Pre-course Study

Focus: exploring Maori philosophies and ideas thought

Topics

Definition: Maori customary practices, protocols, and principles that guide behaviour. Essentially dictates what is right

What tikanga can include:

Definition: honour, authority, power, prestige

Three aspects of mana:

Heads: regarded as very tapu. Not allowed to touch without permission
Food: do not pass over anyone’s head. Shared during celebrations and gatherings. Considering noa, meaning it should be kept separate from tapu. Do not begin eating until the host has said a blessing
Tables: should not sit on tables, especially those with food on them. Hats and bags should also be kept off of tables
Shoes: taken off at marae and homes
Speaking: do not enter a room while someone is speaking to an audience. When speaking with someone, maintain eye contact
Walk around people: stepping over is disrespectful
Haka: if someone is performing it to you, remain expressionless
Koha: a gift or offering when visiting a home or marae

Core idea: gender conceptions change over time and place; they are not fixed or static.
Social constructionist perspective: socialization informs how we think and act in relation to gender.
Normativity and background: what is considered “normal” is established through habitual actions that become the ground to walk upon; the background becomes taken for granted.
Visual media as engineer of norms: media ads contribute to ideas about masculinity and femininity; discussion of how ads shape expectations about gender roles.
- Ads discussed: a Dolce & Gabbana image suggesting domination of women; perfume ads aligning gender with product attributes; concerns about hairlessness of women in ads; white, fit bodies; idealized bodies as a standard of perfection.
- Key insight: products are sold alongside ideas about gender; the marketing frame suggests how gender should be embodied and perceived.

Distinction:
- Performing gender: taking on roles or acting in a way that appears to align with gender norms (theatrical performance).
- Performativity: gender as an ongoing production that creates effects and social realities; not a fixed internal essence but the product of repeated actions over time.
Butler’s aim: separate performativity from mere performance; gender is produced through day-to-day, often unnoticed actions.
Core claim: gender is not an innate truth but a phenomenon produced and reproduced continually; challenging the idea that gender is a pre-existing interior state.

Origin: concept introduced to address missing voices in feminist and anti-racist work; demonstrates how racism and sexism overlap and create unique experiences of oppression.
Core intuition: oppression is not a single-axis phenomenon but a constellation of interlocking systems (race, gender, sexuality, ability, etc.).

Precolonial Maori society:
- Gender roles were more complementary and necessary for daily life; not strictly hierarchical.
- Sexual expression and relationships were relatively fluid; multiple partners or same-sex relationships were part of normal social life.
- Language and oral traditions (Whakatoki, Purako) reflect equality and sexual fluidity.
Colonization impact:
- European colonization imposed Western gender norms (masculinity, femininity) that privileged dominance, strength, rationality for men, and Victorian ideals of respectability and domestication for women.
- Repression of Maori sexual fluidity and relationships outside heteronormative marriage; same-sex relations deemed sinful or illegal under colonial laws.
- The British legacy of misogyny and homophobia intensified with missionary influence and language/cultural suppression.
Reclamation and terminology:
- Takatāpui (traditional term) reclaimed to include diverse genders and sexualities within rainbow communities.

Intersectional Approach: Emphasizing the impact of colonization on indigenous LGBTQIA+ individuals and women/non-males, especially those outside gender and sexuality binaries.
Decolonial Queer Theory: Argues that colonization involved the violent suppression of indigenous genders and sexualities, replacing them with Western binaries and norms. This is observed across Aotearoa, the Pacific, and North America (e.g., third genders in indigenous communities).
Indigenous Queer Standpoint Theory: Emerged in Australia and Aotearoa, centering indigenous LGBTQIA+ experiences and critiquing the imposition of colonial and white queer perspectives as normative.
Intersectional Theory: Essential for understanding how oppression and marginalization intersect. For example, a Wahine Maori who identifies as Takatapui faces different challenges and discrimination compared to a Tane Maori who identifies as Takatapui due to her gender.
Common Theme: All theories confront the colonial imposition on gender and sexuality in indigenous communities.

Tutanekai and Tiki:
- Many are familiar with the story of Tutanekai and Hinemoa.
- Purako interpretations suggest Tutanekai was first in love with his friend Tiki.
- They played music together, which Hinemoa heard.
- Early transcripts record Tutanekai referring to Tiki as "takuhoa takatapui" (my same-sex intimate companion).
- Tutanekai is quoted saying, "Ka mate a hao ite aroha ki toku hoa ki a Tiki," which translates to "I am stricken with love for my friend, for Tiki."
- Censorship: Later retellings often replaced phrases like "stricken with love" with "sick with grief," demonstrating colonial efforts to eradicate non-binary gender and sexuality expressions.
Bisexuality in Waiata:
- Byron O Rangiwai found evidence in traditional Waiata, specifically an $1853$ collection by George Gray, mourning a young man.
- The original translation included a youth being "sexual with that woman, with that man."
- Censorship: When republished in $1928$ , the word "whakapau" (to copulate, have sex, or make love) was changed to "afitia" (to embrace, hug, cuddle, or cherish), showing a pattern of censoring Maori oral histories and stories.