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".
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.
"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.
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.
"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.
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