New Zealand’s first-ever TikTok Creator of the Year award was won on Wednesday night by the ridiculously talented Judah Metu-Teaukura AKA @judaxx.
Sydney, Australia hosted the annual TikTok AU/NZ awards ceremony. The show was live-streamed to over 600k people tuning in around the world.
“Kia ora e te whānau, I want to thank everyone back in Aotearoa, I’d like to celebrate everyone back home, thank you,” Judah said during her winning speech.
The South Auckland creator became HUGELY popular in NZ after she started posting daily videos during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Judah uploads crack-up comedy sketches with her mates and other massive NZ TikTokers.
This video captioned: "Arguing with your siblings be like" is one of the most hilariously relatable things I’ve ever seen.
One of her most popular videos blew up after she and a friend attempted the world’s biggest swing in Queenstown and it didn't go too smooth.
Judah wasn’t the only Kiwi winner of the night.
While accepting his award for ‘TikTok Live Creator of the Year’, live streamer Paaka Davis took the stage to perform a haka and speak te reo Māori to the worldwide audience.
He began by performing ‘Toia Mai’ onstage.
“Toitū Te Tiriti, nei ra te mihi, nei ra te mihi ki oku tautoko tо̄ku whanau," he began while also showing support for the recent protests here in NZ.
“A big message out to all my supporters, my family and shout out to everybody who was at the protests [on Tuesday]. Shout out to everybody who puts their lives on the line, whether that’s on live streaming or if that’s making video content,” Paaka added.
“I’VE GOT A LOT OF LOVE AND APPRECIATION FOR YOU ALL AND JUST KEEP GOING, JUST KEEP DOING YOUR THING, DON’T BE AFRAID TO KEEP DOING YOUR THING. MAURI ORA!”
It’s wicked to see that Māori creators have been killing it on the worldwide platform.
