Air Colonisation

Air NZ are the biggest bunch of hypocrites and cultural liars around. They have misappropriated the koru for their advertising (to make money) and as their logo yet when a Māori woman applies for a role as an Air hostess and she has ta moko on her lower arm she is told the job interview is over.

NZH

Claire Nathan says she had her dreams of being an air hostess dashed after Air New Zealand turned her away because of her ta moko.

Ms Nathan applied for her dream job in January, but last month, the national flag carrier terminated an interview when she declared the traditional Maori motif on her lower arm.

It really irks me that they keep calling ta moko a tattoo - why can't they get their heads around the difference between getting inked for whatever reason and ta moko depicting cultural pride and a person's whakapapa.

Ms Nathan said she was told tattoos that could not be covered by the uniform were unacceptable.

"I said straight away, 'This is a ta moko.' She [the interviewer] said, 'You can't even cover that up' and that 'we will have to stop this interview.'

Air NZ should be renamed Air Colonisation because they perpetuate the othering and denigration of tangata whenua - but they are only too happy to use rock stars or rugby players covered with tattoos and ta moko, to advertise and make money, when it suits them.

How do you imagine a Māori woman feels after that interview?

"I was totally shocked and just couldn't believe what I was hearing."

 Ms Nathan said she never thought her ta moko - depicting her heritage and her two children - would limit her career choices.

It is so bad that tangata whenua get treated this way and I'd expect susan devoy the Race Relations Commissioner to get involved but she won't. But others will because

The Human Rights Commission says "a person of Maori descent may not be denied employment, entry to premises, or declined service because they wear moko visibly"

Air NZ you are about to find out the meaning of utu for your denigration of  Māori.

proud to be a savage

Headlines that promote stereotypes are often insidious and sometimes not. In the name of humour they use the headlines to attract attention but is that what they are really doing? From their world view it is an insult, a derogatory term that puts the boot in (that's where the humour and wittisim is) - they would be horrified and insulted if someone called them that. But that's not the way we need to take it - there are many examples where groups have reclaimed the hate-filled words used to insult them and turned them into positive expressions of membership of that group. This has happened successfully within sexuality, disability, gender and ethnic struggles. It is time for indigenous people to reclaim some more of the insults they try to use on us.

From Stuff

"Samoan PM savages Air NZ"

The word 'savage' needs to be reclaimed. Let's turn their ideas of superiority around and reclaim their 'insults' and turn them into our proclamations of identity.

Savage as a noun means a "person regarded as primitive or uncivilized." As an adjective it means "Not domesticated or cultivated; wild".

Oh yeah - NOT DOMESTICATED OR CULTIVATED; WILD!!!

I am proud to be a savage, I love being not domesticated or cultivated, it's great to be wild and primitive, I bask in my uncivilised nature. We can all be savages.

Tongans get apology from Air NZ

Air NZ have apologised for having, in their cabin crew training manual, the statement that that Tongans may drink the bar dry if given the chance. But FFS why have it in the manual in the first place. These type of racial slurs are unacceptable.

From Radio NZ

"Air New Zealand is apologising to prominent members of New Zealand's Tongan community for a cabin crew training manual that says Tongan passengers may want to drink the plane dry.

The comments were in a section aimed at helping crew members deal with passengers from different ethnicities.

That is a FAIL.

The airline has apologised to the Tongan Advisory Council and to Labour MP Carmel Sepuloni, who is of Tongan and Samoan descent.

Tidy up your act Air NZ this is just embarassing, for you and for us.