'Who are we to tell her', says Duncan Garner on Pākehā woman's moko

  • 23/05/2018

The AM Show hosts have weighed in on the controversy surrounding a Pākehā woman's Tā moko.

"Who are we to tell her she can't have it?" The AM Show host Duncan Garner asked on Wednesday.

Life coach Sally Anderson has had a moko kauae (female chin tattoo) for several years. Her husband Roger Te Tai is Māori and has a full facial moko.

Auckland artist Inia Taylor, who gave Ms Anderson the moko, has criticised her for flaunting it and commercialising it and told her to take down some online posts.

Mr Garner then asked Amanda Gillies whether she would have a moko on her chin.

"I don't know enough about it so if you were to ask me now, no. I think you've got to pay respect and there's got to be integrity to the history of it," she said.

Ms Anderson said the tattoo represents her turning a corner in her life after being gang raped by Mongrel Mob members as a teenager in the 1980s.

She once wrote in an email "I believe I should have been born black. I bridge all races, creeds, colour and genders in a way that no other practitioner can."

Host Mark Richardson said: "If in her life she is going to incorporate all the things, the cultural relevances, and I don't know all of them that come with this, I have no issue with it."

At the end of the AM Show, Mr Garner named Ms Anderson as the honorary member for the day.

"She's been the talk of the town but I just think that we're too easily offended these days. She feels black, she feels Māori, she feels something that others may not. If you want your moko have your moko," he said.

Newshub.