“There is not yet evidence that Māori had diverse gender identities ….. in pre-colonial times.”

The above is an excerpt from page 82 in Dr Elizabeth Kerekere’s 2017 thesis² , shortly before Māori history and culture got falsely imbued with the ‘gender’ agenda.

I normally hesitate to talk publicly about Māori history and culture, but I write this in discussion with Di Landy, co-founder of Mana Wāhine Kōrero (Sovereign Women Speak). I’m a European New Zealander – a Pakeha, in Māori language – and even though Kiwi culture intertwines aspects of European and Māori culture, some individuality of the two is still maintained, and the best people to talk about Māori history and culture are Māori themselves.

But not all the time.

There has been an emergence of Māori scholars in recent years who seem to have suddenly discovered that pre-colonial Māori had all sorts of gender identities, until the colonisers of New Zealand imposed their binary sex system onto them. There’s no doubt that same-sex attracted and bisexual Māori existed, because these have always existed in all societies, cultures, and countries since forever. But, as far as pre-colonial Māori men swanning around in women’s garb, and inserting themselves in women’s spaces goes, because they said they were women – or vice versa - my friends at Mana Wāhine Kōrero say “bullshit”.

Mana Wāhine Kōrero is a Māori-led group formed to fight the disinformation being spread in the newly invented narrative about diverse gender identities amongst Māori in pre-colonial times - and to save kids from the trans industrial machine that this new narrative could lead them into. In chatting to Di, she tells me that there are no songs, no carvings, and no stories passed down from their rich oral tradition to indicate any such thing as diverse gender identities amongst pre-colonial Māori. Neither are there stories told behind closed doors about it. The very concept of diverse gender identities is itself a colonial one that came out of American universities, which, for some reason, a number of Māori scholars have bought into and currently disseminate as their own.

Right on cue, one of those leaning into this is a young woman scholar with Māori heritage named Jessica Niurangi Maclean. Later in March - March being Pride month here in NZ - Christchurch Pride is hosting her at the University of Canterbury for an “open discussion” on “Decolonising Gender and Sexuality”.

I’m not sure how friendly the “discussion” will be if some of her assertions aren’t agreed with. We know from experience that one must follow the party line with gender idealogues, or else.

After talking with Di on different occasions about the lack of evidence of ‘gender diversity’ amongst pre-colonial Māori, it seems that in fact colonisers just might have been ahead of Māori when it came to that. Long before the English came to NZ, there were stories all over Europe about men who dressed as women, or enacted other fetishes, and the clubs that catered to them. Yes, they were only ever whispered about, and the clubs operated in secret locations, but Māori don’t have even those stories – until they appeared five minutes ago, with murky ‘evidence’. So, how exactly does one ‘decolonise’ what there’s dubious evidence of ever having had?

So-called ‘gender diversity’ is a dream for cross-dressers – transvestites – who’ve used the expression to gentilise their sexual fetish, and now refer to themselves by the less obvious term ‘trans women’. Conversely, whatever gender diversity women enact, the sexual fetish element is seldom present. Any push to “decolonise” or “rethink” gender and sexuality, or claims of gender diversity amongst pre-colonial Māori is guaranteed to have men behind it - not only Māori men - and women duped into being their mouthpieces. If pre-colonial Māori men freely pranced around in women’s clothing, or snuck into their mothers, sisters, or daughters’ rooms to secretly try on their underwear, or had fetish clubs, show us the evidence.

I would put money on it that in pre-colonial Māori times, no one gave a flying feck what one’s feelings or thoughts were about their sex and sexuality. All that mattered was doing the job you were designated to do, and surviving. It’s possible that same-sex attraction and effeminate men and masculine women were more accepted amongst pre-colonial Māori than amongst the colonials, but not all iwi (tribe/s) had the same cultural practises or tolerances then, and still don’t now.

The title and description of Jessica Niurangi Maclean’s upcoming talk are both slippery and vague, and lend themselves to an easy denial of any critical interpretation of what the heck it all actually means. I daresay that in contradiction to the promo blurb there’ll be little robustness or openness in the “discussion”, and piercing questions will be answered obscurely or batted away. We’ve been here before.

Naturally, Jessica, who also contributed an essay to the book ‘Out Here: An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ writers from Aotearoa’ (riveting stuff, I know), has her pronouns in her bio for the event. How could she be a scholar of standing amongst the LGBTQIA+ without those? Kudos from scholarly accomplishments are nothing compared to the kudos one gets from displaying pronouns. The stating of one’s iwi (tribe/s), as also seen in her bio, is standard practise for Māori, but the addition of “Clan O’Hara” and “Clan Maclean” to her bio is a new one on me. I groan at the thought it might already be a happening thing I just haven’t caught up with yet.

Di unequivocally disputes there were ever diverse gender identities enacted amongst pre-colonial Māori, and utterly dismisses the modern invented narrative that there were. In her speech¹ at the Inflection Point Summit in May 2024, she said “Our brainwashed youth are schooling our elders and shaming them. A never-seen-before phenomenon. Māori never learnt our way of being from an institution. We learnt at the feet of our elders.” It’s a great speech (link below), and well worth the read.

Perhaps it should be sent to Jessica – if she’s not too brainwashed and dismissive of her elders yet. You know, the ones who didn’t get their knowledge of pre-colonial Māori culture from American universities.

• This was written in discussion – the real kind – with Dianne Landy, co-founder of Mana Wāhine Kōrero (Sovereign Women Speak).

¹ Di’s speech at the Inflection Point Summit: “We are who our Tupuna called for”. https://www.mwk.co.nz/post/di-landy-at-inflection-point-we-are-who-our-tupuna-called-for

² Dr Elizabeth Kerekere’s thesis: “Part of The Whānau: The Emergence of Takatāpui Identity - He Whāriki Takatāpui”. Dr Kerekere is now a full on LGBTQIA+ adherent, and doesn’t like to be reminded that on page 82 of her 2017 thesis she wrote that “There is not yet evidence that Māori had diverse gender identities ….. in pre-colonial times”.

https://openaccess.wgtn.ac.nz/articles/thesis/Part_of_The_Wh_nau_The_Emergence_of_Takat_pui_Identity_-_He_Wh_riki_Takat_pui/17060225

Another piece by Di: “Grieving for my Culture”

Grieving for my Culture