Māhū

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 fakaleiti and Samoan fa'afafine. The terms “third gender” and “in the middle” have been used to help explain māhū in the English language.

According to present-day māhū kumu hula Kaua'i Iki:

Māhū were particularly respected as teachers, usually of hula dance and chant. In pre-contact times māhū 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 ask māhū to name their children.

Historically, māhū was a respectful term for people assigned male at birth, but with colonization the word was denigrated and used as an insult (similar to the term “faggot”) to refer to gay people. More recently, there has been an effort to recapture the original dignity and respect accorded the term māhū.