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Cultural

Takatāpui

A Māori word — once for a devoted same-sex companion, now an umbrella for Māori who are queer or gender-diverse. Māori, and Māori only.

  • One of twenty-two Cultural identities
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  • 4 min read
A character with a cup of tea in a shop full of plants and pottery

A word that belongs to a people. This identity is held within a specific culture. The page is here to understand it, not to adopt it.

A shorter entry: the essentials, written to the same standard. The fuller guides are on the main identities.

What it is

Takatāpui is a Māori word for Māori people. The Māori Dictionary gives its senses in order: a close or intimate friend; a close friend of the same gender; and lesbian, gay, homosexual. Wikipedia records the older definition from Williams's dictionary as "intimate companion of the same sex", and its modern use — resurgent since the 1980s — as an umbrella for Māori who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, intersex or transgender.

So it holds two things that English keeps apart: who you love and what your gender is. Gender-diverse Māori sit under it alongside gay and lesbian Māori. Derivatives exist to say which — Wikipedia lists takatāpui wahine for lesbian, takatāpui kaharua for bisexual, and takatāpui wahine ki tāne or tāne ki wahine for trans men and women. But the umbrella word does something the derivatives do not: it says Māori first. As Wikipedia puts it, using it to self-identify requires accepting yourself as Māori as well as queer.

That is the closed part, and it is not a technicality. Takatāpui is not a Māori translation of "queer" for anyone who likes the sound of it. It belongs to Māori. If you have no whakapapa, this page is for understanding someone else. Read it as a guest and leave the word where it lives.

Pronouns

In te reo Māori the pronoun ia covers he, she and they — the language does not make anyone pick. In English, takatāpui use whatever fits them: she, he, they, more than one. The word is an umbrella, not a pronoun, and it tells you nothing about which to use.

Does this sound like you?

You are Māori, and being queer or gender-diverse has never felt like a separate fact from being Māori. The English words kept asking you to hold them apart.
"Non-binary" or "trans" is true on the form and leaves out the marae.
Someone older used the word about you before you knew it existed, and it was not an insult.
You have read the argument that there was no such thing before the Pākehā came, and felt the word answer it for you.
You reach for it in Māori spaces and for the English words everywhere else, and neither is a lie.
The word gave you ancestors, not just a category.

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Nearby identities

The distinction is the useful part.

Māhū

Hawaiian and Tahitian, not Māori. The words look alike to a Pākehā eye and share nothing beyond an ocean. Each belongs to its own people.

Compare Takatāpui and Māhū →
Two-Spirit

The North American parallel: an umbrella chosen by Indigenous people to hold gender and sexuality inside a culture. A useful comparison of the principle, and not a translation.

Compare Takatāpui and Two-Spirit →
Indigiqueer

Native and queer, from a North American context. The same shape of need — a word that keeps indigeneity in the sentence — with different peoples and a different word.

Compare Takatāpui and Indigiqueer →
Non-Binary

The English word for a gender outside man and woman. Many takatāpui use it in Pākehā rooms. It says the gender and stops; takatāpui says the people.

Compare Takatāpui and Non-Binary →

It might not be you if…

  • You are not Māori. There is no route around this. Feeling drawn to the word, living in Aotearoa, or having Māori friends does not open it.
  • You are Māori, straight and cis, and what you want is a word for supporting whānau who are takatāpui. Ally is fine. This one is not yours to wear.
  • You want a gender word with no people attached — something to carry alone. Non-binary, agender and genderfluid are all built for that. Takatāpui is not a solo word.
  • You are Indigenous elsewhere in the Pacific. Your own people have their own words, and even the loss of one is worth going after before borrowing.

Questions people ask

What does takatāpui mean?

Originally, an intimate companion of the same sex — the Māori Dictionary still gives "close friend of the same gender" as a sense. Since the 1980s, according to Wikipedia, it has been reclaimed as an umbrella for Māori who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, intersex or transgender. It carries both meanings at once: who you are to your own, and that you are Māori.

Does takatāpui cover gender identity, or only sexuality?

Both. Wikipedia describes it as communicating sexual orientation and addressing gender and its expressions, with derivatives for trans men and trans women. A Māori non-binary person and a Māori lesbian can both say takatāpui and both be right.

Can non-Māori use it?

No. Wikipedia is blunt that using it to self-identify requires accepting oneself as Māori. If you are Pākehā or otherwise not Māori, the respectful thing is to know the word, use it about people who use it about themselves, and take none of it for your own bio.

Guide · 14 min readAgender Identity: What It Means to Live Without Gender

Ask most people what gender they feel like and something comes back. Ask an agender person and the line stays open.

Guide · 10 min readAm I Non-Binary? 15 Signs You Might Be, and What to Do Next

You have probably read a list like this before. This one includes the parts that usually get left out: the forms, the money, the people…

Kai Moss Editor (pen name)

Last updated · How these pages are written and checked

No flag is shown because none is settled. Text: written from how people who use the word Takatāpui describe it.

Sources:

  • Takatāpui — Wikipedia — Fetched 2026-09-03. Gives the Williams dictionary definition, the resurgence since the 1980s, the umbrella scope (gay, lesbian, bisexual, intersex and/or transgender Māori), the derivative terms, and the statement that self-identifying with it requires acceptance of oneself as Māori.
  • takatāpui — Te Aka Māori Dictionary — Fetched 2026-09-03. Entry senses: close/intimate friend; close friend of the same gender; lesbian, gay, homosexual.

This is not a clinical instrument, not a diagnosis, and not evidence of anything about anyone. It describes experiences so you can recognise your own — or rule them out.