Last Friday’s Dominion Post ran a cover photo on the increased intake of maori police-women, this showing some mostly largish lady cops.
Inside the support story showed a photo of a pleasant looking, slim young lady cop who they referred to as a “recently graduated wahine maori.”
This seems highly unlikely given she bore a Samoan name, specifically Vesa Opetaiai.
Then again, why not? Numerous prominent citizens have found it useful to claim themselves as maori, solely on the basis of a distant relative giving them one sixteenth maori heritage.