What is "takatapui"

Takatāpui (also spelt takataapui) is the Māori word meaning a devoted partner of the same sex. In modern terminology, a person that identifies as takatāpui is a Māori individual who is queer, in other words gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or transsexual ( LGBT). Takatāpui is used nowadays in response to Western construction of " sexuality, gender, and corresponding identity expressions." ( Gender identity and sexual identity). The term encompasses not only aspects of sexuality but also one's 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 that 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 repudiates the conservative Māori argument that homosexuality did not exist in Māori society prior to the arrival of Europeans.