Ubisoft shooting game, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Seige, has changed the birthday of a new character after many Kiwi fans pushed back on the original date.
When Hāpai ‘Rauora’ Iwini was announced as a playable character, fans were excited to see a wahine Māori in the game. However, many were shocked to learn her birthday was March 15—the same day as the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings.
Christchurch City Councillor Tyla Harrison-Hunt was pleased to hear about Ubisoft’s change.
“Happy to see that they have changed the birthdate of the character, however, this could have been avoided by simply consulting properly with Aotearoa and Ōtautahi. I’m looking forward to seeing our virtual wahine toa thrive from here on out.”
Developers have since changed the character’s birthday to May 11th.
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Harrison-Hunt (Ngai Tahu, Ngāti Porou, Te Atiawa) and his partner lost whānau members during the mosque attacks in 2019.
Prior to the change, he called the original date “insensitive” saying it caused “disdain” from the Christchurch and Muslim community.
“It’s quite insensitive to have all of those three put together, which is; she’s born on March 15, She was born in Christchurch, and then she has a tactical shoot them up where you’re trying to get into places and eliminate essentially opponents.
“It’s a good learning curve for that organisation to actually do more before they actually create characters like this, particularly when they’re touching hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people across the world on the daily.”
Metia Interactive founder, Maru Nihoniho (Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau a Apanui, Ngāi Tahu), has created and helped develop many kaupapa Māori games.
She is happy when mainstream games have Māori characters within them, as long as they are done properly.
“I love the idea of having Māori characters in mainstream gaming. I think it’s what I strive for, what other Māori developers strive for as well to get their stories out there and our characters on the gaming platform for the global market.
“It’s not about gatekeeping and saying no one else can put Māori characters into their games, it’s not about that, the more we see the better. The question is doing it in a way, where it’s more effective, you know, where the story, where the characters have depth and really reflect elements of our culture.”
She added, “A bit of research doesn’t hurt.”
