9 August 2023

Today CNWL's LGBT+ Staff Network, Pride@CNWL, and BAME Staff Network, are celebrating International Day of the World's Indigenous People.

This day, first marked by the UN in 1994 is a time for recognising, protecting and furthering the rights of the worlds indigenous people and cultures.

This year the network have put together some information to explain some of the  third and non-binary genders found throughout history. An important point to remind us that people outside of the binary of man and woman have always been around us.

Fa'afafine

A third-gender or nonbinary role in Samoa, American Samoa and the Samoan diaspora. Fa'afafine are assigned male at birth, and explicitly embody both masculine and feminine gender traits in a way unique to Polynesia. Estimates believe that 1 to 5 per cent of Samoans identify as fa'afafine [1]. The word is  formed from the causative prefix fa'a–, meaning "in the manner of", and the word fafine, meaning "woman".

Hijra

Found across south Asian countries including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, Hijra are people who were assigned male at birth and who have a feminine gender expression. This is a very ancient tradition of a nonbinary gender role (often called "third gender"). The Hijra in India alone may number as many as 2,000,000. Hijra have been formally recognised in India and Pakistan since 2009, although they still do not receive the same rights as those identifying as male or female in India (such as voting rights).

Māhū

Translating to “in the middle”, Māhū from Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian) and Maohi (Tahitian) cultures are third gender persons with traditional spiritual and social roles within the culture, similar to Samoan fa'afafine. Māhū kumu hula Kaua'i Iki explains further:

“Māhū were particularly respected as teachers, usually of hula dance and chant. In pre-contact times māhū performed the roles of goddesses in hula dances that took place in temples which were off-limits to women. Māhū were also valued as the keepers of cultural traditions, such as the passing down of genealogies. Traditionally parents would ask māhū to name their children.”[3]

Two-spirit

Is a modern term created to encompass all of the third gender or gender variant peoples of the Indigenous North Americans cultures. Created in 1990 at the Indigenous lesbian and gay international gathering in Winnipeg, it was chosen to replace outdated and offensive terms forced upon these people and to foster a term separate from western and other cultural third gender groups. [4] While it has widely been successful in replacing the more offensive anthropological terms before it, Two-spirit is meant to be a catch-all term for over 500 identities and is exclusively for those of those cultures. As such misunderstandings from non-native people have led to it being seen as a singular gender, often a hybrid of man and woman [5], without understanding the many varied genders included under this banner.

CNWL's LGBT+ Staff Network and BAME staff networks work together to raise awareness within the Trust and support  LGBT+ staff and patients. If you are a CNWL staff member and want to join either network as a member or ally, visit our staff Trustnet to find out how. 

References

[1] Tan, Yvette (September 1, 2016). "Samoa's 'third gender' beauty pageant". Archived from the original on 17 July 2023 – via www.bbc.com.

[2] Misra, Ria (25 December 2009). "Pakistan Recognizes Third Gender". Politics Daily. Archived from the original on 27 February 2010.

[3] Kaua'i Iki, quoted by Andrew Matzner in 'Transgender, queens, mahu, whatever': An Oral History from Hawai'i. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context Issue 6, August 2001

[4] de Vries, Kylan Mattias (2009). "Berdache (Two-Spirit)". In O'Brien, Jodi (ed.). Encyclopedia of gender and society. Los Angeles: SAGE. p. 64. ISBN 9781412909167. Retrieved 6 March 2015.

[5] Kehoe, Alice B. (2002). "Appropriate Terms". SAA Bulletin. Society for American Archaeology 16(2), UC-Santa Barbara. ISSN 0741-5672. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 2019-05-01.