If you think it’s great to learn something that extends your vocabulary, read on.
Then again, maybe it’s not a new word for you, and the writer of this article will be exposing himself as a bloke who hasn’t been paying attention to something which was incorporated long ago in media reports along with a raft of other te reo words.
If you don’t learn a new word, however, you might learn a few more reasons to steer clear of voting for the Maori Party. It wants to add yet another commission to the bureaucracy (in Wellington, presumably) and it wants to make it easier for young Maori to risk their health and wellbeing by using puberty blockers.
All of those things were wrapped up in one news report under a headline at Stuff which said:
The Maori Party –we learn – is campaigning to establish “a Takatāpui Commission”, providing “Whānau Ora-style funding to address health, housing and equity concerns for rainbow communities”.
Another trough for Maori service providers, in other words.
According to Stuff:
The party released its Mana Takatāpui policy on Wednesday, promising $66 million per year for the Takatāpui Commission – which would allocate funding to charities and social services seeking to address issues such as mental health, education and support services for takatāpui and LGBTQ+ communities. Takatāpui people would lead the commission.
The commission would be funded from reprioritised spending, out of the health, housing and Māori development budgets, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said.
Waititi also highlighted concerns about access to puberty blockers, and changes to gender inclusion rules for sports.
As well as establishing the commission, Te Pāti Māori said it would ensure takatāpui communities would have access to gender-affirming healthcare within the public system. This would include hormone therapy, such as puberty blockers.
The Maori Party – which has been in the vanguard of efforts to reduce cigarette smoking – is taking a different tack on puberty blockers.
It also is challenging the position of the Ministry of Health. which two years ago urged doctors to take a “precautionary approach” before prescribing puberty blockers. The Government then banned the use of puberty blockers for new patients.
The Government’s order, banning the use of puberty blockers, came into effect from December 2025.
Puberty blockers are clinically known as gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues.
The main medical, psychological, and ethical concerns regarding their use revolve around limited long-term data, impacts on physical development, and the strength of the clinical evidence supporting them.
True, they have been used safely for decades to treat “precocious puberty” (abnormally early puberty) in young children.
But their more recent use has been to pause natural puberty in adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria.
The United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway are among other countries which have heavily restricted or banned new prescriptions outside of clinical trials.
A landmark independent review of gender identity services in the UK, led by pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass, concluded that the evidence base supporting the routine use of hormone treatments for youth is remarkably “shaky” and inadequate.
But here’s the thing: gonadotropin wasn’t the word that drove the writer of this article to consult his reference books.
It was the word “takatāpui”, which is described as “a traditional Māori term that encompasses both gender identity and sexual orientation, used by individuals who are Māori and part of the LGBTQIA+ (rainbow) community”.
Google said Stuff regularly uses the term takatāpui in its news coverage to report on rainbow youth in state care or political platform policies.
The word apparently
… reached mainstream prominence on New Zealand television in 2004 with the premiere of the series Takatāpui on Māori Television, which was the world’s first indigenous queer television show. [1]
Your correspondent must have been watching Top Gear at that time.
It seems the word was first recorded in 1832 in the earliest Māori language dictionaries compiled by missionaries. [1]
It was defined historically as an “intimate companion of the same sex”. [1]
But – just like the words in the Treaty of Waitangi – its meaning has been elastic.
Our Google search response said:
All of those things were wrapped up in one news report under a headline at Stuff which said:
Te Pāti Māori calls for Takatāpui Commission and access to puberty blockers
The Maori Party –we learn – is campaigning to establish “a Takatāpui Commission”, providing “Whānau Ora-style funding to address health, housing and equity concerns for rainbow communities”.
Another trough for Maori service providers, in other words.
According to Stuff:
The party released its Mana Takatāpui policy on Wednesday, promising $66 million per year for the Takatāpui Commission – which would allocate funding to charities and social services seeking to address issues such as mental health, education and support services for takatāpui and LGBTQ+ communities. Takatāpui people would lead the commission.
The commission would be funded from reprioritised spending, out of the health, housing and Māori development budgets, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said.
Waititi also highlighted concerns about access to puberty blockers, and changes to gender inclusion rules for sports.
As well as establishing the commission, Te Pāti Māori said it would ensure takatāpui communities would have access to gender-affirming healthcare within the public system. This would include hormone therapy, such as puberty blockers.
The Maori Party – which has been in the vanguard of efforts to reduce cigarette smoking – is taking a different tack on puberty blockers.
It also is challenging the position of the Ministry of Health. which two years ago urged doctors to take a “precautionary approach” before prescribing puberty blockers. The Government then banned the use of puberty blockers for new patients.
The Government’s order, banning the use of puberty blockers, came into effect from December 2025.
Puberty blockers are clinically known as gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues.
The main medical, psychological, and ethical concerns regarding their use revolve around limited long-term data, impacts on physical development, and the strength of the clinical evidence supporting them.
True, they have been used safely for decades to treat “precocious puberty” (abnormally early puberty) in young children.
But their more recent use has been to pause natural puberty in adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria.
The United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway are among other countries which have heavily restricted or banned new prescriptions outside of clinical trials.
A landmark independent review of gender identity services in the UK, led by pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass, concluded that the evidence base supporting the routine use of hormone treatments for youth is remarkably “shaky” and inadequate.
But here’s the thing: gonadotropin wasn’t the word that drove the writer of this article to consult his reference books.
It was the word “takatāpui”, which is described as “a traditional Māori term that encompasses both gender identity and sexual orientation, used by individuals who are Māori and part of the LGBTQIA+ (rainbow) community”.
Google said Stuff regularly uses the term takatāpui in its news coverage to report on rainbow youth in state care or political platform policies.
The word apparently
… reached mainstream prominence on New Zealand television in 2004 with the premiere of the series Takatāpui on Māori Television, which was the world’s first indigenous queer television show. [1]
Your correspondent must have been watching Top Gear at that time.
It seems the word was first recorded in 1832 in the earliest Māori language dictionaries compiled by missionaries. [1]
It was defined historically as an “intimate companion of the same sex”. [1]
But – just like the words in the Treaty of Waitangi – its meaning has been elastic.
Our Google search response said:
- The 1980s Resurgence:
- Contemporary Meaning:
The reclaiming of the word in the 1980s by people who were gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, or part of rainbow community would have coincided (by PoO calculations) with the three articles of the Treaty of Waitangi being expanded by lawyers, judges and what-have-you into a set of principles
Google said:
The term is fluid and can be used by anyone within the Māori rainbow community, including those who are:
- Gay, lesbian, bisexual, or pansexual.
- Transgender, non-binary, or gender-diverse (often also referred to as takatāpui or specific terms like whakawahine or tangata taatua).
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE.
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