After the parliamentary elections of last October 17, won by the first outgoing minister Jacinda Ardern, in New Zealand there was much talk about the appointment to the role of foreign minister of Nanaia Mahuta, a woman of Maori origin who has the traditional tattoo on her lips and chin, called “moko kauae“. The tattoo (“moko ”) has a great cultural importance for the Maori, but at the same time it is still viewed by many with distrust, and those who exhibit it risk being discriminated against. The fact that for the first time a senior New Zealand government official has a moko could help normalize the tattoo tradition and strengthen the political importance of the Maori; it would also help to give visibility to the indigenous population outside of New Zealand.
Although there are not many political figures who have the Maori tattoo, traditional tattooing is once again very common among the natives. The drawings of the mokoin fact, they tell the role within the community or the story of the person, linking him to his ancestors. Radio New Zealand explained that the moko in Mahuta, for example, represents his kinship with the Maori queen Te Arikinui Te Atairangikaahu – who died in 2006 – and his connection with the current Maori ruler, Kingi Tuheitia. Some lines, then, refer to the lineage of his parents.
The practice of tattooing (“it torments”) Is a very ancient tradition and has a strong ritual dimension; the tattoo is made during particular ceremonies and involves a series of small scarifications – incisions that lead to permanent scars – which are then decorated with ink. Maori men usually have tattoos all over their face, buttocks and thighs, while women have the moko kauae, which is precisely the tattoo that covers the lips and chin.
The tattoo on the face began to disappear in the nineteenth century, during the period of British colonization in New Zealand, when the natives suffered massacres, violent episodes of racism and considerable discrimination; the colonizers also exhibited the severed heads of the natives col moko as a trophy. At the beginning of the twentieth century we began to see some tattoos again, but very few: it seemed that the practice of moko it had been mostly abandoned, frowned upon by both non-Maori and indigenous communities, who considered it to belong to the past, explained Te Kahautu Maxwell, a researcher specializing in Maori culture at the University of Waikato in northern New Zealand.
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From the nineties, however, various movements of young Maori were born who wanted to “revive it as a form of living art” precisely to affirm the identity and importance of the Maori in society.
In 2016 Mahuta was the first woman to have the moko kauae in parliament, while in 2019 Oriini Kaipara was the first Maori journalist with a kauae to present a news program on TVNZ, the main television station in the country.
The growing visibility of the Maori tattoo also resulted in new and strong ones controversy in New Zealand. Some well-known personalities who had decided to tattoo their faces were accused of cultural appropriation for having used an element typical of an indigenous population without knowing anything, in a manner considered disrespectful. It happened to the boxer Mike Tyson, after having tattooed part of his face; and the stylist Jean paul Gaultier, who had used the moko to make up white models.
At the same time, the contexts in which the Maori who had the moko they suffered discrimination: for example, in some bars and restaurants there was a ban on access for those with tattoos on their faces and in some cases they could not get a job for the same reason.
Kirituhi and Tā Moko are positive ways to enable cultural expression and pride in being Māori #acknowledgingancestors
– Nanaia Mahuta (@NanaiaMahuta) March 21, 2019
The fact that Mahuta has now become a top government official and has a traditional tattoo is an “important sign” and opportunity for indigenous communities, Maxwell said.
The new New Zealand parliament, with a Labor majority, it’s the most inclusive ever: it includes the highest percentage of women ever elected – 48 percent – and several members of the LGBT + community, as well as several non-white people. Ardern’s Labor Party is carrying out a plan to “rebuild” New Zealand and among other things aims to resolve inequalities vis-à-vis the Maori, who are over 16 per cent of the population. The representation of the Maori in parliament is guaranteed by a system that reserves them some seats: this year, Labor elected 16 Maori deputies, while others were elected by the Green party, which supports the majority.
According to Maxwell, Mahuta will now be able to ‘carry the moko in places it has never arrived – consulates, embassies and government offices around the world »and help further normalize tattooing within New Zealand society. As Rukuwai Tipene-Allen, a political journalist for Māori Television who has a moko, Mahuta’s appointment “shows that our culture has a place on the international stage”.
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