Oriini Kaipara, New Zealand News Anchor With Traditional Maori Face Tattoos, Faces Backlash From Viewers Over Facial Markings
By Sidra Lackey
In December 2021 Māori news anchor Oriini Kaipara made history as the first person with facial markings to present primetime news. Kaipara started her journalistic career in 2005 and her prominent new position was praised as a win for Māori representation.
Credit: oriinz via instagram
Fast-forward to 2022, Kaipara recently curtailed insensitive remarks from a viewer who she said emailed her and described her face tattoos as, “offensive and aggressive looking” and a “bad look,” according to NBC News headline: “New Zealand news anchor with traditional face tattoo blasts viewer’s racist comments.” Kaipara took to Instagram to report, “Today, I had enough. I responded.” Kaipara retorted back to the unhappy viewer, a lengthy message that politely educated the viewer on her face tattoos yet scolded them for their prejudice, “Please refrain from complaining further, and restrain your cultural ignorance and bias for another lifetime, preferably in the 1800s.”
Credit: oriinz via instagram
Kaipara got her face tattoos, known as moko kauae (a sacred Māori chin tattoo for women that originated from ancient Polynesian society) in 2019 as a personal decision for “grounding reasons” to remind her of her “power and identity as a Māori woman,” she told CNN in a profile piece on her: “Māori journalist becomes first person with facial markings to present primetime news.” "When I doubt myself, and I see my reflection in the mirror, I'm not just looking at myself. I'm looking at my grandmother and my mother, and my daughters, and hers to come after me, as well as all the other women, Māori girls out there and it empowers me."
In an interview earlier this year, on the political current affairs show, Newshub Nation Kaipara co-hosts, she explained the history and meaning of the traditional moko kauae (after a woman with a moko kauae like hers, was discriminated against at a playground and asked to leave because of it). Kaipara educated viewers extensively on the tattoo history of moko kauae,
“Moko kauae is really reserved for Māori women, it’s not for anyone, it’s just Māori women and it’s a birthright but it’s not a right where every Māori woman goes out and seeks it. The essence of it really is a connection to whakapapa. For Māori women, having a moko kauae is actually a commitment to becoming better, to becoming a better version of oneself, to reconnecting to your homelands, to your spiritual essence as a Māori woman. And the manner of the moko itself derives from our deities, our belief systems.”
Kaipara continued on teaching, “For Māori women in this modern age, it takes a lot, a lot of guts to actually go ahead and go through with it. To be subjected to societal views and people who have an opinion about appearance, it’s got nothing to do with appearance but everything to do with one’s own manner. I find it really bizarre that people are offended by facial tattoos. It’s not a threat. There are a lot of women, a lot of Māori wahine, wahine Māori – look at parliament. We have politicians with moko kauae and mataora.”
In Oriini Kaipara’s CNN interview she said she hoped young Māori girls will take inspiration from her story as a sign that times are changing. Hopefully Oriini Kaipara is correct and the backlash against her beautiful, powerful moko kauae will eventually cease to exist. Perhaps, New Zealand will become the prototype country for other countries to take a cue from when it comes to allowing visible tattoos in the workplace. And hopefully one day, people with facial tattoos in professional careers, particularly, can confidently wear their face tattoos with little to no stigma attached.