Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. What else is there to say when two separate countries with two completely different ancient cultures are accidentally (and oh-so-embarrassingly) merged into one ? by San Diego Zoo.
New Zealand Tourism may need to work a little harder to #getNZonthemap because the message hasn’t quite made it to San Diego yet where some people (not all) believe New Zealand’s indigenous culture belongs to Australia.
Oh no!
According to Stuff.co.nz, San Diego Zoo Safari Park recently launched a new experience called ‘Walkabout Australia’, which was designed to showcase Australia’s unique flora and fauna.
Great initiative, well, it seemed to be until someone decided to jazz up the exhibition with a group of Māori dancers?.
For those struggling to understand the issue (clearly not from Oceania), Māori are the native people of New Zealand who are entirely different from Australia’s indigenous Aboriginal people.
Australians and Kiwis responded to the cultural error by leaving heated comments on the Zoo’s Facebook page, such as…
And…
There was also this one…
And this one…
As well as this one…
And this one…
The Zoo apologised for the error on social media, saying they were “given incorrect information” and the “various entertainment featuring recently in Walkabout Australia is a preview of our upcoming event Summer Safari, which features entertainment from all over the globe”.
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