A company based in New Zealand and specializing in tours is run through a patch of controversy as it not only broke immigration rules but also has been accused of enlisting visiting foreigners to impersonate Maori on large ships.

Based in the North Island city of Tauranga, the tour operator called Discovery Heritage Group, is said to have purposely hired and paid French and Israelite backpackers to adorn traditional Maori dress including feathered robes and hand draw tattoos using a in pen on their faces. The Maori impersonators would then go aboard visiting cruise ships which were docked at the local port.

Terina Puriri, the director of the company said to the press that she’d would hire foreigners instead of Maori because she considers the members of the local aborigines community to be lazy.

She said she did not see why using foreigners portraying Maori caused such a fuss and said the tourists seem to like the dancers because they looked more beautiful.

Ms Puriri is herself a Maori although nor from the local tribe around Tauranga.

According to the Commercial Manager at the Port of Tauranga, bogus Maori are now banned from entering and practicing their job at the port.

Graeme Marshall said the banning stemmed from a security issued rather than a cultural one.
 
He said the foreigners had breached port security measures because they were illegally portraying New Zealand citizens and practicing a trade fraudulently.

Meanwhile, elders within the Maori community were said to be offended, not only by the fact that the company had hired foreigners to portray them, by much more by the comments made by Ms Puriri which branded them as “lazy”.

According to the chairman of the local Maori tribe, HuiKakahu Kawe, lots of Maori are willing to work.

Ms Puriri told reporters that people sould “relax” and “stop splitting hairs”.