Oriini Kaipara has garnered global attention for making history with her moko kauae. Photo / Discovery
Oriini Kaipara has garnered global attention for making history with her moko kauae. Photo / Discovery
Newshub's Oriini Kaipara made international headlines earlier this year when she became the first indigenous woman to front the 6pm news with a moko kauae.
And while her historic role has seen her heaped with praise and congratulations, her presence on the news has also seen her face a steady stream of backlash.
Speaking to Paula Bennett on her new Herald podcast Ask Me Anything, Kaipara said she had been presenting Te Karere for some time before she first hosted the English-language news on 2019.
"When I started reading in English on the [midday bulletin] people took notice and took offence to it. You know, there wasn't as much offence or people who took offence to it as there were a lot of people who were supportive, especially Māori, especially non-Māori, people of all creeds were saying, yay, finally, this is happening.
"Then I just think, well, actually it's been happening for a while," she said, noting that journalists with moko on other networks have been reading the news longer than she has.
Kaipara recently generated more headlines after hitting out at a viewer who had complained about her "offensive" moko kauae, and previously told the Herald that particularly complainant was "relentless".
She told Bennett she was not initially aware of the angry mail that was coming into newsrooms, but talking to a fellow Māori journalist about it made her dwell on where the rage was coming from.
"I said, 'I'm not upset about it. I get everyone has an opinion and they have a right to, you know, their own thoughts. They don't have a right to project it onto us.
"But she was saying it's confronting, especially because we're in their homes, we're on the television set in their homes, and when I think about that, I'm like, oh, okay, I'm an uninvited person into their homes where they should have control. Everyone has control over who's allowed in their homes and they don't want me in their houses. And that's how I see it.
"And you know, I'm not gonna get offended by that. I respect that, but at the end of the day, I'm not going anywhere."
Bennett said that she has received similar correspondence after using te reo Māori on her TVNZ 1 quiz show, Give Us A Clue.
It comes after decades of struggling with her own Māori identity. While she is working towards improving her own pronunciation, Bennett said it's come decades after being taught to suppress that side of herself.
"My grandmother was actually really staunch and there was kind of that anti [te reo Māori] and, you know, 'we do not speak the language ... it's a white man's world', I remember her saying that.
"I went to Taupo-nui-a-Tia College, and they used to call me Mallowpuff because they said when I was brown on the outside and white on the inside. That just makes you want to withdraw more."
She said the country has become more tolerant in recent years, and there appears to be a renaissance for the language.
Kaipara agreed and said it gives her life to see kids running around, living their authentic selves.
"I have the same feeling when I look at our Chinese friends, Japanese just, and they're just totally immersed in their own language, and that's the dream I have, that's the dream a lot of us fluent speakers have, is that just one day it's normal like that it looks normal. There's not gonna be abuse hurled at those people for speaking their language."
Listen to the full podcast above for more from Paula and Oriini as they discuss advice for people starting on their journeys with te reo Māori, how to appreciate the language, and how to be culturally aware when visiting a marae.
