Kiwis slam the Kardashians over TikTok video of their kids performing Māori haka

Kim and Kourtney Kardashian have raised the ire of Kiwi fans after the reality TV family uploaded a video of their children on TikTok. Photo / Supplied

The Kardashians have faced backlash over a video of their kids was shared on TikTok.

On Sunday, Scott Disick shared a video on TikTok of his daughter Penelope performing a Māori war dance alongside Kim Kardashian's children, Saint and North.

The kids were accompanied by two other children.

Since the video has been uploaded, many New Zealanders called the depiction "wildly inappropriate," "disrespectful" and "insulting".

No one is bad at the kids. They probably don’t even know of Māori or any other indigenous groups on the Pacific. But there are grown ass adults sitting around, encouraging, recording and broadcasting this behaviour to the world. And then getting applause for “trying.”

— Shaneel Lal (@shaneellall) December 13, 2020

The youngsters stood on a staircase while they did the dance, accompanied by a war cry.

"TikTok ya don't stop. Ain't got nothing on us!" Disick captioned the video posted to his 24 million TikTok followers.

Fans weren't happy with the culturally significant dance being used for content on TikTok.

Why are the Kardashian kids doing the haka and why are they saying it’s TikTok content 🙄

— Jess Molina (@JessMolina) December 13, 2020

"Thought 2020 couldn't get any worse? The Kardashians think the haka is a TikTok dance," one fan tweeted.

"My heritage better not be a damned TikTok dance challenge. I don't care that they've learned the real words rather than making up their own, this is sacred. STOP APPROPRIATING CULTURES," another wrote.

"Why the f**k are the Kardashian West-Disick kids doing a haka on Scott's story? That feels wildly inappropriate?" another asked.

The Kardashian children are doing the Haka. Like I'm not mad, but my culture isn't a tiktok challenge. I hope anyone who joins in shows some respect.

— E34&E36 (@carsandcurls) December 14, 2020

Other fans were also wondering why the Kardashians, who are American with Armenian descent, would perform a traditional New Zealand war dance.

"Why did I just see a video of the Kardashian kids doing the haka? What is going on?" one asked.

Some Māori leaders actually came to the Kardashians' defence, claiming the video might help promote their culture in a positive way.

Māori Council executive director Matthew Tukaki believes it was performed with good intent, and is good exposure for Māori culture.

Those Kardashian kids doing the haka? Ew. Why!? It’s a sacred and integral part of Māori culture yet people treat it like some kind of foreign/touristic attraction. Can people just not?

— blacklivesheckingmatter ♏️ (@SymiTaywerr) December 14, 2020

"On the one hand, it's a great thing. On the other hand, I would love to have a conversation with them about what the haka means and what motivated them to do it."

Tukaki said it was great when Māori culture is shared online, within reason.

"It has to be done with true intent. It's not just something that's good for Instagram or social media."

Other supporters of the Kardashians said the clip was more of cultural appreciation over cultural appropriation.

"They pronounced most of the words better than half the people I know do," one Kiwi wrote.