Hawaii museum revisits history of gender-fluid healers

By AUDREY McAVOY
Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) — A new exhibit at Bishop Museum in Honolulu is drawing attention to a more than 500-year-old story about four high-ranking visitors from Tahiti who healed the sick. The healers were mahu, which in Hawaiian language and culture refers to someone with dual male and female spirit and a mixture of gender traits. Hawaiians placed four boulders on a beach in Waikiki to honor the visitors when it came time for them to go home. But the monument has been neglected for many years as Christian missionaries and other colonizers suppressed the role of mahu in society. The exhibit will be on display through mid-October.