Takatāpui
LGBT people in Māori culture / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Takatāpui (also spelled takataapui) is a Māori language term that is used in a similar way to LGBT. When speaking Māori, LGBT people of any culture are referred to as takatāpui. In English, a takatāpui person is a Māori individual who is gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT).[1][2]
Traditionally, takatāpui referred to a devoted partner of the same sex.[3][4][5] In contemporary use, takatāpui is used in response to the Western construction of "sexuality, gender, and corresponding identity expressions" (gender identity and sexual identity).[1][2] Māori gender identifiers (wāhine, tāne) and gender roles—marae protocols, participation in warfare, delineated male and female modes of dress and placement of tā moko—existed prior to and outside of Western influence. The term takatāpui encompasses not only aspects of sexuality but also cultural identity.[2][6] Takatāpui incorporates both a sense of indigenous identity and communicates sexual orientation; it has become an umbrella term to build solidarity among sexuality and gender minorities within Māori communities.[7]
Takatāpui is not a new term, but the application of it is recent.[2] The Dictionary of the Māori Language—first compiled by missionary Herbert Williams in 1832—notes the definition as "intimate companion of the same sex".[8] After a long period of disuse there has been a resurgence since the 1980s for a label to describe an individual who is both Māori and non-heterosexual.[2][8] The word takatāpui was found to have existed in pre-colonial New Zealand to describe relationships between people of the same sex.[2] The existence of this word repudiates the conservative Māori argument that homosexuality did not exist in Māori society prior to the arrival of Europeans.[2][6]