Tēnā koutou - hello everyone.

I’m on a personal journey to learn more about te reo and the Māori world, and it’s great to have you travel with me.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been answering questions sent in to us, mainly around the meanings of words we hear often in conversation, or on the news.

This week, we have another interesting word, with a wider meaning than often realised - tapu.

According to the Māori dictionary, tapu means sacred, prohibited, restricted, set apart or forbidden. 

These are the meanings we all commonly associate with tapu. However, this small word means much more.

For Māori, the concept of tapu meaning restriction or prohibition is viewed not just as a physical state, but as a supernatural condition. If something is tapu, it is under atua protection.

When a person, place or thing is dedicated to an atua, it becomes sacred. It is untouchable, no longer able to be used. 

Atua is often translated as God, but this is only a small part of the full meaning. Atua are also ancestors with continuing influence, or any supernatural beings. 

Many Māori trace their ancestry from atua in their whakapapa and they are regarded as ancestors with influence over particular domains. These atua are a key part of the Māori way of rationalising and perceiving the world. 

Any violation of tapu would result in retribution, needing appropriate karakia and ceremonies to mitigate the effects of the violation. Tapu was traditionally used as a way to control how people behaved towards each other and the environment, ensuring that everyone and everything flourished. 

Making an object tapu was achieved through rangatira or tohunga acting as channels for the atua in applying the tapu. Members of a community would not violate the tapu for fear of sickness or catastrophe as a result of the anger of the atua. 

Because the food and resources we take from our environment originate from one of the atua, atua need to be appeased with karakia before and after harvesting. 

People are tapu and it is each individual person's responsibility to preserve their own tapu and respect the tapu of others and of places. Under certain situations people become more tapu, including women giving birth, warriors travelling to battle, men carving (and their materials) and people when they die. 

Scotty Morrison says tapu is always present but increases or decreases depending on the situation. When a person is sick his or her tapu increases, which may result in them being put in isolation until they are well again and their personal tapu returns to normal levels.

When a tapu is lifted, things become noa, or normal again. 

Kia pai te wiki. Have a great week. And keep those questions coming in.

Check out te wiki o te reo Māori here