A painting depicting the likeness of former Newshub presenter Oriini Kaipara has been removed from an online marketplace after complaints it was done without her knowledge or consent.
The artist, who identified himself as Warren Thomas listed the painting featuring Kaipara’s notable moko kauae on the platform Artwork City, for $1200.
Kaipara, now the Maori cultural lead for the New Zealand Olympic Committee, said she had no idea about the painting and found out through messages on Instagram.
She then took to the social media platform to voice her outrage beginning the caption with, “Here we go again”.
“Dude, you’re charging $1200 for a picture you painted of me… You’ve been in Aotearoa 5 minutes and have already assumed it’s okay to take a complete stranger’s face and make money off it.
“The answer is NO. Donate those proceeds to the local kohanga reo in your area. You can Google it. Then, I suggest you sit with the whanau of that kohanga reo to gain understanding of te ao Maori and why I’m not okay about you profiting off my whakapapa.”
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