Takatāpui

Traditionally, takatāpui referred to a devoted partner of the same sex. In contemporary use, takatāpui is used in response to the Western construction of "sexuality, gender, and corresponding identity expressions" (gender identity and sexual identity). 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. 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.

Takatāpui is not a new term, but the application of it is recent. The Dictionary of the Māori Language—first compiled by missionary Herbert Williams in 1832—notes the definition as "intimate companion of the same sex". 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. The word takatāpui was found to have existed in pre-colonial New Zealand to describe relationships between people of the same sex. The existence of this word refutes the conservative Māori argument that homosexuality did not exist in Māori society prior to the arrival of Europeans.

Hinemoa and Tūtānekai

The classic and earliest full account of the origins of gods and the first human beings is contained in a manuscript entitled Nga Tama a Rangi (The Sons of Heaven), written in 1849 by Te Rangikāheke, of the Ngāti Rangiwewehi tribe of Rotorua. The manuscript "gives a clear and systematic account of Māori religious beliefs and beliefs about the origin of many natural phenomena, the creation of woman, the origin of death, and the fishing up of lands. No other version of this myth is presented in such a connected and systematic way, but all early accounts, from whatever area or tribe, confirm the general validity of the Rangikāheke version. It begins as follows: 'My friends, listen to me. The Māori people stem from only one source, namely the Great-heaven-which-stands-above, and the Earth-which-lies-below. According to Europeans, God made heaven and earth and all things. According to the Māori, Heaven (Rangi) and Earth (Papa) are themselves the source'" (Biggs 1966:448).

One of the great love stories of the Māori world is the legend of Hinemoa and Tūtānekai. The story remains popular and is retold in songs, films, cultural theatre and dance. Hinemoa defies her family to claim Tūtānekai, her "heart's desire"—the love-child of a chief's wife who was not her social equal. In reading Te Rangikāheke's original version in Māori, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku found that Tūtānekai had a male friend, hoa takatāpui, named Tiki, and Tūtānekai was "nowhere near as impressed by Hinemoa as the romantic Victorian narrative had construed". After Tūtānekai became united with Hinemoa, Tiki famously grieved for the loss of his hoa takatāpui. Tūtānekai, feeling grieved as well, arranged that his younger sister marry Tiki to console him. While no-one can say Tūtānekai and Tiki were sexually involved, their relationship was accepted to be intimate beyond mere friendship, and the story illustrates the concept that takatāpui in traditional Māori life was not exactly the same as constructions of contemporary homosexuality in Western societies.