Mana Wahine and Mothering at the Loʻi: A Two-spirit/Queer Analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT Indigenous feminist scholars have documented the extent and impact of heteropatriarchy, capitalism, and white supremacy on Indigenous communities. Settler colonial forces targeted women and two-spirit/queer people. This article applies a two-spirit/queer (2SQ) lens to re-engage with land-based practices at one restoration project in Hawaiʻi. This article illuminates how working to restore loʻi kalo (wetland taro farming) – work often considered to be ‘men's’ kuleana (responsibility) – can cultivate mana wahine (feminine spiritual power) and to reflect on how heteronormative gender binaries are learned impositions that have become sedimented in various ways at the loʻi, specifically in the form of gendered divisions of labour. Two moʻolelo (stories) are presented to juxtapose at least two very different approaches and values operating simultaneously in this place. A two spirit/queer analysis of gender at the loʻi in introduces a notion of mana wahine that does not rely upon the gender binary and thus helps me/us envision ʻŌiwi feminist futures that bring about material and metaphorical decolonisation, liberation, and justice. And in very practical ways, this analysis is intended to help the author, a mother of cis-gender (possibly) heterosexual children to express their genders and sexualities in culturally relevant, mana-full ways.