A boutique brewery's beer has brassed off a few bros!
Funkwerks of Colorado called its new brew 'Maori King' because it uses NZ rakau hops. Company co-founder Brad Lincoln only found out there was an actual maori king when a NZer told him.
[The Maori King Movement or Kingitanga arose among some maori tribes in the 1850s, attempting to establish a symbolic role similar in status to that of the monarch of the colonising British. Today, the maori monarch is a non-constitutional role with no legal power. Tuheitia Paki, maori king since 2006, has been surrounded by growing controversy about rumours of abuse of position.]
Tainui executive chair Tuku Morgan (who recently faced misconduct allegations) is deeply offended and will be contacting Funkwerks to "establish a dialogue". Hori Awa, a Kingitanga follower who heads a Tainui social service provider, says he's disgusted with the product. Maori health advocate Shane Bradbrook believes the beer should not be sold: "It's exploitation and in terms of our Maori king, it's misappropriating his mana." He claims putting moko on a beer bottle is "culturally inappropriate", and wants it withdrawn. But because labelling has to be approved by regulators, Funkwerks says there'll be no immediate changes …
...and rightly so too. The stylised facial tattoo does not depict the incumbent so-called "king of maoridom": it's merely a link to the contents. Duuuhhh, it's called "branding".
Does the Kingitanga Movement seriously believe every instance of a pseudo maori tattoo must be sanctioned by them, perhaps earn them a fee? Just like Tariana Turia's tirade in June over a milk powder with the pic of a maori maiden, certain knee-jerk reactors need to calm down and realise that imagery like this is in the public domain. No-one has control over it! If it was a specific image of their king, that would be completely different – but it's not.
A quick Google search revealed quite a few items with maori faces. I'd bet safe money that Kingitanga wasn't able to extract kickback from all of these..!
Funkwerks of Colorado called its new brew 'Maori King' because it uses NZ rakau hops. Company co-founder Brad Lincoln only found out there was an actual maori king when a NZer told him.
[The Maori King Movement or Kingitanga arose among some maori tribes in the 1850s, attempting to establish a symbolic role similar in status to that of the monarch of the colonising British. Today, the maori monarch is a non-constitutional role with no legal power. Tuheitia Paki, maori king since 2006, has been surrounded by growing controversy about rumours of abuse of position.]
Tainui executive chair Tuku Morgan (who recently faced misconduct allegations) is deeply offended and will be contacting Funkwerks to "establish a dialogue". Hori Awa, a Kingitanga follower who heads a Tainui social service provider, says he's disgusted with the product. Maori health advocate Shane Bradbrook believes the beer should not be sold: "It's exploitation and in terms of our Maori king, it's misappropriating his mana." He claims putting moko on a beer bottle is "culturally inappropriate", and wants it withdrawn. But because labelling has to be approved by regulators, Funkwerks says there'll be no immediate changes …
...and rightly so too. The stylised facial tattoo does not depict the incumbent so-called "king of maoridom": it's merely a link to the contents. Duuuhhh, it's called "branding".
Does the Kingitanga Movement seriously believe every instance of a pseudo maori tattoo must be sanctioned by them, perhaps earn them a fee? Just like Tariana Turia's tirade in June over a milk powder with the pic of a maori maiden, certain knee-jerk reactors need to calm down and realise that imagery like this is in the public domain. No-one has control over it! If it was a specific image of their king, that would be completely different – but it's not.
A quick Google search revealed quite a few items with maori faces. I'd bet safe money that Kingitanga wasn't able to extract kickback from all of these..!
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