. This waiata has been abbreviated for use in pōwhiri, but
both versions are love songs for Mother Earth, with the full version stating this directly:
No to the Alps Peace for the Universe
Love the Planet Love for the Universe
Welcome to the Alps Joy for the Universe
Fits the Alps Truth for the Universe
Be a squirrel Let the purple flame win,
Unsympathetic spirits Unbridled spirit
Justice is carried out who uphold justice
And the truth and truth.
This is a sign of love This gift of love is
Global to the world
Remember Recognition for
54 Rachel Foxell, interview by author, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, January 15, 2024.
37
Mother of Shakespeare Mother Earth55
The purpose of pōwhiri is for marae visitors to have the opportunity to share their intentions in
visiting, and to be welcomed into the space and land tended by an iwi or whānau. During my
visit to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, I took part in a pōwhiri to enter the marae. As visitors, we
express our intentions to the tangata whenua, or the people of the land, after haka pōwhiri and
waiata. During haka pōwhiri, one of the iwi members performs haka, where they dance and sing
in te reo as a way to share intentions and welcome, followed by waiata for the same purpose.
The specifics of haka and waiata vary based on marae and iwi, but they all center te whenua and
music as a mechanism for creating community between tangata whenua and visitors. In my
interview with Huitau Elkington, a Master's student in Indigenous studies and applied Indigenous
knowledge, he talked about his experience with pōwhiri growing up in Māori, and the use of
karakia in relation to the land, saying that in using karakia, "you respect the whenua that goes
into it. We always do karakia moving from one room to another. Not just to protect ourselves,
but to establish the intention of why you are there." Huitau shares the importance of pōwhiri as a
means to share intentions and get acquainted with the whenua you are staying in when visiting
an iwi or marae, saying "it builds relationships with your neighborhood like you build
relationships with other people – getting to know them and also to share what your intentions
are." The personification and sustainable centralization of the land is a theme present throughout
the pōwhiri, and the variations of haka and waiata used during the welcoming ceremony
highlight the diversity of the environment throughout New Zealand's Aotearoa, and the love and
respect that its inhabitants have for the land.
There is a reciprocal relationship between the Māori, the guardians of their land, and the
land, the guardians of the Māori. The physical resources that the land provides – food, water,
55 Rose Pere Dan Rahada Wardrop, "AIO ki te aurangi." Himne Rakyat Naz, 1994.
htps://wvw.folksong.org.ns/aiyo_ki_on_orangi/index.html.
38
basically – are combined with the transfer of energy between the Māori and the soil, which
allows the Māori to feel connected and grounded in their environment. This relationship is
supported by the testimony of Huitau, who speaks of the relationship between Māori and land,
and how it was fundamental to his upbringing in the Māori majority community in Nelson:
I grew up going to a Māori turtle [school], and we didn't really sit at a desk and learn
from a teacher in the morning. I always had karakia and talked about tikanga [traditions
and customs] with teachers, and I just remember being a lot outside of my classroom. We
have a small garden and a chicken coop that we will take care of, we will learn more
about the land in which we are located. And when we moved to its own little part, which
was just across the road, we followed the tikanga process that our ancestors had
followed, like the Māori stone and set it up. Just like before we made the transition [to
the new school ground] each family in the school would bring home a Māori stone so that
they could feel our home, our family, and where we infused our energy into the stone that
would hold the energy for our school.56
The relationship with the land is a fundamental aspect of Huitau education in the Māori tortoises,
or schools. Karakia, a chanted or chanted prayer, connects students with the basic principles of
Māori, and as Huitao talks about, it is often about the land where the Māori are located. The use
of Māori stone as a method for sharing energy between homes, families, and soil further
underscores the fundamental Māori reciprocity in sharing energy with the soil, in pursuit of a
sustainable relationship between Māori and their natural environment.
The relationship between whenua, music, and healing is not limited to the waiatas that
have existed from generation to generation. New Zealand's Aotearoa's homage to the land and
what it delivers is the theme in the 2021 full-length drama Te Ao Mārama, by singer-songwriter
Ella Marija Lani YelichO'Connor, known professionally as Lorde. Released shortly after his 2021
album Solar Power,
56 Huitau Elkington, interview by author, Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand, January 17, 2024.
39
Te Ao Mārama contains five songs from Solar Power, rewritten and sung in te reo Māori. He is a
Pākehā, but credits his upbringing in New Zealand for instilling Māori principles of "caring for
and listening to nature," as he wrote in a newsletter to fans after the album's release. In particular,
he referred to kaitiakitanga, or caring for the sky, sea, and land, as a fundamental value in the
making of his music.57 Te Ao Mārama is the "World of Light" in te reo Māori, and has an
important meaning in traditional stories referenced in many karakis. In karakia for lifting a tapu,
a word with many definitions that all allude to spiritual purity, tohunga becomes a physical
representation of the god of light, Tane. Throughout the process of lifting the tapu, the tohunga's
actions followed the Tane myth that separated Ranginui, the Father of Heaven, and Papatūānuku,
Mother Earth, at the beginning of creation, and opened Te Ao Mārama.69 Choosing this
translation of Solar 58Power to Te Ao Mārama was to concentrate music, healing, and earth in the
album version te reo Lorde, and therefore it may not be surprising that Hinewehi Mohi, along
with Timoti Kāretu, Māori language commissioner in 1987 and professor of Māori language and
performing arts, oversaw the project. with Hinewehi's relationship with music and healing
through the establishment of the Raukatauri Music Therapy Center.59
In translating the songs into te reo, Lorde leads with metaphors, changing the words but
retaining the same central ideas. In "Hua Pirau/Fallen Fruit," he sings with Hinewehi, who
performs haka in the middle of the song, about how the impact the older generation makes on the
land we all share, and how it will make us dance on the fallen fruit, or hua pirau. The use of
haka, traditionally used as an expression of Māori strength and courage during battles, took on
new meaning as Lorde sang about the struggle for the land.60 In "Hine-i-te-Awatea/Oceanic
57 David Renshaw, "Lorde Shares EP of Solar Songs Sung in Māori." FADER, September 9, 2021.
https://www.thefader.com/2021/09/09/lorde-maori-te-ao-marama.
58 Robinson, "Bachelors: 107-147.
59 Renshaw, "Lorde Shares EP."
60 Lorde, "Wild/Wasted Seeds," Moon World. In 2021.
40
Feeling," Lorde sings about Hine-i-te-Awatea, the girl of the dawn, or the new goddess of the
beginning. The lyrics speak of the love she feels from land and sea, as she thinks about her
family before her, and what will happen next. The song dances among the lyrics of appreciation
and admiration for the surrounding environment and the shared experiences of its loved ones, as
they live in awe with the same aspect of the land they share. In the context of the wharenui
health model, the song provides spiritual and family healing, as it connects the theme of love of
the land with love for one's family, their whānau.61 The album itself is a celebration of te reo,
which is spiritually healing for those who are starting or continuing their te reo journey . The
themes of the environment and family, with repeated references to Māori gods and goddesses in
the lyrics, also provide spiritual healing, and are based on the existence of te whenua
Mother Earth, family healing is also conveyed through her lyrics.62
Te whenua as a concept is bigger than just the stunning landscape of Aotearoa, New
Zealand, and how deeply people care about the place they call home. In the context of music and
healing, te whenua is a homage to the land as if it were human, and how the practice of making
music – traditional, contemporary, in music therapy, and informal – is rooted in nature just as
much as the native tree whose wood can be a taonga pūoro. Richard Nunns described the land as
an orchestra, but te whenua is also a placenta. It is the place where one first receives food and
care, as well as the place where music flows out, as easily as a river. The music about te whenua
is inherently healing because of the meaning of the word, but without the love and appreciation
that New Zealanders, both Māori and Pākehā, have poured into their homes, the land would not
have sung for them and provided the healing it did. The making of music with people and the
land is a symbol of the Māori model of wellness – just as wharenui cannot stand without all the
61 Durie, "The Māori health model."
62 Lorde, "Hine-i-at-I-a-day/Perasan Samudera," Duniya Bulon. Tanow 2021.
41
pillars of health, musical healing through te whenua fulfills various aspects of physical, spiritual,
mental, and family health, so that wharenui can flourish.
Ūkaipō/Place
When you talk about music, you can talk about rhythm and about the technical side of
music. But for those of us who don't tend to be like that, music has another rhythm for us,
another heartbeat for us. For me, I have to say it. Because knowing who we are, is part of
healing. That's part of welfare. So one of the things we do as Maori is that when we get
together and we introduce ourselves, we introduce ourselves about where we come from.
We mentioned our mountain. We mentioned our river.
We mention the waka [canoe] that our ancestors lived in when they first arrived here.
We mentioned the ancestral place where our gathering place is now, and we mentioned
who our ancestors were – at least my parents and grandparents. When you are in a very
formal room, you return to the captain of the waka who arrived. And look, it's a layer of
knowledge, and when you disconnect from it, that's when illness or illness happens, when you
let go of it a little bit. But when you reconnect to that, which has been my experience, your
well-being is evolving and you want to know more, you want to do more, because then you
realize there's a whole world that I haven't been able to access. I now have an existence in it,
and I want to know more. January 17, 2024. Interview with Jodie Owen. Hamilton, Aotearoa,
New Zealand.63
Where do you feel at home? Where do you come back every night, where you spent your
childhood, or where your parents, even grandparents, spent their childhood? What is your home
music, and how do you feel about engaging with it? There's a powerful sense of well-being,
healing, that happens when you connect with the music from the places you call home, which
Jodie Owen, program manager and lecturer at Te Wananga o Aotearoa, a Māori university system
in Aotearoa, New Zealand, talks about, in the quote above. For Jodie, she experiences
"flourishing" her well-being as she connects to important places in her legacy. The idea of this
place is built on strength in one's homeland, both personally and ancestrally – in contrast to the
Māori worldview and relationship with the land, which is a more general appreciation of the
63 Jodie Owen, interview.
42
natural environment. Place is the idea that the physical location that a person or their ancestors
call home gives them a feeling based on their identity, their sense of self. In feeling a sense of
place, one is connected to their identity, and in a Māori context, connecting with one's identity is
healing, as the expression of Māori identity is suppressed for centuries. Jodie talks about this
relationship, how it goes beyond the technical elements of music; rhythm, timbre, melody. He
described it as a 'heartbeat' – being everywhere and giving life. I was amazed to hear him talk
about the power that a relationship with home can have, a sense of place in one's well-being, but
I immediately empathized with him. When I listen to folk and bluegrass music in the
Northeastern United States, I can feel my heartbeat in the melody, rhythm, and spirit of the
music, and be reminded of the first place I call home, as Jodie talks about. The idea of this place,
a physical location intertwined with one's identity, goes beyond the relationship with the land
itself. Of course, the environment of places that have significance as one's home is an integral
part of the experience of those places, so the land is never completely separate from one's
relationship with a place. Louise Wrazen's 2007 study of place and music with the Górale people
in Podhale, Poland supports this claim: "Górale music performances in the Toronto area continue
to be mixed with references to the Podhale landscape despite what appears to be a weaker
physical connection with this homeland as a result of the relocation. Therefore, the local
population remains imbued with the homeland even though it is now separated both physically
and temporally."64 Despite migrating across continents, Górale music pays homage to the physical
landscape of their homes, simultaneously expressing their lifelong connection and sense of place
from Poland.
The appreciation and respect for the land shared among the inhabitants of Aotearoa, New
Zealand is just that, shared. It is a collective recognition that all plants have roots on the same
64 Wrazen, "Moving the Tatra," 185-204.
43
earth, and in Māori ontology, they all grow from the same nurturing of Mother Earth. The idea of
placehood is personal – it is the idea that a playlist of songs from each place called home,
reaching back through their ancestors, will sound very different from one individual to the next.
In the healing modality in New Zealand's Aotearoa, the place that allows one to connect with
their identity, i.e. healing because of the sense of wholeness it instills, and for Māori, being based
on their identity is an expression of Indigenous culture that has remained resilient through
centuries of cultural violence, erasure, and oppression.
Place is central to identity, and is at the forefront of changes being made to honour the
nature of Aotearoa, New Zealand as a bicultural society. The Māori revival has seen the return of
native place names, such as the use of "Aotearoa" in addition to or not just "New Zealand", or
"Te Ika-A-Māui" and "North Island." Using the original place name revitalizes a history that for
generations existed in silence, but was never completely erased. For rangatahi Māori (young
Māori), learning te reo and reconnecting with a culture that has been alienated by their parents or
grandparents is a healing experience. Going back to wharenui, the Māori model of health,
engagement with one's whakapapa (lineage) is at the core of the principles of well-being of
wairua, hinengaro, and whānau, or spiritual, mental and emotional, and family and social,
respectively. Wharenui cannot stand without the well-being that comes from being connected and
based on one's whakapapa – reinforcing a sense of identity around a difficult place without the
name of the original place.
The increasing prevalence of te reo contributes greatly to healing through place and
recognition, validation, and celebration of Māori identity. The 2006 New Zealand Census
reported that 23.6% of all Māori people were able to hold a conversation in te reo, a statistic that
has been trending upwards, and reportedly continued over the next few decades. The first public
44
figure to use the Māori greeting "kia ora" instead of "hello" or "good morning/evening" in
English was national telephone toll operator Naida Glavish in 1984.65 The law sent ripples of
change across the country as more television programs, newspapers, and radio broadcasters used
te reo more often, but at first, it was not well received. In my conversation with Rachel Foxell, a
music therapist at the Auckland Raukatauri location, she spoke about the beginnings of the te reo
revitalization movement:
[There were] extraordinary sacrifices made by people who paved the way for Māori to be
spoken and used. The first newsreader to say "kia ora" instead of "good night" on the
local news was slandered for it. The idea of speaking te reo in public in the 70s, 80s, 90s,
was not done. [There were] some amazing pioneers. Dame Hinewehi Mohi, who sang the
National Anthem in Māori was also heavily maligned for it. At that time, it was
completely considered unacceptable, "This is a dying language, why do we need to
revive it?" And now clearly, public perception has shifted as you know, 180 degrees, and
it depends on what social circle you come across, but in general even more conservative
New Zealanders recognise the value of Māori culture. More progressive than us
understand how important it is to be and live in Aotearoa, and to identify as New
Zealanders.66
This quote from Rachel is a testament to the positive change that the te reo revitalization
movement has had not only on the Māori identity in New Zealand's Aotearoa, but also on the
national identity. Te reo has evolved from what was once considered a "dying language" to a
language spoken by New Zealand's Māori and Pākehā people across the country. In 1987, it was
determined that te reo was under the protection of the Treaty of Waitangi, the document
governing the relationship between Māori and Pākehā, and Māori was made the official language
of New Zealand's Aotearoa under the Maori Language Act 1987. The increased use of te reo has
seeped into music, with many New Zealand artists re-recording music on te reo, such as Lorde,
65 "History of the Māori Language." New Zealand Ministry of Culture and Heritage, 12 September 2023.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/maori-language-week/history-of-the-maori-language.
66 Rachel Foxell, interview.
45
as discussed earlier. The impact of this is explored in an article by Dr. Ann C. Clements on the
role of rewriting music for Māori:
By celebrating Māori survival through rewriting, remembering, and claiming in
waiata, Māori have the ability to teach future generations the importance of their
past, which will lead to a deeper and stronger understanding of current identities.
By reframing the problem as a shared solution and working collaboratively to
redress injustice, they will envision a brighter future for all Māori people.67
As revealed in this quote, this process of integration contributed to the healing of cultural wounds
over the centuries, as Māori sang along with waiatas on the radio, watched their children sing
waiatas at school, and learned languages they once thought would become extinct.
As discussed in the previous section on soil, taonga pūoro is an explicit method used by
music therapists in Aotearoa, New Zealand, to incorporate Māori culture into their work.
However, there are more conceptual methods, such as the music sung in te reo. The basic Māori
belief in whakapapa encourages connections to the physical places from which one comes from
– from the places they call home personally to the places their ancestors call home – however
long the list may be. In my interview with the music therapists at the Raukatauri Music Therapy
Center, they talked about building relationships with their Māori clients by engaging with their
own heritage music. I spoke with Rachel, who spoke about the importance of embracing her own
culture in her quest to continue learning and embracing Māori culture:
As much as I wanted to learn and embrace culture, I was also aware that I also had to
have my own culture. So you know, I started participating in Gaelic choirs because and like,
you know, I just went once or twice but it was just an idea like, get involved in your own
culture, and be more of yourself. You don't have to adapt Maori culture to be authentic with
who you are as a therapist. There is also space to say, "this is your culture" and to embrace and
respect it. This is your learning. We welcome it, we want it, please, please show us what you
can and do the job and I will do my job.68
67 Ann Callistro Clements, "Maori Waiata (Music): Rewriting and Reinventing Indigenous Experiences." (2015).
https://doi.org/10.18113/P8ik159884.
68 Rachel Foxell, interview by author, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, January 15, 2024.
46
Parallel connections or connections back to one's legacy as a client and therapist make music a
vehicle for sharing cultural learning, allowing music itself to be second only to the act of "having
your own culture," as Rachel puts it. Music as a shared human experience is a unifier, a way for
clients and therapists, or Māori and Pākehā, or any two people, to express where they come from,
to where they call home, without the need to speak. The Māori have faced centuries of cultural
oppression from the consequences of European colonialism, and to reconnect with the music of
their ancestors is a statement of resilience, in defending their traditions and languages through so
many conflicts, and healing experiences, in sharing traditions and te reo with pride.
The ability of music as a unifier allows communication and understanding without the
need to speak. I spoke with Emily Wills, a music therapist at the Raukatauri location in
Northland in Whangārei, who, similar to Rachel, told me about the experience of bonding
between therapists and clients through sharing her musical heritage:
Not long ago, I took my violin to a school, and I was with this young Māori teenager and
we didn't really talk much. We were just starting to get to know each other and I don't know why,
but I took out [the violin] and I started playing a song and he was really interested in it. And then
he brought a guitar, so we had this really fun hour. Basically, I'll play waiata on it, and he'll
recognize it and play along. And then I played songs from my culture, like bluegrass, the
Kentucky side. It's so cool to blend together, play familiar music and then also different from
each other. And it's funny how the waiatas, the melody, sounds so like, not bluegrass, but like
folk music. Almost like folk music is folk music – it's from people – everything sounds good on
any instrument.69
Emily's experience amplifies the power of music as an experience of universal bonding, and
healing that can occur through connection to one's homeland by playing music from those places.
Although not from the same place, only knowing each other, Emily and her client were able to
find commonalities by sharing their cultural music – the songs themselves were secondary to the
story, as the true significance of the experience was to be able to share a common sense of origin,
69 Emily Wills, interview.
47
appreciation and connection with their home, of ūkaipō. Music facilitated their relationship,
borrowing the bluegrass sound on the violin and the sense of home it brought to Emily, and the
waiata melody and the sense of home it brought to her clients. In addition, Emily often makes
her own waiatas from the stories she reads and sings them with clients.70 The origins of Māori
music created and played by a Pākehā woman, used in the context of music therapy with Māori,
are a testament to the power of music as a communicative tool to facilitate healing and
connection – without the need to speak, therapists and clients can share music that comes from
their homes.
The word te reo ūkaipō translates to mother and origin. This shows that our well-being
comes from family and environmental relationships, that the two are one and the same. The
contemporary use of this word often translates as "our roots", still acknowledging a person's
relationship with the physical environment from which they come from.This 71 modern concept of
ūkaipō can be heard throughout Aotearoa New Zealand from Dunedin-based reggae and rock
fusion band SIX60, whose 2011 hit song "Don't Forget Your Roots" and their 2019 re-recording
on te reo "Kia Mau Ki Tō Ūkaipō" has become the national anthem listened to by Māori and
Pākehā, reached the top of the charts in New Zealand's Aotearoa.72 The song introduces a man
and a woman on their journey leaving Aotearoa and consecutively losing their relationship with
their people, their land, and their home. The chorus urges them, "Don't forget your roots," "Don't
forget your family/The people who made you/The people who brought you here." In te reo, this
lyric translates more closely to "Take care of your family/Hold on to your Ūkaipō/You are
human," alluding to the innate sense of humanity that comes with clinging to one's ūkaipō.73 As
70 Ibid.
71 Pomare et al., "Murray of Darkness and Forest," 55-83.
72 "New Zealand's official chart." Official Music Charts NZ, 2011. https://nztop40.co.nz/chart/?chart=1862.
73 SIX60, "Keep Your Silence," National Anthem/Anthem, 2019.
48
the song progresses, more voices join in singing the choir, building up the haka sung by many
singers. The members of SIX60 have Māori roots, but prior to the release of their album
Waiata/Anthems, they had not released any music in te reo. They made history in 2020 by
becoming the first New Zealand band to sell out Western Springs Stadium in Auckland, and they
ended their performance with "Kia Mau Ki Tō Ūkaipō," joining the Ngā Tūmanako kapa haka
group, featuring the haka "Ka Mate" composed by Te Rauparaha, the head of Ngāti Toa
Rangatira.74 The performers and band sang along while performing haka, making the record-
breaking concert even more memorable, ending the show with a dedication to their heritage and
the place they all call home.
"Kia Mau Ki Tō Ūkaipō" is a testament to the Māori revival and te reo revitalization
movement – in singing about not forgetting one's ūkaipō, the members of SIX60 have
strengthened their relationship and their listeners' connection with New Zealand's Aotearoa,
celebrating their heritage with pride. The show is an impactful expression of traditional Māori
culture on the global stage, amplified only by haka, gestures of Māori resilience and strength in
battle. These elements make the experience of listening to this song and watching a healing
performance for the Māori, knowing how much has changed to see the celebration of te reo,
haka, and the basic concept of ūkaipō on a wide stage, and the Māori and Pākehā audience.
Music is the path for this healing to occur, as it is the chosen medium of expression te reo and
haka. However, this shared musical experience is an acknowledgment that, whether Māori or
Pākehā, the audience shares their connection to the concept of place and ūkaipō, and the physical
origins of New Zealand's Aotearoa. SIX60 took the previously successful song, and re-recorded
it to acknowledge and celebrate te reo and Māori identity. In ancillating them directly, combining
74 Lana Andelane, "Six60 Menjual Stadion Western Springs untuk Tahun Kedua Berturut-turut." Newshub, 6
Oktober 2019. https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2019/10/six60-make-history-again-western-springs-
stadium-sold out-for-second-year-running.html .
49
the haka directly with the Māori players, and singing along with them and encouraging the Māori
and Pākehā crowds to join in, they healed the wounds of separation that existed between the two
groups for many years. Their songs, and their specific performances, are an expression of
national identity, in the same way that "kia ora" has become an expression of New Zealand's
bicultural society of Aotearoa.
The concept of ūkaipō is something shared among Māori and Pākehā – especially for
those who have many origins in their identities. With human migration increasing over time, the
list of places that give one a sense of ūkaipō has increased – for example, Jodie seeks to
reconnect with her Māori ancestors and European ancestors, and finds healing by connecting
with her entire ancestor:
I didn't grow up in my culture, I don't speak Māori, but I've been on this journey to
recover, to seize, for over 20 years. And what put me on that path was the fact that I
would tell my children that we were from Ngāpuhi and the problem was, they didn't
know where it was or what it meant. So I had to show them, so we went home every
summer.75
For the Māori part, he spoke of the deep sense of home he felt when visiting his ancestral tribal
homeland, saying that in listening to the music of his ancestors and the music from which they
came from, he felt healing, which he described as wholeness in his existence. Stephanie Thorne's
2015 work "Songs of Healing" supports this feeling, as Thorne describes Indigenous healing
broadly as "to restore wholeness in all aspects of existence that are not limited to mere physical
or mental states," but to "the minds, bodies, and souls of those who surround the lives of people
in need," pointing to the importance of community as an additional healing principle, which
will be discussed later in this paper.76 To apply this Indigenous concept of healing as "restoration
of wholeness" specifically to the Māori conception of healing in relation to the mauri concept.
75 Jodie Owen, interview.
76 Thorne, "Healing Song."
50
For Jodie, visiting Ngāpuhi and engaging with the physical place that her ancestors called home
instilled a sense of wholeness and grounding in her identity, the fulfillment of mauri. However,
Jodie is not only a Māori, but also a European, and finds a sense of home and healing in visiting
Europe as well:
I went to Europe in 2019. And I know that I have French ancestry. So when we go to
France, I want to see if any of these relationships are formed. Because when I go back to
Ngāpuhi, I feel connected because I know where I'm coming from. So I know I'm French,
so when I go to France, I want to see if that feeling is connectedness. When I went to
Marseille, I felt this spark, like embers. In Māori, we have something: "You will know
when you are."77
The Māori idea of "knowing when you" allows a person's heritage and connection to their
homeland to stretch as far as their family tree. For the Māori, introducing themselves as their
mountains and rivers, following the water cycle from the sky to the sea, is acknowledging that
they all come from the same land, regardless of their other ancestral differences. One's ancestral
music is an expression of who they are and how Mother Earth used to be – in appreciating one's
homeland, adhering to ūkaipō, there is a recognition and understanding that the same tree that
bears fruit today once bore fruit for one's ancestors, providing food and a sense of place,
according to the translation of ūkaipō to mother and origin.
Connecting with ūkaipō, with place, is healing for Māori because of its inherent
relationship with identity. Māori can introduce themselves as mountains and rivers they use te
reo, calling them by their real names. It reaffirmed their legitimacy, and acknowledged the efforts
of the te reo revitalization movement, that they can now speak their language without the threat
of violence. For centuries, the Māori were unable to introduce themselves, tell their stories, sing
their songs, or even mention the names of their homes, without which it became an expression of
radical defiance against colonialism. Being able to use te reo with pride is not only healing, as it
77 Jodie Owen, interview.
51
reaffirms and acknowledges a Māori identity that has been suppressed for years, but is a
testament and celebration of Māori resilience over the past centuries and centuries to come.
Whānau/Community
Everything that heals in Māori has always been supported by our whakapapa, who is our
ancestor, our ancestor. Because each generation understands what our ancestors did
before us, what they left for us, and what we do with their beliefs. That responsibility
comes with what we do, and what we pass on to the next generation. So we realized that.
That's why the music is there. Music is there for whakataukī [proverb]. All of these
pockets of knowledge, these repositories that we have, are very important because they
capture a generational understanding of how times have changed for each generation,
how that legacy is still alive in us. And that is part of well-being. Music honors it and
builds it.78
January 17, 2024. Interview with Jodie Owen. Hamilton, Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Connectedness is a common theme among the basic Māori beliefs – connectedness to the
land, connectedness to one's home, and connectedness to one's whānau. Whānau is often used
interchangeably with families, but is significantly more complex. Whānau encompasses a
person's community and their whakapapa, their ancestors, acknowledging the generations that
have come before, the generations that will come after them, and the people who have
surrounds the individual, regardless of his blood.79;80;81 The breadth of one's whānau creates
affection and instinctive connection among the Aotearoa people of New Zealand, both Māori and
Pākehā. They are all not only the same inhabitants and guardians of the land, but they exist in an
overlapping and interrelated community, whānau. For the Māori, they practice confessing their
whānau when they engage with their whakapapa. For example, as Jodie Owen, program
manager and lecturer at Te Wananga o Aotearoa, talks about, when introducing themselves as
78 Jodie Owen, interview.
79 Cram, "Mapping out a theme."
80 Rollo, "With Water – Health Improves."
81 Pomare et al., "Murray of Darkness and Forest," 55-83.
52
their mountains and rivers, tracing back to the waka where their ancestors arrived, they center
their whānau and whakapapa, in addition to their whenua, as an important part of their identity.
By sharing their whakapapa extension back to the waka that their ancestors visited, they
strengthened the bond between all Māori people, as they may have a common ancestor or waka.
Before the Māori arrived in New Zealand's Aotearoa, they traveled across the Pacific
Ocean with waka, and lived with Indigenous communities on the islands they visited, from
Hawai'i, to Easter Island, Samoa, Tonga, and finally New Zealand's Aotearoa.82 As they later
settled rather than many of their Polynesian neighbors, the Māori were often considered the
"youngest brothers" in the whānau of the islands and their people. Huitau Elkington, Master's
student
Indigenous studies and applied indigenous knowledge, spoke about this during our conversation:
One of our beliefs here in Aotearoa, in New Zealand, is that we are like the youngest
brothers. We were the last to arrive and we were the last to settle here. All the islands in
Hawai'i, they are our elders, and our siblings.94 reviews
The idea of all the indigenous peoples in these connected Pacific islands is not new.
The healing ontology in New Zealand's Aotearoa originated with their parents across the Pacific
– the same plant, perhaps the same in a family or genus, but growing thousands of miles apart,
used for the same purpose. During his trip to Hawai'i for a conference on Indigenous studies,
Huitau noticed similarities between the Aoteaora and the older Hawai'i:
Their kava, which [Hawaiians] often just use the roots, the whole shape of the leaves and
everything about them is a larger version of us that we have here, which we call
kawakawa. And they use the roots and we use the leaves, but the properties inside the
plant are similar and traditionally used in the same way.95 reviews
82 Robinson, "Spiritual origins," 75–82.
94 Huitau Elkington, interview.
53
Although not on common land, the sustainable practice of kawakawa as a medicinal plant
persists as a result of a common ancestor between Māori and Hawaii. The Māori, descendants of
the Hawaiians, have taken the teachings of their elders and the land they call home, and adapted
them to fit the Aotearoa, their path of knowledge that records the journey their ancestors took
long ago. Although sea shipping between the Polynesian islands declined throughout history and
during the colonization of Aotearoa, the connection between the islands was never broken, as
Huitau spoke of his trip to Hawaii'i to talk to other Indigenous scholars, and reflect on their
common ancestors.96 Rebuilding those relationships in the late 20th to 21st centuries has made it
possible for the healing of knowing one's whānau and whakapapa to become a collective
experience among Polynesian whānau, exemplified by Huitua's personal experience, and the
enduring similarity of the medicinal use of kava and kawakawa in Hawai'i and Aotearoa,
respectively.
Beyond plant-based healing methods, Māori and Hawaiians have connected with their
common ancestors through music. As Jodie talks about in the opening quote, whakapapa is a
center of healing, and music is a fashion in which whakapapa is preserved from generation to
generation. On her journey to reconnect and reclaim her whakapapa, Jodie works at the
Polynesian Cultural Center at her university in Hawai'i, representing her Māori heritage through
song and dance.
Surrounded by other individuals of Polynesian Indigenous descent, he can connect with them
through music:
I've never danced before, but I'm learning more about being a Māori than I do here in
New Zealand. By the time I graduated and came home, I knew a lot about waiata. I know
how to dance. There are groups of dancers here who come together for cultural reasons,
and I have a way to get involved. It has been a stepping stone for me to re-engage with
knowing who I am, and also [to re-engage with] my language. So it has healed,
54
95 Ibid. 96
Ibid.
There is healing in that sense. Another thing we do is when we get together culturally, we
talk, and we end with a song that fits what we've been talking about. So it's healing to
have access to that too.83
As discussed earlier regarding the relationship between the concept of ūkaipō and the healing
facilitated by music, speaking and singing te reo provide healing through the reclamation of a
severely repressed language. Similar to how ūkaipō and whenua overlap in conversations around
land and a sense of place, ūkaipō and whānau overlap in conversations around ancestors,
communities, and a sense of place or home. The experience of singing waiata in te reo is healing
in the context of ūkaipō and whānau – singers are able to speak their home language, and the
language of their ancestors and communities – which Jodie has illustrated in talking about her
experience of re-engaging with her language. Just as Huitau felt the whānau bond in Hawai'i, so
did Jodie, and sang in te reo, a language derived from the older brother Aotearoa's language,
allowing the multi-generational whānau bond to heal. For Jodie, music opened up a whole new
world of reconnection and cultural expression, which prompted her to continue sharing her
Māori heritage with others when she returned home, by taking part in a similar music group.98
This snowball effect is a testament to one's whānau power , and the power of music to motivate
individuals to share their healing with their community. Celebrating all Polynesian Indigenous
communities, recognizing the whakapapa together and being part of the greater whānau, is what
is driving the momentum to uplift not only the Māori voice, but also all Indigenous communities
in the Pacific islands.
83 Jodie Owen, interview.
98 Ibid.
55
Beyond the larger Indigenous communities in Polynesia are the relationships that are
forged between Indigenous communities across the continent. In my conversation with Jodie, she
spoke about the importance of acknowledging, learning, and interacting with Indigenous
communities in one's home, as a way to further indigenize and decolonize communities around
the world, starting with individuals. He told me that, "wherever you go, make friends with
[indigenous peoples]. Connect with them. Because another layer for healing is the decolonization
of the thoughts that are around them."84 The process of decolonization is healing because it is
rooted in community development. Listening to and centralizing narratives that come from
Indigenous communities, rather than those that come from colonizers about Indigenous
communities, allows for sustained healing of generational trauma. A 2009 article on the
decolonization of Māori narratives by Dr. Jenny Lee discusses the use of pūrākau, or Māori
myths and legends, as a method of decolonization through sharing these stories. Pūrākau
contains details about Māori traditions, beliefs, and overall worldview that, when narrated,
provide listeners with insight into Māori life, enhance bicultural competence for Pākehā, and
promote the centralization of Māori narratives in Māori and
Pākehā community in Aotearoa, New Zealand.85
In addition to building community through the practice of decolonization in New
Zealand's Aotearoa, indigenous communities around the world have found community with each
other, which only enhances the sharing of Indigenous narratives and knowledge, and the healing
that comes with it. Jodie spoke of this larger community, particularly between the Māori and
Native Americans:
84 Ibid.
85 Jenny Lee, "Decolonization of Māori narratives: pūrākau as a method." MAI Review, 2-. (2009)
https://www.journal.mai.ac.nz/system/files/maireview/242-1618-1-PB.pdf.
56
In the Māori world to have balance, there needs to be reciprocity. Healing is not one way.
There is wholeness that happens, there is giving back that happens. The relationship that
becomes apparent is that you are in a space and you receive something. So how do I give
back to that space? My cousin, he's a Māori. He lives in Idaho. He told me that he wasn't
feeling well, and I said, 'is there a real American doctor you can go to?' And he said, 'I
never thought about that.' I said, 'unless you know the Māori, go to the taonga te whenua,
or the locals, in Idaho, or wherever.' Because look, we recognize that other indigenous
peoples will have the same
[healing method]. If we get it in Māori, they will have it. Native Americans, Hawaiians,
they will have it.86
The idea of balance and reciprocity in the worldview and Māori conception of healing reinforces
the importance of community in healing situations. Just as Jodie was able to connect with her
Māori heritage while at university in Hawai'i, her cousin was able to connect with her Māori
heritage in Idaho, fostering communities between indigenous groups thousands of miles away.
The importance of these communities around the world is to enable collective decolonization,
through Indigenous healing practices, incorporate Indigenous music, and allow that music to
build relationships and communities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
The integration of Māori music as a means of cultural healing is a process that takes place
in social groups, as Jodie talks about, but also in pop culture. Songs such as Lorde's "Hine-i-
teAwatea/Oceanic Feeling," which features healing through connection with the land, or SIX60's
"Kia Mau Ki Tō Ūkaipō," about healing through connection to place, showcase Māori musical
principles and healing on the global music stage. The song that best describes healing through a
relationship with whānau is "Kei Hea Taku Reo?" (Where's my Reo?) The famous waiata from
1995 by Whirimako Black, and a recent re-recording by Tiki Taane, who added musicians Kings,
Marei, and Karlos Tunks to the track.87 The process of reimagining and re-recording the song
86 Jodie Owen, interview.
87 Whirim Black, "Where's My Voice?" Oscar News, 2002.
57
followed in the 2023 documentary Te Ōhākī, as three generations of whānau added a modern
sound and a youthful perspective to the experience of reconnecting with te reo.88
Conceptualizing "Te Ōhākī" which means cultural and identity reclamation, the
documentary follows the musicians in the process of recording waiata, as they reflect on their
Māori heritage, the use of te reo, and the experience of learning or relearning te reo. The original
recording by Whirimako Black was popular with te reo freshmen, as the focus of the waiata was
the mamae, or pain, that Whirimako felt about the loss of her first language, te reo Māori, after
moving to Australia in her youth. Journalist Siena Yates wrote about Te Ōhākī, and her personal
experience of learning te reo:
It's not just about the difficulty of learning a new language, but about the real and
profound intergenerational trauma that comes with it. There is mamae whakamā, shame,
and feeling out of place and stumbling over every syllable. Fear of disrupting, being
judged, is considered "not Māori enough." Anger at having to work so hard to achieve
something that should have been mine in the first place.89
Yates' experience is not unique among the Māori, and the waiata and this documentary speak of
the difficulties, the trauma, the struggle through language that is the birthright of the Māori to
speak. From talking about this struggle, to normalizing the intergenerational trauma that Māori
faced, it allowed healing throughout the community. For Kings, Marei, and Karlos Tunks,
singing in te reo strengthens the healing of their relationship with their identity and heritage,
especially since the re-recording includes Māori te reo and English.105 Singing in Te reo Māori
and English, Aotearoa New Zealand is currently represented, as both languages are spoken
throughout the country.
88 Te Ōhākī, directed by Glenn Anderson, and William Roberts. (Kingland, Auckland: Parachute Studios, Papamoa,
Mount Maunganui: Tikidub Studios, 2023.)
89 Siena Yates, "Reworking Classic Waiata for Healing and Hope: E-Tangata." E-Tangata, June 19, 2023.
https://e-tangata.co.nz/reo/reworking-a-classic-waiata-for-healing-and-hope/. 105
Te Ōhākī, disutradarai oleh Glenn Anderson dan William Roberts.
58
The importance of re-recording the existing waiata, rather than writing a new one about
the difficulties of learning te reo, is a recognition of the progress of the Māori revival. The fact
that the original version of Whirimak still resonates with te reo students, nearly 30 years later,
shows the depth of the wounds of cultural oppression that Māori faced, and the lasting impact
over time. In addition, by re-recording the version of Whirimako, it highlights the bond between
old and young Māori, and centralizes the concept of whānau in the song – King, Marei
(Mareikura), and Karlos Tunks have created families and musical lineages, from themselves to
Whirimako. The idea for the documentary itself came from Te Kanapu Anasta, Whirimako
Black's son, and also he served as reo's advisor for the song. Traditionally, many waiatas were
written by or for a person's whānau, and during the re-recording process, these musicians have
respected that tradition. The importance of whānau and whakapapa is evident even by listening
to the song, as several generations of Māori sing the lyrics, both new and old.
In the documentary, the musicians reflect on their te reo journey, and their role in their
lives as parents and children. Whirimako talks about the unity of her family – three generations –
as they created this song to fight for te reo. Marei hopes to inspire the younger generation to
connect with their home, heritage and language. Kings sought to leave a lasting legacy for his
daughter, with the impactful words, "You don't know who you are until you know where you
come from." There is a common theme about the power of rediscovering one's self and identity
as a Māori through the learning of te reo Māori, and how singing in te reo only amplifies this
effect. Yates' article about the documentary sums it up well: "It's a beautiful story about reo. How
it connects us, the healing it can give us, and the future it can show us."90 Te reo is a mooring not
only to places called home by the Māori, but also to the people who continue to make those
places home. Through their whānau and whakapapa, they experience healing through music.
90 Yates, "Reworking the Classic Waiata."
59
As discussed in the previous section on ūkaipō, the wharenui of the Māori model of
health cannot stand without well-being in the family health principle, which relates to whānau
and whakapapa. As a result, music therapists in Aotearoa New Zealand have kept this central to
their practice while working with Māori. In my conversations with the music therapists at the
Raukatauri Music Therapy Center, there is a constant emphasis on music therapy as a client-led
experience. When working with Māori clients, for example, if they decide to attend their
whānau during the session, their music therapist may adjust their practice to include their client's
whānau. Most often, client-led models direct music therapists to sing in te reo, an experience that
welcomes Pākehā-majority music therapists to an important part of Māori life. For Emily Wills, a
music therapist at the Raukatauri site in Northland in Whangārei, she talks about the experience
of learning a te reo bond with her client:
I have clients who are very directional in what we do, and he's like, 'Yes, we're going to
learn te reo!' And that's amazing. This is awesome. He's like my teacher, he's teaching me
– which I know sounds a bit weird, but he's got a lot out of it. He told me that he was
very happy to have someone to accompany him, to work with him, and to
He also became an expert in that room. And not just in that way, but musically, he's an expert
because he's an expert in his experience. Very beautiful, learning with our clients. We
got so many of them.91
Emily's experience shows the healing that occurs through the use of te reo in waiata during music
therapy sessions. Te reo reaffirmed her Māori identity, and despite being a unifier among Māori
throughout New Zealand's Aotearoa, Emily's experience demonstrated her power in
strengthening the sense of community for Māori and Pākehā.
Music only strengthens the building of this community, which is why Emily incorporated
waiata singing into her practice when she visited schools in Whangārei. He estimates that about
90% of his caseload is Māori, and he often visits clients in their homes, with their whānau
91 Emily Wills, interview.
60
present, or at school. He emphasized the value of bringing music to his clients, saying that in
Raukatauri, they "often hear people say, if you have something [to share], you have to go to that
place, you have to go to the community. You can't just wait for them to come to you because you
learn more to be in someone's room, if they're willing to let you in."92 While this practice of
bringing music therapy to clients is not new or specific to New Zealand's Aotearoa, it is aligned
with Māori conventions to prioritise connection and understanding of one's background, before
engaging further with them. Emily talks about her main ways to foster community and collective
bonds through music at school:
When I was about to start waiata, many times if I was in a big class, I would stop singing.
I only play guitar. I started it with them, but they accepted it and then I was just with
them and I saw they connected to each other. That's the cool thing about music in general.
But I feel like in a waiata setting, we can't all talk at the same time, but we can all sing at
the same time. So it takes that loneliness, like we're all together in this together, living.
There is something indescribable about it.93
In "Songs of Healing," Stephanie Thorne discusses what Emily introduced: that in healing
situations, the power of music is in expressing the indescribable.94 While most of Emily's class is
made up of Māori students, by singing waiata in te reo, she centralizes Māori culture and
community in the classroom, using music to acknowledge the bicultural nature of New Zealand's
Aotearoa. These children may grow up speaking te reo, or they may not know a word about it.
But the difference melted with the music, as they all sang along. Music is often said to be a
universal language – in this class, music unites Māori and Pākehā students as one community,
part of whānau, after several generations apart between the two groups. This musical experience
fits well with New Zealand's bicultural society of Aotearoa, acting as a universal language for the
students, regardless of their ancestry. Music fosters community, which, in turn, provides healing.
92 Ibid.
93 Ibid.
94 Thorne, "Healing Song."
61
Conclusion
We work from a humanistic perspective, i.e. music changes us. Music therapists are
trained in the use of music to change people's lives. We trust the power of music to do
that, and we make the most of it in every way we can.
January 15, 2024. Interview with Rachel Foxell. Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand.95
Whenever we talk about our land, our mountains, our water bodies, its spiritual side, the
wairua, is imbued with it. If we respect how we engage with it, and we're honest and true
about how we're involved with it, we're going to bathe in that [healing]. The
consciousness that has occurred, all these elements, visible and invisible, must be in
harmony and balance. We are part of ensuring that balance occurs; How do I live my life,
how am I responsible for all these elements, these values, this ancestor before me, the
ancestor after me? Realizing that is also part of that healing, because if I choose to ignore
it, and if I choose not to care, I will reap what I have sown.
January 17, 2024. Interview with Jodie Owen. Hamilton, Aotearoa, New Zealand.112 reviews
This research contributes to the body of knowledge that exists in medical
ethnomusicology about the beautiful and enigmatic relationship between music and healing, and
more specifically, the relationship between music and healing in Indigenous communities. I was
very fortunate to visit Aotearoa, New Zealand, and was even more inspired by the narratives of
the people I was able to talk to, both Māori and Pākehā – my early research had taught me that
Aotearoa New Zealand was a bicultural society, that I would hear "kia ora" and read the name of
the city in te reo. Upon arriving and speaking to my interlocutors, I was amazed at the extent to
which Māori culture was integrated into New Zealand's Aotearoa national identity. In addition to
hearing the songs sung on the radio on the radio, my conversations with my interlocutors, both
Māori and Pākehā, all acknowledge the basic beliefs of Māori, from whakapapa to mauri, te
whenua, ūkaipō, and whānau. Rachel Foxell's quote above simplifies the work of a music
therapist as harnessing the transformative power of music, acknowledging the ambiguity Emily
has touched on as well. This suggests that some elements of music as a form of healing cannot be
95 Rachel Foxell, interview.
112 Jodie Owen, interview.
62
explained, and to weave in Jodie Owen's quotes, perhaps it was meant to be left unanswered.
Jodie talks about the importance of balance and harmony in one's spirit – if music helps in
achieving this harmony, should the indescribable transformative power of music be explored
further? Future medical ethnomusicological studies, along with music therapy, may choose to
explore this theme, and further unravel the relationship between music and healing.
Medical ethnomusicology and music therapy both seek to answer the same question about
how and why music is used to heal. At Aotearoa New Zealand, music therapists like Rachel
believe in the transformative power of music, knowing that each client is going through a
different journey facilitated by music. The nature of Aotearoa New Zealand as a bicultural
society makes this journey even more transformative, for Māori clients who choose to utilise
music therapy as a way to engage or re-engage with their culture and heritage. Emily talks about
the use of waiata in class, and the indescribable singing experience at the same time, creates an
unbreakable musical bond, even if only for a moment, that brings the group together. The
community forged between the client and the therapist, often Māori and Pākehā, is a testament to
the power of music as a unifier, only further supported by the idea that the way one engages with
music, not the genre, the rhythm, the timbre, is an expression of one's identity. In music sharing,
there is identity sharing, and with it comes a necessary and implicit vulnerability that drives
community building.
In discussing identity, the conversation about place resurfaced. For generations, Māori
identity was degraded, as the places they called home were taken from them, and given a new
identity – a new name, a new inhabitant. Suddenly, te reo is not pronounced, waiata is not sung,
taonga pūoro is not played. The rise of the Māori is not just a movement of resilience, but also
vulnerability and courage, as Māori are forced to relive their culture, community, and connection
63
to place by reconnecting their identity. Music has been an integral part of this journey, as
discussed in this paper, but the relationship between music, healing, and place is worth exploring
further. While beyond the scope of this study and my almost complete college career, I believe
that an ethnomusicological exploration of the Māori conception of places and the music of those
places in the context of a Māori revival would be a very worthwhile endeavor. With Māori
individuals like Jodie constantly reconnecting with places called their ancestors, such as Jodie's
experience back to Ngāpuhi, there are healing narratives taking place, and music that serves as
their soundtrack, their facilitators.
In my conversations with Jodie Owen and Huitau Elkington, they talked about the
interconnectedness of Indigenous communities across continents, and shared knowledge between
them over time. Through my research and fieldwork, I was inspired by the integration of Māori
beliefs, practices, and traditions into the mainstream culture in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Studies
like mine contribute to a cross-cultural understanding of decolonization, so that perhaps one day,
the United States can teach Indigenous languages in public schools, or return to the original
names of places. Music therapy in Aotearoa, New Zealand, has become more indigenous over
time, and that process will only continue to increase – while the exploration of indigenous
healthcare systems is beyond the scope of my project, I hope that music therapy is one of the
other clinical settings that will continue to prioritise "cultural safety"96 and support for their Māori
clients. This research is a case study from one country at a time, but my learning shows the
potential of the process of indigenization of healing systems around the world.
I have described the relationship between music and healing in Aotearoa, New Zealand,
as a triad. Like the structure of the wharenui health model , without health and well-being in one
aspect, the whole structure will be disharmonious. When discussing land, one would be remiss
96 Edwards and MacMahon, "Music Therapy and Medical Ethnomusicology."
64
not to acknowledge the previous caretakers of the land – the people who once called it home, and
the importance of that land as one's home, not just the natural environment. Thus, one engages
with the concept of place. Acknowledging people somewhere means acknowledging their
community, and what they donate to their homes, and the land on which their homes are located.
In engaging with music with the intention of healing, at least one of these elements is present –
and with the presence of one comes an inherent presence in all of them. In New Zealand's
Aotearoa, it is this harmonious attachment between land, place, and community that allows
music to serve as a vehicle for healing. While many Indigenous communities share the same
values as Māori, they have created their own healing modalities and melodies. In beginning to
understand one, we can begin to understand the other, and explore the harmony that exists in the
songs of world healing. I sought to explore music and healing in New Zealand's Aotearoa, and I
found a triadic harmony between land, place, and community. Perhaps more ambitious, I would
like to find my own answer, in the context of my research, to the question, how and why music is
used to heal? I have established my answer, inspired by the insight of my interlocutor, that, in
Aotearoa New Zealand, music evokes a sense of harmony and balance, allowing external
influences from the land, place, and community to provide healing, whether the healing is
physical or spiritual. However, the process itself is shrouded in incompetence – a mysterious
mystic – that I am sure will continue to be explored for years to come.
65
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