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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“Can you spot the fourth object in this picture? No one seems to be able to find the crutch!”
The internet is packed with challenges like optical illusions and puzzles like Wordle, all designed to test our brains. One of the latest is a picture called “I’m sure you can’t find the 4th object,” and it’s got people stumped.
The image shows three people at the toilets—one woman sitting down and two others standing by their toilets. On the side of the picture, there’s a list of objects to find: an egg, a glove, an envelope, and a crutch.
But what about the crutch?
ChatGPT said:
ChatGPT
If you want to try finding the objects yourself, stop here because the answers are coming up…
Since the objects are beige, they can be tricky to see at first. The brown glove is on the skirt of the person standing in the middle. The egg is on the nose of the person on the left, and the envelope is turned sideways to blend in with the bathroom tiles on the wall.
But where’s the crutch?
No matter how hard you look, you won’t find a crutch in the picture because there isn’t one.
The creator’s profile hints at how to figure it out by saying, “Tap the + to see it.” But this just makes you follow their account, and you still won’t see a crutch since it’s not there.
This is a common trick to gain followers, so if you’re puzzled by something on TikTok, keep in mind that it might just be a way to get you to follow them!
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