'akava'ine
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'''''' is a Cook Islands Māori word which has come, since the 2000s, to refer to transgender people of Māori descent from the Cook Islands.
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Encyclopedic overview
6 sectionsContents
- Terms and etymology
- History
- Contemporary culture
- See also
- References
- Bibliography
'''' is a Cook Islands Māori word which has come, since the 2000s, to refer to transgender people of Māori descent from the Cook Islands.
It may be an old custom but has a contemporary identity influenced by other Polynesians, through cross-cultural interaction of Polynesians living in New Zealand, especially the Samoan fa'afafine'', Third Gender people who hold a special place in Samoan society.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “'akava'ine” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.