It is striking how quickly someone can reinvent themselves in the public eye. On 14 October 2024, Eru Kapa-Kingi sat alongside professional grifter Hone Harawira, proudly declaring himself part of the "Run it Straight" generation.
Fast forward a few weeks, and there he is, front and centre, now wearing a moko.
No explanation. No real context. Just the visual shift, shared and amplified for all to see.
This was not a quiet, personal decision rooted in whakapapa or tikanga. This was staged. This was strategic. A rebrand dressed up as a cultural awakening. It looked like a move designed to shift narrative, gain traction, and win favour. The timing, the presentation, the company he kept just a month before - none of it adds up to authenticity.
I have said it before, and I will keep saying it. The moko has lost its meaning.
Once, it was a deeply sacred marker of identity, ancestry and status. A visual story of where you come from, who you are accountable to, and what you stand for. Today, in the hands of some, it has become little more than a virtue signalling barcode. It is worn not to honour whakapapa, but to posture in front of a camera. It is used to say, "I belong," without doing the actual work of belonging.
And yes, it is laughable - not because the moko itself is a joke, but because of how carelessly it is now being used. People will say we should never criticise someone for expressing culture. But this is not expression. This is theatre.
This is not about reviving culture. It is about using culture. It is about appearances over substance. When public figures adopt sacred symbols only when it suits their agenda, the rest of us are left watching our taonga get hollowed out in real time.
What we are dealing with is not cultural pride. It is branding and the cost of that branding is real. We lose meaning. We lose connection. We lose trust.
Eru Kapa-Kingi is not the first to do this, and sadly, he will not be the last. But we should not be afraid to call it what it is. If we do not protect the meaning of our symbols, someone else will always come along and sell them back to us.
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