Overview
What takatāpui means.
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.
Māori umbrella term for Māori people of diverse gender and sexuality, reclaimed from an old word for an intimate companion of the same sex.
Takatāpui in one line
Origin
Where the word comes from
Takatāpui is not a coined word in the way most identity terms on this site are; it is an old word in te reo Māori whose modern use was revived rather than invented. Williams's Dictionary of the Māori Language recorded the earlier sense, "intimate companion of the same sex", well before the twentieth century, describing a recognised kind of relationship rather than a movement or an identity category.
Its use as a self-chosen umbrella for Māori who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, takatāpui, intersex or transgender grew from the 1980s, as Māori scholars and activists — Ngahuia Te Awekōtuku's writing and, later, Elizabeth Kerekere's research and advocacy through Tīwhanawhana Trust are the names most associated with the revival — argued that Māori did not need to borrow English or Pākehā categories to describe themselves. No single person is recorded as having coined or reintroduced the word; it re-entered public use through this wider body of Māori scholarship and community organising rather than one act of naming.
Signs people describe
Common experiences
None of these is a test. Most people recognise a few and shrug at the rest.
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.
Pronouns
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.
Consider another path
This might not be your word if…
- 1You 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.
- 2You 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.
- 3You 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.
- 4You 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.
Close by
Related identities
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.
ReadTwo-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.
ReadIndigiqueer
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.
Read
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.
ReadQuestions people ask
Frequently asked questions
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.
The flag
No page on lgbtqia.wiki (404); gender.fandom.com is closed and nonbinary.wiki is blocked by a bot-check.
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.
- Who Is Takatāpui? Māori Language, Sexuality and Identity in Aotearoa/New Zealand — Anthropologica (Clive Aspin & Jessica Hutchings, 2003) Fetched 2026-09-06. On the older recorded meaning and the term's re-emergence from the 1980s alongside Māori and takatāpui activism.
- Takatāpui: Part of the Whānau — Elizabeth Kerekere / Tīwhanawhana Trust Fetched 2026-09-06. Community and research account of the emergence of takatāpui identity and its revival.
Still figuring things out?
Twenty questions, four minutes, and a few words worth trying on.