He Takatāpui Ahau

Directed by Alesha Adhar

When encouraged to return to their Marae, a gentle non-binary person decides to go back to their tūrangawaewae despite uncertainty that they’ll be accepted for who they are. A takatāpui non-binary person has decided to go home to their marae for the first time since coming out to their everyday community. They have borne witness to homophobia and transphobia in the past from their family, and they’ve seen it on the whānau Facebook pages, so they don’t know how it’s gonna go.I think that the main character was right in being nervous to go home, because it was what they thought it was going to be. But then they find acceptance in an unexpected place.