The third gender of Pacific Islands, fa'afafiine and Māhū

Today's discussion involving two-spirit people of the Native Americans and hijra of India reminded me of the third-gender people of the pacific islands. My professor for a past Gender Studies class I took was an expert on pacific islander culture, so I remember us  talking about this at length in class.

Gender Identity and Sexual Identity in the Pacific and Hawai'i: Introduction

This link should take you to some resources

The fa'afafine are people of the Samoa islands who are assigned male at birth, but take on a typically feminine role. The word itself means "in the manner of a woman". In modern terms, they would most likely be described as transgender women, but not all of them choose to use that to describe themselves.

Here is an article about some of the fa'afafine:

Miss Fa'afafine: Behind Samoa's 'third gender' beauty pageant

Māhū, on the other hand, are from Hawai'i. The word means "in the middle", and can describe both amab or afab people who decide to embrace both the masculine and the feminine. What is interesting is that, like the two-spirit people, they are considered spiritually important and a teacher who passes on important traditions such as dances and chants.

Both Māhū and fa'afafine, as well as multitudes of other third-gender people of the pacific islands have been erased from their culture due to white colonizers who came to their lands and thought that it was 'unnatural'. 

What native Hawaiian culture has to teach about gender identity

Here's an article about the Māhū, and I found several videos about them as well.

Above is a short clip from a PBS documentary called 'Kumu Hina' that explains what Māhū means to the culture. 

(This is a longer clip from the same documentary, for those who are interested!)

The existence of third-gender people in their traditions are so interesting to me, a nonbinary, as well as being super validating. We have existed for many many years, and there has been cultures where gender nonconformity was accepted and even celebrated. I hope this helps others feel that way too.