Day 6: Fa’afafine of Samoa - Embodying Both and Beyond.

Day 6: Fa’afafine of Samoa – Embodying Both and Beyond.

In Samoa, there are four recognized cultural genders: man, woman, Fa’afafine, and Fa’afatama. Fa’afafine (meaning “in the manner of a woman”) and Fa’afatama, meaning “in the manner of a man.” The modern term Fa’afatama is sometimes understood as a contemporary expression of the older term Fa’afatane.

Fa’afafine and Fa’afatama often move fluidly between traditional male and female social roles and are integral to family and community. Historically, both were valued as important diplomats and peacemakers because their unique positions allowed them to communicate and move seamlessly between men’s and women’s social groups. This history reflects an important cultural space in pre-colonial Samoa that accepted and honored third gender identities, not as exceptions but as valued members with meaningful roles in their families and village life.

From early childhood, many Fa’afafine are recognized and integrated into kinship networks by supporting elders, caring for children, and as cultural practitioners. They often serve as respected teachers of dance and ceremony, sustaining the continuity of Samoan heritage.

Facing Erasure

Traditional Fa’a Samoa, the Samoan way of life, centers on family (aiga), respect (fa’aaloalo), and service (tautua). These core values emphasize caring for extended family and community through love, respect, and responsibility. With the arrival of Christian missionaries and colonial oppression, rigid Western gender binaries and religious doctrines were imposed. These harmful systems marginalized the once loving places of honor and respect held for Fa’afafine identity within the culture. The culturally disruptive acts of other-izing and criminalizing queer expressions have, as a result, stigmatized many, creating lives filled with abuse, displacement, and forced invisibility.

Reclaiming Identity and Culture

Despite their trauma, Fa’afafine and Fa’afatama identities have persisted, not only through resilience and activism but also because, deeply rooted in the culture, Samoans still remain of the heart and mind to include everyone. Over the past decades, grassroots and community-led efforts in Samoa, and coalitions across the Pacific, have worked tirelessly to promote the rights, health, education, and visibility of Fa’afafine and Fa’afatama people. These efforts include advocating for the decriminalization of harmful laws, supporting mental and sexual health programs, and creating public platforms such as cultural pageants that celebrate identity and raise funds for community advocacy projects.

Fa’afafine identity invites us to rethink gender as a diverse and relational experience rather than a limited or strict binary. As activist Ymania Brown reminds us, “Being Fa’afafine is not just about identity, it’s about service to family and community.” This more holistic view of queerness centers care and connection as core values, and that is the de-colonized truth of Fa’a Samoa.

Learn More

Samoa Fa’afafine Association (SFA)
The Healer’s Wound: A Queer Theirstory of Polynesia (Second Edition) by by Dan Taulapapa McMullin – an artists’ book, of poetry and collage, based on years of archival research by Sāmoan fa’afafine artist, filmmaker, and celebrated poet.
Stories from Samoan Queer Life – Radio New Zealand RNZ’s (audio + text)
Natural History Museum’s “Beyond Gender” – exhibit on Fa’afafine and Fa’afatama history and cuture
Watch: 100 Tikis a film by Dan Taulapapa McMullin
Read: National Geographic’s “How Science Helps Us Understand Gender”