Mana Wāhine Kōrero:
Born in the wrong body
By: Admin
25 July2021
Tuia te rangi e tū iho nei
Tuia te papa e takoto ake nei
Tuia te kaupapa ki te whai ao
Ki te ao mārama, hui e, taiki e!
Ko Takahue te awa
Ko Tahawai te hapū
Ko Te Rarawa te iwi
Ko Kurahaupo te Waka
Tihei mauri ora!
Born in the wrong body.
This statement is in direct conflict with Māori creation and spiritual beliefs. We are who our Tupuna called for. We are created for a purpose of greater good. We are our Tupuna. Our rich history is full of love stories between the sexes. This love is clearly recorded as LGB not LGBT. There is no evidence of transgender ideology in our past.
Māori societal roles were decided by sex. There are always exceptions, and our stories point to these as exceptions, not givens.
Māori women were not born in the wrong body;
When they were Chief of their tribe
When they Signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi
When they Signed the Suffragettes Petition of 1893
When they dug Te Maara
When they fought side by side with the men in battle.
When they Commanded war and raiding parties
When according to Whakatohea history, Muriwai was to save the Waka Mataatua,
“Kia whakatane au I ahau” *
They were all Wāhine Toa.
They never needed;
To be recognized as men
To have unnecessary body modifications
To usurp anyone from their tribal placing
To seek constant validation
To have unnecessary Titles/Pronouns
They were Wāhine Toa in their own right
To suggest that we are now born in the wrong body is ridiculously childish and insulting all in one colonised myth
Undermining the very core of our culture.
Ko Di Landy ahau, nō reira tēnā koutou katoa!
*The men were away looking for land. She didn’t want to be a man. She wanted to gain the strength of a man. To break those certain tapu that restricted women from doing certain things on a Waka. This was Muriwai. Or Other tribes refer to her as Wairaka.
Admin note: Di Landy attended the Speak Up For Women event in Wellington on 15 July 2021. At this event a person made the claim that the place name “Whakatāne” commemorates a trans man. This whakaaro is Di’s response to that claim.
Kia ora mo to korero Di.
Nga mihi Barbara.
Tautoko- this notion that if a woman behaves in a way that harmful stereotypes attribute to a man- this new ideology says she must BE a man. Thanks for challenging the notion that all Maori think as Dr Kerekere thinks in her thesis. The assumption of a hive mind is insulting for any group
Kia Ora
Nga mihi Tracey. There is a very scary world being born. We must challenge these changes.
I note that even in her PhD thesis Kerekere has said there she could not find evidence of gender identity as a concept. What she actually wrote that is relevant to this was:
Other than the shared finding of the term ‘takatāpui’ itself around the same time as Lee Smith; the only evidence of takatāpui existence in historical Māori narratives has been found by Ngahuia Te Awekotuku in
her research on mōteatea (traditional incantations, songs and chants) and whakairo (carving)
(Te Awekotuku 2005:8).
And
There is not yet evidence that Māori had diverse gender identities or that
takatāpui played specific roles in pre-colonial times; notwithstanding any roles which have
developed over the past 150 years.
We know that Lee and Ngahuia were talking about same sex intimate relationships when they researched the word takatāpui So the ‘gifting’ of it to mean queer, the whole issue of supposed “indigenous genders” appears to have been raised up to a level of credibility that does not appear to be supported by the evidence. Leaving the way open to young trans-activists to erroneously equate Whakatane with their movement and to fail to understand why this is not only innaccurate but a serious insult.
Tena koe Jan, this ideology is undermining the very core of Maori culture. It wasn’t enough that the word takatapui was ‘gifted’. The ideology is making insulting demands of my Kuia and Kaumatua. It is demanding cultural practices and rituals are changed.
“Don’t weaponise my culture to fit your narrative” SWS.
As always, I don’t speak for all Maori. No one does.
Thanks for this Jan-
Nga mihinui. As Ngati Hinepare, I can only imagine what lies will be told about my ancestor, given her status and the mana she held. I’ve already heard the lies being told about my Tipuna Kahungunu regarding his sexual orientation. What irks me most about all of this, is the blatant arrogance with which these lies are being spread. This is coloniser behaviour and coloniser mindset. This misrepresentation of iwi and hapu seeks to destroy what remains of our culture and our cultural knowledge. We must not stand by and let this insidious gender identity propaganda bring undone what remains of Maoritanga. Ka pai e hoa.
I have heard this nonsense from TRA’s before, and it needs to be challenged on any occasion it is raised
Such a powerful response. Kia Ora. KIA KAHA.