The RNZ article “Growing anger over use of moko, mataora in image filters: ‘That’s a mockery’ had me wondering, “When is cultural appropriation not cultural appropriation?”
To some, easy access to Maori culture has been touted as a positive, a helping lens to the revitalisation of matauranga Maori.
But takatapui Maori activist Mandeno Karu Martin, who has come across several of the filters, said it was also damaging – especially if created from a non-Maori point of view.
“When people wear a fake Prada or Gucci bag, people are quick to call it out. However, when tauiwi create Maori art for profit, everyone thinks it’s great.”
RNZ
The comparison with brand name knock-offs is a fair one but it is the mixed messages with regard to ‘easy access to Maori culture’ and ‘revitalisation’ that confuses me.
A proliferation of social media filters that allow users to project mataora, moko kauae and other taonga onto their faces has raised fresh concern about the protection of Maori identity and intellectual property.
[…] While the issue of appropriation in Snapchat and Instagram filters may be new, concerns about the mass appropriation of Maori taonga and the lack of protections for it have been raised for years, as well as the lack of urgency taken by the Crown to resolve issues of Maori intellectual property.
[…] “What had been ongoing abuse and misuse of taonga such as the haka, Maori design, and putting Maori faces on tea towels at the time, and so on,” one of the lawyers who drafted the claim, the late Moana Jackson, told RNZ in 2011.
We are told that “concerns about the mass appropriation of Maori taonga and the lack of protections for it have been raised for years” but we are also told that we, non-Maori, are to appropriate the Maori language which is ‘a taonga (treasure) that our government works to protect.’
So which is it? Are we to sprinkle our language with random Maori words to look woke, modern and inclusive or are we to avoid cultural appropriation by preserving the Maori treasures?
Many of us work in situations where non-Maori feel it is appropriate to greet a room filled with English-speaking people in Maori, bungling their way through a Maori mihi or a Maori whakatauki.
These attempts are often cringe-worthy and as a non-Maori, I find these attempts offensive on two levels. One, it is an insult to not greet me in a language that we both share and two, it is an insult to the language that they are mangling.
If the language is a treasure that we should respect and Maori treasures are things we should not culturally appropriate, what is the answer to the woke sprinkling of random Maori words in conversation or council/government/media/advertising output?
On the other hand, it is quite remarkable that everything is now opened with a Maori karakia or prayer, usually to the Christian (colonialist) God. If everything were opened with a prayer by the local Christian church minister, all hell would break loose.
- matauranga Maori – a modern term for the traditional knowledge of the Maori people of New Zealand
- takatapui – a Te Reo Maori term, which is used similarly to “rainbow person” or “rainbow community”, in a similar way to LGBTQI+
- tauiwi – people who are not Maori, especially non-indigenous New Zealanders
- mataora – Maori male facial tattooing
- moko kauae – Maori female facial tattooing
- taonga – a treasured possession in Maori culture
- haka – a ceremonial dance in Maori culture
- mihi – a Maori greeting
- whakatauki – a saying or proverb which represents the wisdom guiding the Maori culture
- karakia – a prayer or incantation.