LEWIS WILLIAMS, PHD

‚mauri and spirituality along with all the other reasons that Mauao is designated sacred or wahi tapu‛.
Ngaroimata Cavill speaks of Mauao as being ‘alive’, whilst in speaking about the need for
Council to return the Maunga fully to local iwi, Maria Ngatai talks about the growth as
occurring from the bottom: ‚What they’ve given is just the top……..but it *Mauao+ grows from the
bottom. The growth is at the bottom not the top‛. Rather than casting Mauao as an inanimate object,
these narratives speak to Mauao as a living being, deeply connected to local iwi, not only
through the historic implanting of the Mauri of the new arrivals, but to the mauri that both
imbues the Maunga and his people, knitting them as one.
Generally defined as the sacred, Tapu, or Mauao, as Wahi tapu, (sacred site), has already been
spoken about by the elders at some considerable length. In effect, the lore of tapu removes a
person, place or thing from ordinary secular association or use. Reason’s for Mauao being wahi
tapu have include the maunga holding the mauri of the Tūpuna (ancestors), being the burial
ground for high born chiefs, a historic pa site for various iwi as well as a place where many
have died in battle. For the local iwi however, the challenges to the Maunga’s tapu remain.
Recollecting one such challenge, Maria Ngatai recalls:
‚They’ve always wanted to put a big lift or cable car up there …..and a restaurant. Māori
activists have had to fight for it *Mauao+. But we had some good visionaries and they didn’t
allow that to happen. And they won it…..you can’t *put those up there+ because it wahi tapu‛.
Tapu is also closely related to the flow of mana. Mana is an extraordinary essence or presence
which applies to the energies and presences of the natural world. Mana is the spiritual authority
and power bestowed upon a person, as opposed to the purely psychic and natural force of ihi. It
litērā lly means that which manifests the power of the gods and therefore, does not so much
come from a person, but flows through them. Mana is a concomitant of tapu. Any person, place
or thing invested with divine mana is set aside for a specific purpose; certain restrictions,
disciplines and commitments (elements of tapu) have to be observed if mana is to be expressed
in physical form, such as in a person or object. For example, mountains that were and are
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