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Model faces backlash for nude shoot on sacred mountain
Jaylene Cook, a Playboy model, is facing backlash for climbing New Zealand’s Mount Taranaki and posing naked for a photo, which she subsequently posted on Instagram.
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Mount Taranaki covered in snow during winter in New Zealand. (Shutterstock/File)
J
aylene Cook, a Playboy model, is facing a backlash for climbing New Zealand’s Mount Taranaki and posing naked for a photo, which she subsequently posted on Instagram.
The local Maori community believe she disrespected the mountain, due to the fact that it “has great spiritual significance to local Maori,” according to the New Zealand government’s website. "The crater and summit is the sacred head of Taranaki, the rocks and ridge are his bones, rivers his blood and plants and trees are his cloak and offer protection from the weather […] Respect the mountain.”
Still, the model believes that what she did was not wrong.
"[The photo] is not crude or explicit in any way,” Cook told stuff.co.nz.
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She continued, “We made ourselves knowledgeable on the history of the mountain. We were quite respectful. Being nude is not something that is offensive in any way. It's natural and pure and it's about freedom and empowerment.”
Local Maori academic and spokesman Dennis Ngawhare, told The Telegraph, “I accept people climb up to the summit, but what we do ask is that people be respectful.”
"I'd imagine you will be getting a few comments from people saying 'what's wrong with that? Who cares?' But I also know cousins and relatives who will be quite upset about it. They would consider it as being disrespectful towards the mountain,” he continued.
Neil Holdom, the mayor of New Plymouth, a city near the mountain, echoed Ngawhare’s message of respect. “[People] should ask themselves how they would feel if someone took a photo of themselves naked, on the grave of a great grandparent.” (sul/kes)
