Mahu vahine (or simply mahu; vahine by itself meaning "woman") are effeminate men or people of ambiguous gender on the usually conservative island of Tahiti. They have been accepted as part of Polynesian culture for hundreds of years. Mahu, meaning 'in the middle', are men living as women. The mahu vahine are respected for their ancestral customs and traditional social and spiritual roles they have within society. Mahu vahine are born biologically male but family and friends believe they do not conform to traditional gender roles from an early age. The group play key spiritual roles in the community, as guardians of rituals, dance and also to provide care for children and the elderly.

On 21 March 2005, journalist Trevor Bormann of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation posted a video in which he gained an insight into Tahiti's mahu vahine. He also learned that while the third gender was considered part of the country's cultural heritage, members of the transgender community, or rae-ra', were not so well regarded[1]. Rae-rae are transgender women who often pursue gender reassignment surgery unlike mahu vahine.

In October 2019, female Swiss-Guinean photographer Namsa Leuba held an exhibition entitled Illusions in London featuring poster-sized photographs of mahu vahine and rae-rae[2]. The extraordinary series of photographs showcased the island's third gender painted in bright colours and adorned in flower garlands and shells as they posed on idyllic beaches against a backdrop of the South Pacific Ocean. The project was created in Tahiti and inspired by the paintings of Paul Gauguin and “tropical” images in Modern art, which occupy the Western collective unconscious. This type of imagery casts the Polynesian woman as beautiful, desirable, subservient, and connected to the natural environment.

This myth of the “vahine”, as Polynesian women are referred to, is historically rooted in the West's search for the “original” and “authentic”, which was thought to be found in faraway cultures, with a connection between the body, soul and land. Gauguin’s paintings in French Polynesia were influential in developing the Primitivist art movement, which articulated a visualisation of the “other” through a connectivity to nature.

The subjects in Leuba's contemporary portraits act out their role of the “vahine”, yet through non-binary definitions of gender conformity. Leuba stages the fictional narratives with a painterly sensibility. Decorated with cultural and social ornaments, the models distinguish themselves with colorful cosmetics and body paint, creating a surreal sense of beauty and strangeness. They blend into nature, like creatures between myth and reality. They symbolise their identity through the incarnation of the spirit, by the image beyond the confines of the body. Connecting to this female archetype, it is an attempt at metamorphosis, as well as an ideological challenge to the visual codes initiated by Gauguin and his search for the primitive.

'Mahu have this other sense that men or women don't have,' said Leuba, who immersed herself in the culture for six months a year. 'It is well known in (French Polynesia) that they have something special.' The photographer - who met most of her subjects as strangers on the street - interviews them for hours before taking their picture in order to gain their trust. 'Sometimes I would hear some really (tough) stuff that has happened to them, and it was totally not sexy or glamorous. It was difficult. And others were well-accepted by their family and their community,' recounted Leuba. 'For me, it was very important to see (the subject's) beauty and the power -- in my pictures, it's very strong look, a strong posture -- and to (allow them to) make themselves beautiful,' she said.

References[]

Acknowledgements[]

This article was written by Roy Tan.

Mahu vahine

See also[]

References[]

Acknowledgements[]