WOMAN BECOMES FIRST MAORI PRIMETIME NEWSREADER WITH CHIN TATTOO
Oriini Kaipara has shattered glass ceilings as she became the first primetime news presenter in New Zealand with a face tattoo.
She read the 18:00 news bulletin on Newshub.
Kaipara is an Auckland resident and mother of four who got the lower chin tattoo as a tribute to her ethnicity. The tattoo is known as Ta Moko.
The Evening Standard reports that some New Zealanders with indigenous Maori heritage wear tattoos on their face or arms that represent their genealogy and are culturally sacred.
Kaipara told the Daily Mail that the enormity of the situation doesn’t go unnoticed.
“I’m very much aware that I’m the first (with moko kauae) to anchor a six o’clock primetime news bulletin. It’s definitely a step forward, and a step-up. If there was a goal for me, it would be anchoring prime time news, and that’s happened.”
Kaipara is not the only public figure with a moko kauae. New Zealand’s foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta became the first female MP to wear a moko kauae in Parliament when she was elected.
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