A 13-year-old girl from Invercargill, a student at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Arowhenua, has just received a moko kauae. For those who don’t know, that’s a traditional facial tattoo worn on the chin of Māori women. It once held deep cultural meaning. It was something earned. Reserved for wāhine of mana: elders, leaders, knowledge holders. Now we’re slapping it on kids who haven’t even sat their NCEA exams.
The 13-year-old getting her face tattoo marked out.
Despite it being the school holidays, the kura opened its doors so whānau could gather and cry, sing waiata, and celebrate this so-called milestone. The girls mother, Ngā Roimata, said her daughter’s decision brought joy to both her and the girl’s father. What exactly are they celebrating? A child making an irreversible choice they can barely comprehend? This is a 13-year-old child - too young to drive, too young to buy alcohol, too young to consent to sex, and yet somehow deemed ready to permanently mark her face for life.
This is nothing to be proud about. This isn’t cultural affirmation. It’s parental negligence dressed up as tradition. To let a child carry such a heavy burden on her face for the rest of her life is nothing short of reckless. Parents should be protectors, guides, and gatekeepers. Instead, they’re enabling a political fad. The adults responsible have failed this child spectacularly. They have handed her a permanent mark without ensuring she understands the social stigma and lifelong consequences attached.
Getting her tattoo while everyone stands around watching.
I refuse to stay silent while this kind of madness passes as cultural pride. This reminds me of the debate about puberty blockers and most sane adults agree children are not equipped to make life-altering, irreversible decisions based on fleeting feelings. Why then are we letting our kids tattoo their faces permanently? Because “the cuzzie Hine got one”? Because parents want to show off their ‘woke’ credentials or appear culturally engaged? It’s an abdication of responsibility. A real slap in the face to the true meaning of moko kauae.
Jay Wiremu Davis - Tattooist
The moko kauae has been cheapened beyond recognition. It no longer carries the sacredness it once did. Nowadays, any individual can slap one on and concoct a story about spiritual calling. The deep cultural roots are being trampled underfoot for the sake of Instagram likes and social media clout. A lot of society as a whole still views facial tattoos with suspicion - associating them with gangs, violence, and trauma. This stigma will be thrust on this child every day of her life. Are her parents ready to shield her from the prejudice she will face, or are they too busy celebrating their ‘progressive’ parenting?
The 13-year-old with her mother.
I spoke with Penny Marie , founder of Let Kids Be Kids , and she provided me with the following statement:
When I watch the video of the 13-year-old getting her moko kauae, my intuition tells me that I am observing a ritual sacrifice. If you are not Maori, take your ‘culturally shamed’ blinkers off and watch it for yourself. What do you see? No matter your racial or religious affiliation - what do you see? Ancient traditions herald in the coming of age for young women and men - this is not new. However, is making a permanent mark that cannot be redacted or hidden away, (and is in today’s climate certainly politically motivated), acceptable to our society as a whole? And IF we care and are disturbed, what then? The cultural landscape in New Zealand is now such that one cannot question anything that goes on in Maoridom. Particularly when it comes to the children.
While the adults gathered around this girl cried and sang, I would have been crying too - not out of pride, but out of anger and despair. Anger at the parents who have failed to protect their child. Despair at the adults who allowed this to happen. This isn’t building up the next generation. It’s a slow destruction, one tattoo at a time.
This is not cultural pride. It is cultural vandalism inflicted on a vulnerable child. The blame lies squarely at the feet of the adults who let it happen.
Penny Marie is the founder of Let Kids Be Kids
Matua Kahurangi is just a bloke sharing thoughts on New Zealand and the world beyond. No fluff, just honest takes. He blogs on https://matuakahurangi.com/ where this article was sourced.
5 comments:
This makes me sad. I have no issue with adults making decisions that they will have to live with forever. Stories of people proficient in te reo asking for a mechanics course be presented in that language b/c they were not comfortable with English, or this young lady making permanent marks on her face concern me. Either of these examples have the capacity to limit future opportunities. Tattoos may have an effect on overseas employment and a person who was allowed to largely ignore English has just given away the arguably biggest advantage that English settlement provided. What makes this even more concerning was that Maori leadership were dead against the acceptance of Maori mythology, healing, language and the like. They knew that continuing adherence to stone age practices would not provide opportunities in the (then) modern world. The Maori leadership of the past was future focussed and intent on the prospering of their people. Current leadership clearly does not want the best for them and would prefer them to be trapped in welfare, and dependency.
No adult should allow a child to be tattooed just because they want to keep up with the mob- whether they be Māori or not. It screams of lack of discipline and poor parenting and an understanding of what the moko kauae denotes.
I have no liking for tattoos, and see them as a primitive practice and adornment going back to the stone-age in many cultures, but there is no accounting for personal choice. Wrinkled skin in old age doesn't do tattoos any favours however. And in this case, with this silly child and her even sillier parents, the inking is hard to understand, as it is with other micro-maoris who think they are defining themselves in someway. I blame activist propaganda and I think inking your face in a way the old tribal types did only serves to isolate a person and identifies one as atavistic, not progressive. The very disfigurement places these people in a specific category and they are forced, I suppose, to align themselves with others of the same way of thinking, further increasing the feeling (and actuality) of apartheid we are seeing in New Zealand.
A godsend to employers, landlords, suitors and others. If their voices, emails, letters could be similarly identified, better still. Public money spent removing should be identified and publicised and taken from Treaty settlements. Absurdly, all contributes to GDP!
(incidentally just who or what is Mahuta Kahurangi, and the picture?)
Agree entirely with Matua. To me this is in the same category as allowing young kids to go on puberty blockers.
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