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Tiki and Tūtānekai’s Forgotten Symphony 
This is gonna be a thread as I'm so proud of how this turned out! I've wanted to draw this for years so wanna talk a bit about the symbolism behind it. And since it's still Pride Month, we need more black and brown queer stories! 
Everyone in Aotearoa is familiar with the love story of Hinemoa and Tūtānekai. Westerners liken it to a Māori Romeo and Juliet as it involves two star crossed lovers, but unlike Shakespeare, everyone lives! The story is so well known there’s even a popular song, Pokarekare Ana.
What most people don't know though is the story has a queer side to it, seen in the almost unknown relationship between Tūtānekai and his close friend Tiki.
Yeah, I'm about to tell you this part via the Notes app
Yeah, I'm about to tell you this part via the Notes app
Like all Māori tales, this old love triangle was shared and passed down orally until it was first put into print in the late 19th century. And like so much of Māori culture, the story was sanitised and stripped of anything that contradicted colonial British values.
In the oral tale, Tiki is referred to as a "takatāpui", a specific term in te reo for an intimate same-sex companion. Almost losing its meaning thanks to colonial assimilation, the word has since been reclaimed by LGBTQ+ Māori today (you may have seen the word in my bio too)
Tiki and Tūtānekai’s relationship too has regained wider recognition. When the vote on same-sex marriage was passed in 2013, the floor of the NZ Parliament broke out into a rendition of Pokarekare Ana. Their relationship was also mentioned during the debates.
(The woman being congratulated and blessed with flowers there is Louisa Wall. She was the one who submitted the bill that eventually became the law. It’s thanks to a Māori lesbian that queer people in NZ can marry today!)
Now y’all know the story behind this, I wanna quickly talk about what, how and why I’ve depicted Tiki and Tūtānekai like I have! Apologies for getting all GCSE Art final piece with this thread now lol
I tired drawing in my style but wanted to combine a lot of traditional Māori art too, like taniko, tukutuku and whakiro.
