A craft brewery in a small town in England, branded a small batch of their beer NZ Pale Ale with an image that is likely to be offensive to a large population of Māori. Within hours of raising the issue with the Managing Director, the company apologized and removed all of the material from their web site and social media. This is a respectful company who made an honest mistake and voluntarily removed the offending material.
The company was sent the following Tweet:
In addition to the tweet, I also sent the following email:
I also wrote a similar message and offered assistance to their FaceBook Page which did not appear, most likely the page is moderated. The message was replied to and then both the message and reply were deleted by Electric Bear.
The offending image portrays a Māori warrior riding a Kiwi playing croquet with a can of beer. The image clearly depicts a Māori with tā moko (facial tattoo) doing a pūkana, Māori patterns and traditional Māori clothes riding New Zealand’s iconic Kiwi which is a native bird of New Zealand. The red feathers depict a Māori chief or a highly born member of Māori society using a post colonial Lacrosse bat and a keg of beer in place of a ball.
The overall impression of the image degrades Māori, perceives alcohol a Māori cultural icon despite alcohol being introduced to Māori by colonial settlers and referred to by Māori as Stink Water or Waipiro, and usually avoided.
The images appear to mock Māori culture by suggesting that Māori rode the Kiwi bird for entertainment. Despite the fact Kiwi are small flightless birds with the largest species being the great spotted kiwi or Roroa, Apteryx haastii, which stands about 45 cm high and weighs about 3.3 kg. The Kiwi was a traditional food source and the feathers used for cloaks by Māori.
The following image which is still seen on a number of craft beer web sites differs slightly from the other images. This image depicts a Māori warrior looking at beer. A perceived stereotype of Māori and alcohol abuse or a Māori with their tongue out looking at beer.
Cultural appropriation and inappropriate usage of Indigenous culture was once common in an uneducated world. Since then, there has been more consideration and the practices have largely stopped. Just last week, National Geographic have apologized to the world for their racist profiling of Indigenous and minority cultures that spanned decades https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/13/national-geographic-confronts-its-past-for-decades-our-coverage-was-racist/?utm_term=.e4a1e2530a5b.
A commercial conglomerate Kimberly-Clark Corporation who own the brand Huggies, a trusted New Zealand name for baby nappies removed a number of pages from their web site that contained inappropriate and offensive Māori baby names and advice.
For the small cost of a cultural assessment, any company whether a small business or an international conglomerate can save brand reputation and be seen as being a responsible business or corporate. The effects of not being culturally aware can be economically and brand destroying.
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