Meta has indicated the Instagram account was created in June 2025 and based in New Zealand, while a scroll to the bottom of the page indicates it used to be called “Nec Minute News” creating videos mainly covering New Zealand-based news stories satirically.

One of Bush Legend’s more recent videos also features a man in a hat with a silver fern holding a tūī, with one person asking “Wow „, how did you get it to stay there ?”

Lawyer and Indigenous cultural and intellectual property expert, Dr Terri Janke, told the Guardian the images were “remarkable” in their realism, but can also put marginalised communities at risk and potentially taking away future opportunities.

“It’s theft that is very insidious in that it also involves a cultural harm,” Janke said.

“Because of the discrimination … the impacts of stereotypes and negative thinking, those impacts do hit harder.”

Writing in The Conversation, Tamika Worrell, a senior lecturer in critical Indigenous studies at Macquarie University, argued this is part of the rise of “AI Blakface” which can create financial gain for its creator, not the communities it is taking from.

“The theft of Indigenous knowledge for generative AI forms a new type of algorithmic settler colonialism,” Worrell wrote, “impacting Indigenous self-determination.”

Attempting to address some of the recent critique, Bush Legend said in a recent video he wasn’t “here to present any culture or group” and “If this isn’t your thing, mate, no worries at all, just scroll and move on.”