Kim and Kourtney Kardashian have been accused of cultural appropriation of New Zealand’s Ceremonial Haka Dance.
Scott Disick, the father of Kourtney’s three children, shared a video of his kids taking part in the traditional New Zealand ceremonial dance on his TikTok page, with his daughter Penelope, eight, joined by two friends and two of her cousins – Kim’s children North, seven, and five-year-old Saint.
“TikTok ya don’t stop. Ain’t got nothing on us!” he captioned the video.
However, many of his followers were quick to point out that this amounted to cultural appropriation because the children don’t have any links to New Zealand.
“how about you teach your kids Native American culture before incorrectly teaching them our cultural haka,” one person wrote, while another added: “Thought 2020 couldn’t get any worse? The Kardashians think the haka is a TikTok dance.”
A third commented: “My heritage better not be a damned TikTok dance challenge. I don’t care that they’ve learned the real words rather than making up their own, this is sacred. STOP APPROPRIATING CULTURES.”
However, Maori Council executive director Matthew Tukaki told Star News that he’s trying to see the positives; namely spreading awareness of the ceremonial dance.
“On the one hand, it’s a great thing. On the other hand, I would love to have a conversation with them about what the haka means and what motivated them to do it,” he said.
“It has to be done with true intent. It’s not just something that’s good for Instagram or social media.”
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