(CNN) -
A Maori journalist made history in New Zealand by becoming the first person with traditional facial markings to host a prime-time news program on national television.
Oriini Kaipara made headlines around the world after presenting her first 6pm bulletin for Newshub on the Three television channel, with many hailing the milestone as a victory for Maori representation.
"I was really euphoric. I was over the moon," Kaiipara told CNN about the moment she found out she would be covering prime time.
"It's a great honor. I don't know how to deal with emotions."
Kaipara's role on Christmas Day was the first of six consecutive days where she covered the permanent hosts of the primetime news show, though her term will continue until early January and she said she may be called back in the future.
(Credit: oriinz via Instagram)
Having started her career in 2005, Kaipara said that hosting the primetime news slot was the "pinnacle" of her journalistic dreams, although it was a "bittersweet moment" because her mother, who recently passed away, was unable to share the moment with her. .
Despite all the positive comments, there were also negative reactions to Kaipara's presentation, especially since he often uses Maori phrases like "E haere ake nei" (yet to come), "Ū tonu mai" (stay with us) and " Taihoa e haere "(don't go yet).
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The Maori language is very important to Kaipara.
His ultimate goal, he said, is to encourage people to speak the language that was "eliminated from my grandmother's generation" and claim it for the Maori.
"We have not yet addressed a lot of intergenerational colonization traumas and for Maori, that is very, very relevant and moving as well," Kaipara said.
"Not much has changed in terms of race relations here in a long time."
However, the "enormity" of the occasion did not go unnoticed by her and, in many ways, it was a closing moment for Kaipara, who was inspired by the Maori television news anchor Tini Molyneux, whom she watched when she was a girl.
"She was my idol," Kaipara told CNN.
"He had the same skin color as me ... he sounded like me, he looked like me. And he comes from where I originally come, my family, whakapapa (ancestors), where are the ancestral ties with our land."
Kaipara hopes that young Maori women will be inspired by her story as a sign that times are changing.
"For a long time, our people, our ancestors, our tipuna and we now, have worked hard to get to where we are," Kaipara told CNN.
"As a young woman, as a young Maori, what you do today influences and affects what will happen tomorrow. So all I ask is that you see the beauty of being Maori and accept and acknowledge it and do what you can with it for positive change. ".