Monday, January 25, 2010

pretend maori greet cruise ships

Dressing up and pretending to be maori for cruise ships that arrive in Tauranga is insulting at best. It should not be allowed.

From NZ Herald
"Discovery Heritage Group has been banned from Port of Tauranga land after rival companies complained it hired foreign workers to wear traditional Maori dress.
Company director Terina Puriri said she employed a range of nationalities, including French and Israelis, because local Maori were not willing to promote their heritage.
"Some of our Maori are too slack to promote themselves. Some of our Maori are too lazy to get out of bed to do that.
"They don't turn up and it's a known thing for Tauranga Maori to do that."
Bullshit - disrespecting tangata whenua is shocking - what possible motive could their be - other than drawing attention away from the shameful company.
"Local kaumatua Iria Whiu, from Ngati Ranginui and Ngai te Rangi, was outraged, saying Puriri's comments were "highly insulting".
Using non-Maori posing as Maori was an insult to Maori nationwide, he said.
Exactly. This company should be investigated and protests should be launched. This type of exploitation is the very worse kind. Using non-maori to pretend to be maori is far too far IMO.

1 comment:

Edward said...

I can't believe those creeps. Thought we lived in the 21st century now, but apparently there are still f'wits with Victorian mentalities around. The whole "Maori didn't want to represent so I used non-Maori posing as Maori" to generate revenue is the worst kind of cultural exploitation, theft and insult. And as though pushing some bs about "lazy Maori" is any sort of excuse - the fact is that company is a racist culture criminal.

Good on Port of Tauranga for kicking them out.