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.
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HOUSE LOOKS BEAUTIFUL – BUT PEOPLE REFUSED TO BUY IT BECAUSE OF WHAT WAS INSIDE
Finding a house that fits your criteria perfectly can be a challenge. Sometimes you have to compromise on a few aspects in order to find a home. However, there are certain things no one is willing to compromise on.
This is the story of a house that seems ordinary enough from the outside but when you peak a look inside… you understand why no one is will to buy it.
A home listed in the UK seemed to be perfect. The listed described it as a home with four bedrooms, a master suite, a garage and a perfectly manicured garden. The listing also included the fact that the home had been maintained to a “high standard” but it seemed like no one wanted to buy it. The reason for that was soon revealed when the pictures of the home’s interior came to light.
Everything inside the interior of the home was purple. The paint on all the walls was of course purple but it did not stop there. The floor was also purple, and the ceilings and the curtains were all purple as well.
The closet doors in the master suite also happened to be a garish purple color. While one might reason that the walls are easy enough to paint over, fixures such as closet doors can be a hassle to replace.
While the inside of the house is a parade of purple, the outside or the exterior of the house has remained unscathed by the color. The garden is also normal looking, not betraying what the inside of the home looks like. The home is listed for £400,000 which is approximately $500 thousand.
Unless the next owner of the property also adores the color purple, something must change.
Would you be willing to live in this house?
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