Oriini Kaipara: First Woman With Māori Moko Kauae Face Tattoo To Host Primetime News

The journalist from New Zealand Oriini Kaipara made headlines earlier today when she became the first woman with moko kauae to host the prime time news on a television channel. Moko Kauae is a low chin tattoo that is traditional to the natives of Māori women.

Oriini Kaipara has been a proud displayer of the tattoo which represents her culture and wants to inspire others to embrace the same.

Who is Oriini Kaipara?

Kaipara is a journalist, broadcaster and translator based in New Zealand. She belongs to Maori tribe - who are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand.

The 37-year-old Kaipara was born in Whakatane. She went to the Kura Kaupapa Māori which is a Māori-language immersion schools in the country where the main aim is to revive the Māori language, culture and knowledge through the teachings and practices.

In 2002, she trained at South Seas Film and Television School, an institution for higher education on the visual arts based in Auckland, New Zealand.

She is a presenter at Three programme Newshub Live at 4.30pm(New Zealand's first privately owned TV Channel which broadcasts nationally).

Earlier in her career, she had the experience of working with  TVNZ 1, Mai FM and Māori Television.

She made a history earlier today, when she became the first woman moko kauae to host the primetime television news.

She presented the Newshub Live 6pm show earlier this week with moko kauae. Although she had been filling in for the hosts for the same programme, it was only last week that she herself presented the primetime program.

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"I'm not speechless, but it's a buzz. I am proud of how far I've come in being able to anchor 6pm right now", Kaipara  said to Stuff after her Christmas and Boxing Day appearances. She added that if there was a goal for her, it was anchoring the prime time news and it has happened. In 2019, Kaipara made headline for being the first woman with a moko kauae to anchor TVNZ 1’s midday news bulletin

She also posted the announcement on her Instagram page where she expressed her happiness about the same and wrote "I will have the honour of presenting our prime news to audiences around the country and globe. I’m rostered on that whole week and will be around with our NH whānau(extended family) all summer".

For her work on Native Affairs of Maori , Kaipara won the Voyager Best Māori Affairs Reporter in 2018.

Labour Minister, Nanaia Mahuta from New Zealand Labour Party became the first female Māori Foreign Minister of the island country in 2020.In 2016, she became the first Member of Parliament to have moko kauae in New Zealand.