Oriini Kaipara

Oriini Kaipara (born 1983) is a New Zealand broadcaster, journalist and translator and interpreter of te reo Māori and English. Kaipara has worked for Mai FM, TVNZ 1, Māori Television, and Three.

In 2019 Kaipara was the first person with a moko kauae facial tattoo to present mainstream television news. In 2021 she became the first such person to host a prime-time news programme on national television.

Early life
Kaipara was born in Whakatāne in 1983. Her iwi are Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa, Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Rangitihi. She attended a Kura Kaupapa Māori, and trained at South Seas Film and Television School in 2002.

Career
Kaipara was a newsreader at Mai FM, and then in 2004 joined TVNZ's fully te reo Māori Waka Huia as a reporter and director.

In 2017, the Māori Television programme Native Affairs, which she presented, revealed she has essentially pure Māori DNA, despite having some Pākehā ancestry.

She received her moko kauae facial tattoo in January 2019 while she was a journalist for TVNZ's Te Karere. In November 2019 she was the first person with a moko kauae to present mainstream television news on TVNZ's 1 News.

In May 2021 she moved to Three and began presenting news on the programme Newshub Live at 4.30pm.

In February 2022 Kaipara joined Simon Shepherd as co-host of Three's weekly political current affairs show Newshub Nation. As host, she was valued for her conversational fluency in both Māori and English, her approach to political issues that are important to Māori, and her commitment to the renewal of both te reo Māori and tikanga Māori.

In 2022, Kaipara acted the parts of Te Akiu in the film We Are Still Here, and Hine in Muru. She has also presented news on AM, guest hosted The Project and hosted Cyberworld.

Kaipara announced in December 2023 that she would be leaving TV3 to become Māori cultural lead for the New Zealand Olympic Committee.

Recognition
In 2008, Kaipara won the best female television presenter award at the Māori Media Awards. In 2018, Kaipara won the Voyager award for Best Māori Affairs Reporter for her work on Native Affairs for Māori Television.

In 2021 Kaipara received international recognition for being the first person to host a prime-time news programme on national television, with traditional facial markings.

Personal life
Kaipara lives in West Auckland and has four children.

In 2020 Kaipara was upset by a portrait painted of her without permission by Auckland artist Samantha Payne, in which her unique moko kauae was prominently displayed. Moko kauae are considered sacred and commercialisation of them is considered immoral by many Māori. After talking with Kaipara, the artist apologised and removed the portrait from public sale. There was another unauthorised painting made of Kaipara in 2024, with a very similar portrait being sold by a South African-born artist that emphasised her moko kauae. The artist netted $1,200 for the work and refused to apologise or speak to the media. Kaipara described the incident as “profiting off her whakapapa”, and encouraged the artist to donate his earnings to a kohanga reo.