Tuia te rangi e tū iho nei
Tuia te papa e takoto ake nei
Tuia te kaupapa ki te whai ao
Ki te ao mārama, hui e, taiki e!
Ko Takahue te awa
Ko Tahawai te hapū
Ko Te Rarawa te iwi
Ko Kurahaupo te Waka
Tihei mauri ora!
Born in the wrong body.
This statement is in direct conflict with Māori creation and spiritual beliefs. We are who our Tupuna called for. We are created for a purpose of greater good. We are our Tupuna. Our rich history is full of love stories between the sexes. This love is clearly recorded as LGB not LGBT. There is no evidence of transgender ideology in our past.
Māori societal roles were decided by sex. There are always exceptions, and our stories point to these as exceptions, not givens.
Māori women were not born in the wrong body;
When they were Chief of their tribe
When they Signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi
When they Signed the Suffragettes Petition of 1893
When they dug Te Maara
When they fought side by side with the men in battle.
When they Commanded war and raiding parties
When according to Whakatohea history, Muriwai was to save the Waka Mataatua,
“Kia whakatane au I ahau” *
They were all Wāhine Toa.
They never needed;
To be recognized as men
To have unnecessary body modifications
To usurp anyone from their tribal placing
To seek constant validation
To have unnecessary Titles/Pronouns
They were Wāhine Toa in their own right
To suggest that we are now born in the wrong body is ridiculously childish and insulting all in one colonised myth
Undermining the very core of our culture.
Ko Di Landy ahau, nō reira tēnā koutou katoa!
*The men were away looking for land. She didn’t want to be a man. She wanted to gain the strength of a man. To break those certain tapu that restricted women from doing certain things on a Waka. This was Muriwai. Or Other tribes refer to her as Wairaka.
Admin note: Di Landy attended the Speak Up For Women event in Wellington on 15 July 2021. At this event a person made the claim that the place name “Whakatāne” commemorates a trans man. This whakaaro is Di’s response to that claim.
Republished from our Substack.
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