Noa
Māori term: the ordinary, free, and safe state, the counterpart to *tapu*. According to Hirini Moko Mead, an inner voice of Ngāti Awa, it is not useful to think of *noa* as the opposite of *tapu* or as its absence. *Noa* signifies that balance has returned, that a crisis has passed, that health is restored, and that life has resumed its normal course—and thus that relationships are mended. A *tapu* that is too elevated is dangerous: the role of *tikanga* and *tohunga* is to lower it until it becomes *noa*, meaning safe. The person, now *noa* again, always retains their personal *tapu*. *Noa* is not the erasure of the sacred but the return to the ordinary measure of life, which once more makes contact and the presence of others possible.
It is not useful to think of noa as being the opposite of tapu or as the absence of tapu.
Here’s the translation, preserving all Markdown, links, italics, and symbols:
The noa, writes Hirini Moko Mead—a voice from within, Ngāti Awa—is often paired with tapu, as if one were the inverse of the other. But he cautions from the outset: « It is not useful to think of noa as being the opposite of tapu or as the absence of tapu »—it is not helpful to conceive of noa as the contrary of tapu, nor as its absence. And he adds: this is clearly not the case.
A gravely ill person, bleeding, becomes highly tapu. When the symptoms that elevate tapu have passed, they return to a safe state—but they retain their personal tapu. Noa does not subtract from the sacred: it signals that a balance has been restored, that a crisis has ended, that health has returned, and that life is normal again. Which also means that relationships are mended. Excessive tapu is considered dangerous; the role of tikanga and tohunga is to lower it until it becomes noa—that is, safe. The cycle moves from cause to response—utu—and then back to equilibrium.
Noa, then, is neither the lifting nor the loss of tapu, its opposite or its void. It is the reclaimed ordinary state, the measure returned to life, where one can once again approach, touch, share—the sacred not having vanished, but having settled at a level that endangers no one.