This practice-led thesis adopts a critically iterative approach to address the question:

How might an artistic reconsideration of gender role differentiation give a unique voice to takatāpui tāne identity?

The research seeks to illuminate experiential contexts, then generate visual and performance artefacts where the principle of irarere within gender identity and sexual orientation might find a purposeful place to stand within te ao Māori.

Emanating from a Kaupapa Māori paradigm, the research employs the methodological metaphor of Te Whare Rangahau, populated with methods including karakia, kanohi ki te kanohi interviewing, iterative experimentation, pakiwaitara (poetic inquiry), photography, and choreography.

Drawing on interviews with takatāpui tāne, the study reveals knowledge about identity and examines how this has been expressed through performance. The study is motivated by my identity as a takatāpui tāne who manifests irarere. In the thesis, this embodiment is synthesised with external data to create a live performance and a published book that interface poetry with portraiture. The live performance merges oratory, imagery and Kapa Haka inside a Whare Takatāpui. In this space takatāpui tāne are conceived as poupou, and agents who maintain the dignity of being Māori and queer.

The significance of the study lies in its contribution to the evolution of both Kapa Haka and takatāpui identity.