A TV presenter with a traditional Māori face tattoo has calmly replied to negative comments from a viewer, proudly standing up for her cultural heritage and identity.
Facial tattoos often spark debates online. Some people think tattoos should only be on the body, while others understand and appreciate their cultural importance.
Oriini Kaipara, 41, made history when she became a newsreader for New Zealand’s Newshub. She is the first primetime TV news presenter to wear a moko kauae, a special facial tattoo for Māori women.
The Māori are the indigenous people of mainland New Zealand. They see moko kauae as important symbols of their heritage and identity. These tattoos, traditionally on the lips and chin, show a woman’s family ties, leadership, and honor her lineage, status, and abilities.
Oriini Kaipara. Credit: Oriini Kaipara / Instagram.
Despite receiving praise, one viewer named David expressed his dislike for Kaipara’s moko kauae in an email to Newshub.
He wrote, “We continue to object strongly to you using a Māori newsreader with a moku [moko] which is offensive and aggressive looking. A bad look. She also bursts into the Māori language which we do not understand. Stop it now,” according to the Daily Mail.
But Kaipara didn’t let David’s negative words stop her. She bravely shared screenshots of his messages on her Instagram story and responded calmly.
“Today I had enough. I responded. I never do that. I broke my own code and hit the send button,” she wrote on her Instagram story alongside a screenshot of David’s message.
Kaipara didn’t just share screenshots of David’s email, she also responded to him. She explained that his complaint wasn’t valid because she hadn’t broken any rules for TV.
She also corrected David’s spelling mistake. He called her tattoo a “moku” instead of “moko”.
In her email back to him, Kaipara said, “I think you don’t like how I look on TV. But tattoos and people with them aren’t scary or bad. We don’t deserve to be treated badly because of them.”
She asked him to stop complaining and to try to understand better. She even joked that maybe he should go back to the 1800s if he couldn’t accept people with tattoos.
Despite David’s negative words, Kaipara says she mostly gets nice comments, and mean ones are rare.
In an interview with the New Zealand Herald, Kaipara talked about how it’s important to have more Māori people in important jobs. She said, “The fact that my existence makes some people upset shows why we need more Māori people in every job.”
Kaipara’s calm response reminds us how important it is to be proud of who you are, even when people are mean. She’s inspiring others to be proud of themselves and stand up to unfair treatment.
What do you think of this story? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Audience in awe as children’s Christmas recital turns into surprising shake dance
Oh, these tiny stars will make you fall in love with the holidays even more. You may think how you’ve seen lovely Christmas performances over the years, but once you get to see these adorable little humans, they will certainly become your number one holiday sensation.
The whole show they put on will make your heart and body dance along. Everyone is having so much fun that we wonder who these concerts are actually made for, the parents, or the kids themselves. This video is perfect for lifting up the holiday spirit and making you enthusiastic about everything it brings along.
We have the most adorable kids, a perfectly decorated stage, some nice costumes, iconic Christmas song, and it seems all this is the key to perfection.
It’s obvious from the footage that this performance took place some years ago, but thanks to the social media it went viral again. Maybe the students of the Saint Elizabeth Child care facility in Jersey City, New Jersey that were very little at that time will see themselves now when they are older and it will bring pleasant memories.
It’s so fun how they take the stage one by one, are lined next to each other, but are not really in a perfect sync, which makes them quite adorable. Moving back and forth in different rhythm but still with great enthusiasm, they are the cutest little dancers. It’s adorable how they wave their parents hi when they spot them among the crowd.
Audience in awe as children’s Christmas recital turns into surprising shake dance
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Oh, these tiny stars will make you fall in love with the holidays even more. You may think how you’ve seen lovely Christmas performances over the years, but once you get to see these adorable little humans, they will certainly become your number one holiday sensation.
The whole show they put on will make your heart and body dance along. Everyone is having so much fun that we wonder who these concerts are actually made for, the parents, or the kids themselves. This video is perfect for lifting up the holiday spirit and making you enthusiastic about everything it brings along.
We have the most adorable kids, a perfectly decorated stage, some nice costumes, iconic Christmas song, and it seems all this is the key to perfection.
It’s obvious from the footage that this performance took place some years ago, but thanks to the social media it went viral again. Maybe the students of the Saint Elizabeth Child care facility in Jersey City, New Jersey that were very little at that time will see themselves now when they are older and it will bring pleasant memories.
It’s so fun how they take the stage one by one, are lined next to each other, but are not really in a perfect sync, which makes them quite adorable. Moving back and forth in different rhythm but still with great enthusiasm, they are the cutest little dancers. It’s adorable how they wave their parents hi when they spot them among the crowd.
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Although they are only supposed to move along the melody, many of the kids can’t contain themselves from singing out loud. The all time favorite hit “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is the background song that makes the overall impression stronger.
In 1958, songwriter Johnny Marks wrote the iconic song for Brenda Lee when she was only a 10-year-old girl and whose vocal skills were already considered outstanding.
Some of his other hits are “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Holly Jolly Christmas.”
The song was a quick hit and its position as a Christmas classic is perhaps best cemented by the 1990 film Home Alone in which the main character uses it as the soundtrack to his fake Christmas party meant to scare away the burglars.
Seeing the beautiful and innocent kids holding hands and then waving their arms up in the air fills our hearts with joy. As they leave the stage, the proud parents praise them with loud applause.
Watch the performance in the video below.
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