Un travail tres unusuel pour des backpackers francais et israeli!
Backpackers act Maori in tourism stunt
By New Zealand correspondent Kerri Ritchie for PM
Posted Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:16pm AEDT
A New Zealand tour operator is in trouble for enlisting backpackers to entertain tourists by impersonating Maori.
Instead of employing Maori, the tour company Discovery Heritage Group based in the North Island city of Tauranga, paid backpackers visiting from France and Israel to dress up in feathered robes, draw tattoos in pen on their faces and go aboard cruise ships when they pulled into the Port.
The company's director, Terina Puriri, told the New Zealand Herald Newspaper that she does not see a problem with using foreigners and the tourists do not mind because the dancers "look beautiful".
Ms Puriri, who is Maori, but not from a local tribe around Tauranga, told the newspaper she also had no choice but to use fakes, because local Maori are so lazy.
Graeme Marshall, the Commercial Manager at the Port of Tauranga, says the fake Maori are no longer welcome at the port.
"This isn't a cultural issue, it's about a breach of security," he said.
"These folk were invited onto the port and we were told they were NZ citizens and that is a breach of port security."
Maori elders say while they are insulted by the impersonators, they are more upset about the tour operators comments that all local Maori are lazy.
HuiKakahu Kawe, the chairman of the local Maori tribe, says lots of Maori want to work.
"We have Maori operators that are operating successfully in the tour business who do get up in the morning and do the business," he said.
Before her fake Maori performers were banned from the port, Ms Puriri told the New Zealand Herald newspaper that her critics should "relax" and "stop splitting hairs".
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010 ... 801075.htm
