Reiterating her pride in her cultural heritage and identity, a TV hostess with a customary Māori face tattoo gracefully responded to trolling remarks.
These pictures often start online debates about facial tattoos. Some people accept the cultural significance of these motifs, while others think tattoos should only be placed to the body.
Oriini Kaipara, 41, is a trailblazing TV presenter who made history at Newshub in New Zealand when she began her career as a newsreader. She was the first to present a primetime TV news report while donning the traditional Māori women’s marking, the moko kauae.
Moko kauae are vitally significant symbols of Māori history and identity, as they are considered by the native Polynesian population of the mainland of New Zealand. These facial tattoos, which are typically applied to the lips and chins, honor a woman’s heritage, status, and skills while also denoting her leadership in her community and within her family.
However, in the midst of all the appreciation, Newshub received an email from a viewer named David who was unhappy with Kaipara’s moko kauae.
He responded, “We continue to object strongly to you using a Māori newsreader with a moku [moko], which is offensive and aggressive looking,” as reported by the Daily Mail.A nasty look. She also speaks incoherently in our non-English tongue, Māori. Now put an end to it.
Kaipara boldly addressed the issue head-on in spite of David’s disparaging remarks, sharing images of the messages on her Instagram story and responding in a refined and polite way.
“Today, I’d had enough.” I responded. I never behave like that. She posted a picture of David’s message to Instagram with the remark, “I hit the send button and broke my own code.”
Furthermore, Kaipara made public the email discussion she had with David in which she said she couldn’t take David’s complaint seriously “given there is no breach of broadcast standards.”
She also made an effort to correct his spelling of “moko,” as David had referred to hers as “moku.”
Kaipara stated in her email, “I understand your complaints originate from a place of preference on how one must look on-screen.” This kind of intolerance, harassment, or prejudice is not warranted for Moko and others around her; they are not dangerous.
“We don’t intend to cause harm or have any bad intentions, and neither do we/I deserve to be treated with such disregard,” she continued. “Please stop complaining and wait until a later time, preferably the 1800s, to express your cultural ignorance and bias.”
Kaipara swiftly stressed that most of her comments are pleasant and that ugly trolls are uncommon, even in the wake of David’s negative remarks.
Shortly after responding to David’s complaint, Kaipara spoke with the New Zealand Herald about the need for more Māori activists. “The fact that some people find my existence upsetting is evidence of the need for more Māori advocates in important positions throughout every sector,” she stated.
All things considered, Kaipara’s cool response serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of cultural pride and resilience in the face of adversity. She is also inspiring people to embrace their identities with courage and speak out against discrimination.
What are your thoughts on this story? Tell us in the section that follows!
10 Curiosities You Probably Didn’t Learn in Biology Class
The world is a big, wonderful place full of facts we never thought possible. For instance, if a pregnant mouse has a sudden medical issue, the fetus will send stem cells to heal the mother, increasing its chances of survival as well. Fetal stem cells have been found in human mothers as well, dubbed by science as microchimerism.
Bright Side dug up some more marvelous facts about nature and its creations, upholding our yearly resolutions to spread knowledge and joy.
1. The heart slows when your face touches water.
As mammals, we can’t breathe underwater, so as part of the mammalian dive reflex, our heart rate goes down in the water — more so if we go underwater. Even splashing the face with water makes the heart slow down, making it a great way to calm down.
2. Fungus can break down plastic in weeks.
It is said that in the future, there may be more plastic in the ocean than fish. This is why the plastic-eating fungus is great news, and there are around 50 new species of such fungi discovered already. One of the fungi discovered can digest plastic within 2 months, so there’s hope for us yet.
3. Newborn babies can support their own weight.
Newborn babies are strong — strong enough to be able to grasp things in their tiny fists and even support their weight as shown by an experiment done in the nineteenth century. Louis Robinson witnessed babies able to hang from a walking stick, from 10 seconds to 2 minutes and 35 seconds.
4. Koala fingerprints have been mistaken for human ones.
We’ve been told that our fingerprints are unique, and they are. But the fact remains that even though we share a common ancestor with the koala that was alive 100 million years ago, koala fingerprints look very similar to human fingerprints, as do chimpanzee fingerprints for that matter.
5. Snails can sleep for 3 years.
If you thought bears had it good with hibernation, meet the snail. Snails can sleep rather than hibernate for 3 years at a time without needing food. Of course, this is with some snail species, not all of them. Meanwhile, bears usually hibernate for just 4-8 months.
6. Sloths need 2 weeks to digest food.
Sloths don’t only move in slow motion — even their insides move slowly, ostensibly to preserve energy, which is why a sloth’s digestive system takes 2 weeks to process the food it ate. Plus, most of what it eats is indigestible, giving it very little energy from each slowly chewed mouthful.
On the other end of the spectrum lies the shrew, whose digestion takes mere minutes and is done so fast, not much of it is fully digested. This is the reason why shrews eat their own feces. They can die of starvation in a matter of hours if they don’t eat.
7. Your brain ignores seeing your nose.
We can see our nose all the time, it’s just that the brain tends to ignore it because it’s a constant visual stimulus. It’s the same with people who wear glasses. After a while, they simply stop noticing them.
8. Your forearm is the same length as your foot.
If you don’t have the time to try on a shoe, measure it from your elbow crease to your wrist. If it fits or is just a little smaller, it would fit your foot because the length of your forearm is the same as your foot. And this is just one of many human body ratios that are a marvel in themselves, including the fact that your femur bone is one-quarter your height.
9. You can “see” your white blood cells.
If you look up at a cloudless, bright blue sky and see some wiggly things at the periphery of your vision, you’ve just experienced the blue field entoptic phenomenon. The wiggly things are white blood cells moving in the fine blood vessels moving in front of the retina, at the back of the eye.
10. Human beings have striped skin, but only cats can see it.
Human beings have stripes and patterns on the skin too, and they are called Lines of Blaschko, name eponymously by the scientist who discovered them, Dr. Alfred Blaschko. These are closer to tiger stripes, forming more of a V-pattern fanning out from the center to the extremities. These lines are visible under UV light, a spectrum that cats can see too, which is why cats can see you as a striped being as well.
Which of these facts turned out to be a revelation for you? Share your extreme nature facts with us and blow us away.
Preview photo credit Shutterstock.com, Shutterstock.com
Leave a Reply