New Delhi: A newsreader in New Zealand has become the first person ever to anchor a prime-time news show with a traditional face tattoo worn by Māori women.
Oriini Kaipara, 37, who sports a moko kauae, read the 6 pm news bulletin on Newshub Live in New Zealand on Monday.
Moko kauae is a traditional tattoo worn by Māori women on their lower chin. Māoris are the indigenous people of New Zealand.
According to reports, Kaipara got the tattoo inked in 2019 and has been since reading news on television with it for mid-day broadcast. This is the first time she read out the prime-time news as she had to appear as a temporary replacement for the regular evening hosts for the show, Indy100 reported.
Kaipara took to her Instagram account to share images and a video of her ‘debut’ as prime-time newsreader. She captioned the post: “6pm Debut.”
Take a look:
According to a report on Dailymail.co.uk, Kaipara, a mother of four from Auckland, found out about her “100 per cent” Māori origins after she took a DNA test in 2017.
She decided to go for the traditional tattoo in 2019.
The report said she followed a particular process known as Tā moko, representing “family heritage and social status”. For Māori women, it said, the moko was a “rite of passage, marking the passage between girl and adulthood and symbolises transformation”.
Kaipara is of Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa, Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Rangitihi descent, the report said.
Quoting Kaipara, it said presenting primetime news was a lifelong dream, adding that she now hopes more Māori women would be seen reading the news with their traditional tattoos.