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Cook Islands Māori Cook Islands Māori is an Eastern Polynesian language that is the official language of the Cook Islands. Cook Islands Māori is closely related to, but distinct from, New Zealand Māori. Cook Islands Māori is called just Māori when there i ...
word which has come, since the 2000s, to refer to
transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...
people of Māori descent from the
Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...
. It may be an old custom but has a contemporary identity influenced by other Polynesians, through cross-cultural interaction of Polynesians living in
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
, especially the Samoan '' fa'afafine'',
Third Gender Third gender or third sex is an identity recognizing individuals categorized, either by themselves or by society, as neither a man nor a woman. Many gender systems around the world include three or more genders, deriving the concept either from ...
people who hold a special place in Samoan society.


Terms and etymology

According to the Cook Islands Maori dictionary (1995) 'akava'ine is the prefix ''aka'' ("to be or to behave like") and ''va'ine'' ("woman"), or simply, "to behave as a woman". (
Antonym In lexical semantics, opposites are words lying in an inherently incompatible binary relationship. For example, something that is ''even'' entails that it is not ''odd''. It is referred to as a 'binary' relationship because there are two members i ...
: ''akatāne'' ("act manly, or tomboyishly").) The New Zealand
Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
word ''Whakawahine'' has a parallel meaning, and the Samoan word fa'afafine and the Malagasy word sarambavy. According to Alexeyeff, is a
Cook Islands Māori Cook Islands Māori is an Eastern Polynesian language that is the official language of the Cook Islands. Cook Islands Māori is closely related to, but distinct from, New Zealand Māori. Cook Islands Māori is called just Māori when there i ...
word for women who have an inflated opinion of themselves, draw attention to themselves in ways that disrupt groupness, do not heed others' advice, or who act in a self-serving or self-promoting way. Sometimes the word ''laelae'' is also used typically when implying criticism or ridicule of
feminine Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...
behaviour displayed by a man, for example being described as
effeminate Effeminacy or male femininity is the embodiment of feminine traits in boys or men, particularly those considered untypical of men or masculinity. These traits include roles, stereotypes, behaviors, and appearances that are socially associated wi ...
or
homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" exc ...
. Laelae is the colloquial Cook Islands term, it is similar to ''raerae'' used in Tahiti. The word ''tutuva'ine'' (meaning "like a woman") is used less frequently and normally refers to a
cross-dresser Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes traditionally or stereotypically associated with a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and express onesel ...
or a
drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses Drag (entertainment), drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate Femininity, female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have ...
. Homosexuality is illegal for males in the Cook Islands, but there is a transgender movement in the Pacific Islands to decriminalize LGBT rights.


History

Pacific Islanders have a long history of integration, positions of authority, respect and acceptance towards
gender-variant Gender nonconformity or gender variance is gender expression by an individual whose behavior, mannerisms, and/or appearance does not match masculine or feminine gender norms. A person can be gender-nonconforming regardless of their gender ident ...
individuals. After the arrival of English missionaries during the 19th-century, this quickly began to change. Marshall (1971:161) denied that there were "homosexuals" on
Mangaia Mangaia (traditionally known as A'ua'u Enua, which means ''terraced'') is the most southerly of the Cook Islands and the second largest, after Rarotonga. It is a roughly circular island, with an area of , from Rarotonga. Originally heavily popul ...
in the Cook Islands, while estimating there were two or three
berdache ''Two-spirit'' (also known as ''two spirit'' or occasionally ''twospirited'', or abbreviated as ''2S'' or ''2E'', especially in Canada) is a umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people who fulfill a trad ...
"men on Mangaia who enjoy women's work, may have a feminine figure, and—to some degree—may dress like a woman" (Marshall 1971:153). "There is no social disapproval of the indications of transvestism". The boys and men he observed who enjoyed and excelled at women's work and who "are frequently called upon to assist in cooking, feasts, sewing pillowcases, and cutting out dresses and dress patterns" and "show no apparent wish for male sexual partners". Beaglehole (1938:287) also asserted of another locale in the Cook Islands that Nearly two decades later Beaglehole (1957:191) did not follow-up on the ''wakawawine''—or even recall him—in writing that


Contemporary culture

In the late 1990s, the term ''laelae'', a borrowing from the Tahitian ''raerae'' or Rae rae, was the most commonly used term to describe "traditional" transgender categories and individuals considered to be "gay". The usage of the Māori word ''Akava'ine'' for a transgender person seems to be recent, as no evidence of it as an established gender role in Cook Islands Māori society: it is not documented in the various detailed written encounters of the Māori people during the pre-Christian era to the mid-late 1800s to early 1900s, although these accounts are almost all by Westerners and missionaries. In contrast, Transgender people are mentioned in records of Samoa ( Fa'afafine),
Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...
and Hawai'i (
Māhū ' in Native Hawaiian and Tahitian cultures are people who embody both male and female spirit. They have traditional spiritual and social roles within the culture, similar to Tongan ' and Samoan '. The terms “third gender” and “in the mid ...
). Homosexuality was outlawed in the Cook Islands for men whereas women were always free to have homosexual relations. Some ''akava'ine'' take part in the making of '' tivaevae'' (quilts), an activity traditionally done by the women of the community. Te Tiare Association Inc (TTA) was formally incorporated on 30 November 2007 at the Rarotonga High Court; an organisation set up to bring together 'akava'ine in the Cook Islands, to help nurture, strengthen and educate them so that they can help themselves. On 21 June 2008, there was the official launch of TTA and the launch of a partnership between TTA and the Pacific Islands Aids Foundation.


See also

* LGBT rights in the Cook Islands *
List of transgender-related topics The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to transgender topics. The term "transgender" is multi-faceted and complex, especially where consensual and precise definitions have not yet been reached. While often the be ...


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{Sexual identities Culture of the Cook Islands Transgender topics in New Zealand Gender in New Zealand Third gender Gender systems Society of the Cook Islands LGBTQ in the Cook Islands