Dame Hinewehi's healing haka - 'IT'S GOING TO CHANGE LIVES'

Beating a world record is personal for the music therapy founder

- Kasia De Vydt-Jillings

Eden Park regularly plays host to up to 50,000 fans, but on September 29 things will be a little different as Dame Hinewehi Mohi takes to the pitch surrounded by thousands of Kiwis in a bid to break the Guiness World Record for the largest haka.

For the music legend, it's a chance to unify New Zealand and showcase to the world the mana of our mighty haka. But it's also a deeply personal mission to raise much-needed funds for the Rautakauri Music Therapy Trust she founded 20 years ago in her daughter's name.

"When Hineraukatauri was born, she couldn't breathe or feed and she still feeds through a tube in her stomach," shares Hinewehi, 59, explaining some of the ways cerebral palsy effects her daughter. "Life is very different for her than an average 28-year-old.

"She has very limited deliberate movement, but music therapy is when she is her most animated, most engaged, most excited and joyous in her week. She just really loves it." It was while promoting her iconic album Oceania in the UK in 1999 that Hinewehi was first introduced to music therapy by producer Jaz Coleman.

During these sessions, Hineraukatauri was able to engage and communicate in ways not previously thought possible, making Hinewehi and husband George Bradfield determined to bring the life-changing benefits of music therapy home to Aotearoa.

"Hineraukatauri needs assistance with just about everything and she's confined to a physical body that doesn't enable her to do much," explains Hinewehi.