TapÅ« is the level of sanctity given to anything that we do or say. TapÅ« brings us to a state of our own knowing. TapÅ« is a sense of spirituality that one is either aware or unaware of. In Te Ao MÄori the more aware you are of your own spirituality the more fulfilled you are as a person. The less aware you are of yourself as a spiritual being the more you exist in a purely physical state.
The restoration of a sense of tapÅ« acts as a deterrent to perpetrators once they understand what the violation of tapÅ« actually means for their own sense of sanctity through their spiritual connection to the act of abuse and their victims. TapÅ« and restoration of a sense of tapÅ« for victims and their whÄnau is also about reconnecting the spiritual element of being human with the physical, emotional and intellectual and as a result being more whole as a person and a whÄnau.