Auraka

Auraka is a locality in the Keia district, on the western side of the island of Mangaia in the Cook Islands. The Keia district contains at least two ancient burial caves, Kauvava and Piri Te Umeume, which were accessed by diagonal descents through boulder-strewn roof collapses from the top of the makatea, the limestone cliffs that form a concentric ring around the central basalt core of the island (Anton and Steadman 2003:133, 136). Gill, an early source for the mythology of Mangaia, noted a cave in Keia named Auraka, with one of its two entrances named Kauvava (1876a:71–79). However, according to Anton and Steadman (page 136), Gill's "description of the physical features of this cave does not match that of the cave currently known as Kauvava". Gill describes Auraka as a cave which is the 'last resting-place of the dead' (Gill 1876b:202, 243).