Te Aro Brewery told to remove craft beer featuring Māori explorer Kupe, stop advertising

Te Aro Brewery has been told to remove the product name, packaging and associated advertising of its craft beer featuring historical Māori explorer Kupe. Photo / Te Aro Brewing Company

A brewery has been slammed for its “offensive” naming of a craft beer after historical Māori explorer Kupe and the use of his images on its packaging.

Te Aro Brewery has now been told to remove the product name, packaging and associated advertising and to not use it again.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruling came after two complaints were made about the Upper Hutt brewery’s product, Kupe, including that it “demeaned the mana” of the Polynesian navigator.

In response to those complaints, Te Aro Brewery told the authority it “simply didn’t ask anyone if it might be offensive”.

“First and foremost, we wish to make it clear that in naming a product after the legendary explorer Kupe, it was never our intention to offend anyone, at all.”

The beer was part of the brewery’s “Age of Discovery” range, which focused on historical explorers and also included Christopher Colombus and Ferdinand Magellan.

However, the use of Kupe and the associated advertisement of the product, which appeared on the brewery’s social media with the tagline “Here’s your opportunity for personal discovery of flavour!” generated complaints.

“We submit that this advertisement, in associating the esteemed tupuna Kupe with the packaging and promotion of beer, exploits, degrades, denigrates, and demeans the mana of Kupe,” Turehou Māori Wardens ki Ōtara and Communities Against Alcohol Harm said in a joint complaint to the ASA.

“In exploiting, degrading, denigrating, and demeaning the mana of Kupe, the same is done to the persons, peoples, and places associated with Kupe, including all his descendants.”

According to the recently released decision, the complainants said the advertising should not be allowed and called on the authority to hold Te Aro Brewery to account.

“This is appalling cultural appropriation of a Rangatira of significant status in Te Ao Māori and Pasifika,” their submission read.

Te Aro Brewery declined to comment when approached by NZME but said in its submissions to the authority, which held a hearing into the matter on August 13, that the naming and release of the product was not a publicity stunt.

“We never considered that including Kupe would stand out from the other famous historical explorers, much less become newsworthy.

“We are not attempting to pass the product off as a ‘Māori beer’ or aiming the product at Māori consumers. We simply believe he is an important historical figure to all New Zealand and is worthy of note alongside other great explorers.”

When the adverts first appeared on social media, Radio New Zealand reported the concerns of experts, including cultural adviser Dr Karatiana Taiuru, who said the brewery had used a prominent Māori figure to promote alcohol when Māori suffered a disproportionate amount of harm from the drug.

The brewery told the authority that the media report had fanned the flames of racial division and it considered the “reported problematic relationship between Māori and alcohol” to be a “racial stereotype”.

“Alcohol can be problematic to all people if misused. To single out one group of people based solely on their race is not something we would ever consider doing,” it submitted.

“We do not believe naming a craft beer after an explorer such as Kupe encourages the misuse of alcohol any more than any other alcoholic beverage name, and probably less than many we can think of.”

Many studies disagree with the brewery’s assessment of Māori and alcohol, with a recent report from Te Whatu Ora to its Māori stakeholders noting the “disproportionate burden of alcohol-related harm among Māori”.

Taiuru said the brewery clearly had not bothered to look at the statistics on alcohol harm and Māori before making such a statement.

“Frankly I’m a little gobsmacked they would say this,” he told NZME.

“As brewers, they should have some sort of moral compass when it comes to making statements like this.”

Taiuru said part of the problem with the advertisements was that they compared Kupe the navigator to men like Columbus and Magellan, whose actions contributed to the adverse effects of colonialism.

“To me, it smacks of ignorance,” he said.

“They could benefit from learning a bit about history.”

In upholding the complaints, the ASA’s complaints board agreed that using Kupe on alcohol packaging and in associated advertising was likely to cause serious offence.

It ruled it was in breach of the required high standard of social responsibility.

“All the advertisements were likely to cause serious offence, especially to Māori, because they featured images of Kupe, an esteemed tupuna, in order to promote the sale of alcohol.

The authority noted the brewery did not mean to cause any offence but said that did not mean the advertising was exempt from being in breach of the ASA’s code.

While the adverts have since been removed from the brewery’s social media, the product was still listed on its website for sale.

The brewery noted in its submissions that the beer was a limited run, with 1500 cans having been produced.

Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.