Text of my complaint to the BBC about this article.
The thinking behind the photo on this story seems to be “Oh, Maori, slap in the picture of a funny brown man with tattoos on his face sticking out his tongue.” From memory, I don’t recall articles about the army featuring pictures of red-jacketed soldiers beating Indian protesters in the 19th century, or pieces on the civil rights campaign illustrated with pictures of a wide-eyed Aunt Jemima crying “lawks massa!”
The Maori people have a culture stretching back over 1,000 years, including arts, language, ritual and religion. Surely something in all of that could be found that doesn’t just fall back on a stereotype? They formed a battalion to fight in WWII – why not have a picture of Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu who earned a VC in the war? Even a picture of a Maori rugby player wouldn’t rest so easily on preconceived ideas of ‘the natives’.
The picture shown isn’t inherently racist; it’s an aspect of Maori culture as valid as any other, and one to be proud of. But its use and overuse, particularly in an article that is about migration patterns, not ritual displays, walks perilously close to that line.