Māhū inNative Hawaiian andTahitian cultures arepeople who embody both male and female spirit.[1][2] They have traditional spiritual and social roles within the culture, similar toTonganfakaleiti andSamoanfa'afafine.[3] The terms “third gender” and “in the middle” have been used to help explain māhū in the English language.
According to present-daymāhūkumu hula Kaua'i Iki:[4]
Māhū were particularly respected as teachers, usually of hula dance and chant. In pre-contact timesmāhū performed the roles of goddesses in hula dances that took place in temples which were off-limits to women.Māhū were also valued as the keepers of cultural traditions, such as the passing down of genealogies. Traditionally parents would askmāhū to name their children.
Historically,māhū was a respectful term for peopleassigned male at birth, but with colonization the word was denigrated and used as an insult to refer to homosexuals. More recently, there has been an effort to recapture the original dignity and respect accorded the term māhū.[5]
In the pre-colonial history of Hawai'i,māhū were notable healers, although much of this history was elided through the intervention of Christian missionaries.[8] According to Joan Roughgarden, themāhū lacked access to political power, were unable to aspire to leadership roles, and "Perceived as always available for sexual conquest by men."[9][page needed] The first published description ofmāhū occurs in Captain William Bligh's logbook of the Bounty, which stopped in Tahiti in 1789, where he was introduced to a member of a "class of people very common in Otaheitie called Mahoo... who although I was certain was a man, had great marks of effeminacy about him."[10]
A surviving monument to this history are theHealer Stones of Kapaemāhū on Waikiki Beach, which commemorate four importantmāhū who first brought the healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaiʻi.[11][12] These are referred to by Hawaiian historianMary Kawena Pukui aspae māhū, or literally a row ofmāhū.[13] The termmāhū is misleadingly defined in Pukui and Ebert's Hawaiian dictionary as "n. Homosexual, of either sex; hermaphrodite."[14] The assumption of same-sex behavior reflects the conflation of gender and sexuality that was common at that time.[note 1] The idea thatmāhū are biological mosaics appears to be a misunderstanding of the termhermaphrodite, which in early publications by sexologists and anthropologists was used generally to mean "an individual which has the attributes of both male and female;" this led to homosexual, bisexual, and gender nonconforming individuals being mislabeled as "hermaphrodites" in the medical literature.[15] The history of Kapaemahu was revived through ananimated film,picture book, andmuseum exhibition.
In 1891, when painterPaul Gauguin first came to Tahiti, he was thought to be amāhū by the indigenous people, due to his flamboyant manner of dress during that time.[16] His 1893 paintingPapa Moe (Mysterious Water) depicts amāhū drinking from a small waterfall.[16][7]
Missionaries to Hawai'i introduced biblical laws to the islands in the 1820s; under their influence Hawai'i's firstanti-sodomy law was passed in 1850. These laws led to the social stigmatization of themāhū in Hawai'i. Beginning in the mid-1960s the Honolulu City Council required trans women to wear a badge identifying themselves as male.[17]
In American artistGeorge Biddle'sTahitian Journal (1920–1922) he writes about severalmāhū friends in Tahiti, of their role in native Tahitian society, and of the persecution of amāhū friend Naipu, who fled Tahiti due to colonial French laws that sentmāhū and homosexuals to hard labor in prison in New Caledonia.[18]Rae rae is a social category ofmāhū that came into use in Tahiti in the 1960s, although it is criticized by somemāhū as an abject reference to sex.
In the 1980s,māhū and fa'afafine of Samoa began organizing, asmāhū. In 2021, a group of Kānaka Maoli formed a subgroup of theHawaiʻi LGBT Legacy Foundation called themāhūi that developed a ceremony to open Honolulu Pride month at theKapaemahu monument in Waikīkī, now repeated every October.
In 2003,[19] the termmahuwahine was coined within Hawaii's queer community:māhū (in the middle) + wahine (woman), the structure of the word is similar to Samoan fa'a (the way of) + fafine (woman/wife). The termmahuwahine resembles a transgender identity that coincides with Hawaiian cultural renaissance.[20] The corresponding term for biological females ismahukane (māhū + kane (man)). However, in contemporary usage, māhū is used for all genders.
Notable contemporarymāhū, or mahuwahine, include activist andkumu hulaHinaleimoana Kwai Kong Wong-Kalu,[21] kumu hulaKaumakaiwa Kanaka'ole, and kumu hulaKaua'i Iki; and within the widermāhū LGBTQ+ community, historianNoenoe Silva, activistKu‘u-mealoha Gomes, singer and painterBobby Holcomb, and singerKealii Reichel.
In many traditional communities,māhū play an important role in carrying on Polynesian culture, and teaching "the balance of female and male throughout creation".[22] Modernmāhū carry on traditions of connection to the land, language preservation, and the preservation and revival of cultural activities including traditional dances, songs, and the methods of playing culturally-specific musical instruments. Symbolic tattooing is also a popular practice. Modernmāhū do not alter their bodies through what others would consider gender reassignment surgery, but, just as any person in Hawaiian/Tahitian society, dress differently for work, home, and nights out.[23]
Strong familial relationships are important inmāhū culture,[24] as kinship bonds within all of Hawaiian/Tahitian cultures are essential to family survival. When possible, themāhū maintain solid relationships with their families of origin, often by becoming foster parents to nieces and nephews, and have been noted for being especially "compassionate and creative".[22] This ability to bring up children is considered a special skill specific tomāhū people.[25]Māhū also contribute to their extended families and communities through the gathering and maintaining of knowledge, and the practicing and teaching ofhula traditions, which are traditionally handed down through women.[22]
In situations where they have been rejected by their families of origin, due to homophobia and colonization,māhū have formed their own communities, supporting one another, and preserving and teaching cultural traditions to the next generations. In the documentaryKumu Hina, Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu visits one of these communities of elders up in the mountains, and meets with some of themāhū who were her teachers and chosen family when she was young.
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