#maoriculture

Hello I’m working on drawing the elemental guardians of the council of elders for my thing, and I’m wanting the water guardian to be Polynesian in appearance, specifically Māori. I’m considering adding some tā moko to her and am in the process of doing research on symbols and their meanings and incorporation into the designs created for the tattoos, however I’m concerned this is going to be appropriative as I am not Māori. Do I have any Māori followers who would be willing to take the time to tell me if I should ditch the idea? I have seen mixed reactions online to this in my attempts to googling and some of the answers I got I can’t know for sure if they’re from white people or not and I don’t want to do something harmful, unintentionally or not.