A MAORI THEOLOGICAL RESPONSE TO VIOLENCE
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Waea te noa i a koe. Waea te hau i runga i a koe. Waea te taurekarekatanga i a koe. Ko te mumu te awha tenei ka horo, Ka horo te hau otaota i runga i a koe Ko Tiki i ahua mai i Hawaiki. Ko te mauri tena i kawea ai te tokomauri o te tapu, Tapu nui, tapu whakahirahira, He mauri no Rongo ki te whai-ao. Tihe mauri ora to koiwi ka horo, Ka noa nga hau i runga i a koe.
"Clear away the noa from you, Clear away the force that has kept you down, Clear away from you the state of being a nobody. The storm rages. This clears it. The rubbish force upon you is cleared off. You are Tiki, formed in Hawaiki. That essence of life brought [to you] is the all-embracing innermost source of life With all its tapu, its fullness of tapu, Its perfection of tapu. It is the essence of human life that comes from Rongo, That is made for the dawn of light. Breathe living soul! Your bones are cleared. The forces that have oppressed you are made noa."
Some five years ago, Easter 1989, I was with a Maori community in
a small rural settlement called Pipiwai. Pipiwai is in the territory of
Ngaati Hine, a Ngaapuhi tribe, in Northland.
On Good Friday a young man was tragically killed. He got very
drunk, stole a car, drove the car into a tree and killed himself. On the
Holy Saturday afternoon he was brought onto the marae, the meeting
place for the people, and his body was laid out inside the meeting
house. That evening I was asked to lead the prayers.
As it was Holy Saturday evening, and because of the tragedy
of the young man's death, I wanted to link ourselves with the
crucifixion and resurrection and to do this in a Maori way.
To link up with Jesus' death and resurrection was not difficult both
because it was Easter Saturday night and because we were in the
meeting house. The meeting house is of its nature a space beyond
place and time, a place of the present and a place of the ancestors,
a place of this world and a place of the world of the spiritual powers.
So I had only to recall Jesus' passion, death and resurrection and
we were not just remembering that event, but were part of it.
To link up with Jesus' passion, death and resurrection in a
Maori way I used an old Maori ritual chant, Waea te noa i a koe,
"Clear the noa from you". It was a ritual chant used for prisoners
on their being returned to their own people and was recited to
take off from them all the negative effects of being a prisoner,
a slave, and to restore to them their dignity as human beings.
In Maori terms, it was to take away the negative noa that was
upon them, their taurekarekatanga, their state of being a nobody,
and to restore their tapu.
If you have seen the recent New Zealand film 'Once Were Warriors',
you will have some understanding of what it was to be a taurekareka,
almost a non-person. The main male character in the film regarded
himself as a taurekareka and this was the underlying cause of his
violence.
The state of taurekarekatanga, the state of being a nobody,
was also the state of Jesus on that first Good Friday and Holy
Saturday. He was taken as a prisoner in the garden of Gethsemane,
mocked and spat upon, scourged, forced to carry his cross through
the crowds and then crucified on a rubbish dump outside Jerusalem.
In Maori terms, this was a violation of his tapu as a human being.
He was treated as rubbish, as noa, with no restrictions on what
could be done to him.
I wanted to use the ritual chant, Waea te noa i a koe, "Clear
away the noa from you", as a way of being part of that in-between
time, between Jesus' death and resurrection, as a way by which we,
gathered together on Easter Saturday night in the meeting house in
Pipiwai, could join our pain with his pain and be one with him in the
bringing about of his resurrection.
As I began the chant I looked at the young man lying in his coffin.
He had been knocked about a bit and one eye was half open,looking at me.
I then realized that the ritual chant should be addressed to him, and
to him as one with Christ.
Jesus identifies himself with the poor, with the oppressed, with
those whose tapu has been violated. "What you do to the least of
mine, you do to me." This man was poor. This man was a member
of a people who have been oppressed. This man was a member
of a people whose tapu has been violated, and is still being violated
in many different ways. I am not saying that there was no personal
sin involved, in his getting drunk, in the stealing of the car and so on.
But that is not the whole story.
To look on this person was to look on a person who carried
with him the violation of the tapu of his people. And because Jesus
identifies himself with the poor and the oppressed, to look on this
person was to look on Jesus, the crucified Jesus.
I didn't think of it then, but I realized it afterwards, that to look
on that young man was also to look on all the violence around the
world, in Africa, in South America, in Bosnia and wherever people
have their tapu violated.
Once we have identified all those whose tapu has been violated
with Jesus, the ritual chant 'Clear away the noa from you' takes on new
meaning and new power. It becomes a means by which we, as a faith
community, as a community one with Jesus, can bring the power of the
resurrection to bear on the crucified Jesus and on each person whose
tapu has been violated.
First we call on that state of being a nobody to be lifted from
Jesus, and from all people whose tapu has been violated.
"Clear away the noa from you, Clear away the force that has kept you down, Clear away from you the state of being a nobody."
The forces of nature are themselves seen as having a part in
clearing off the negation of the person.
"The storm rages. This clears it. The rubbish force upon you is cleared off."
Then the tapu of the person is restored. We go back to Tiki, the
first human being, Tiki who was formed in Hawaiki, in that place where
all things were first given form.
"You are Tiki, formed in Hawaiki."
The energy, life force, brought here is the life force which
contains the fullness of tapu, the greatest of tapu. It is a life force
which comes from Rongo, the spirit of peace, and which takes
us into the first light, into the dawn.
"That essence of life brought [to you] is the all- embracing innermost source of life With all its tapu, Its fullness of tapu, Its perfection of tapu. It is the essence of human life that comes from Rongo That is made for the dawn of light. Breathe living soul! Your bones are cleared. The forces that have oppressed you are made noa."
It was only afterwards I realized that in using this ritual chant
as a Christian faith community, one with Jesus, we have a way of
responding to all violence, not only to the violence done to the
young man. This calls for us, in our oneness with Jesus,to have
a oneness with all people who are suffering, with all people whose
tapu has been violated. Then we can make the above ritual chant
our own, one with Jesus at the right hand of the Father.
To be Church in this Maori model of Church, based on the
Maori understanding of word and our mana and tapu as human
beings is to be Jesus one with the poor, the oppressed, with
those whose tapu has been violated. To be Church is to be
Jesus the Word, at the right hand of the Father, calling for the
removal of their negative noa, their being 'non-persons' and
for the restoration of their tapu. .