'We don't want any confusion': Indiginous gin to change company name

Wellington's Indiginous Gin got into strife for the artwork on its first bottle of gin as well as the name of the company. Image / Indiginous Gin

The Kiwi owners of controversial Indiginous Gin have decided to change their company name after a massive backlash online.

Yesterday, Indiginous Gin co-director Gavin Bradley said they would get rid of the label of the bottle, described as "offensive", by a leading Māori cultural adviser.

The company was reluctant to give up the name which it wanted to keep as it had been to exhaustive efforts to retain it, including getting approval by the Māori Advisory Committee of the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand.

However, there had been such an avalanche of complaints, the company even temporarily disabled its social media channels.

The company name and specifically the design of its inaugural gin has been labelled as offensive and its actions labelled "cultural appropriation" in having a Māori/Pacific design, or tattoo, designed for the label by a Porirua artist.

But cultural adviser Karaitiana Taiuru of Christchurch said the company had and needed to look at changing the label and rebranding the company.

"It's definitely offensive. There's two different angles for me. Mixing and matching the word indigenous which in itself is an identity word of importance to indigenous people all around the world and locking that into an alcoholic topic which is also offensive to most indigenous peoples.

"Closer to home, the whole issue of a Ta moko or Māori designs on an alcohol bottle; that breaches sacredness because you're mixing effectively something that's talking about a Māori whakapapa and putting it on to a bottle of alcohol."

Today, Bradley said they had made the decision to rename the company.

"There have recently been some very strongly held opinions expressed on our social media channels regarding not only our original gin bottle label but also our brand "Indiginous". We are heartbroken that we have caused such angst in our community.

"We tried to be as thorough as we knew how to, to ensure that there was nothing offensive in the imagery of our label.

"We approached a local artist to create the artwork for the label to tell our story through his art; a Samoan artist who grew up within a Māori community in Porirua."

As for the name, Bradley said the Māori Advisory Committee of the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand existed to represent the interests of all Māori, "to protect Māori intellectual property rights and to ensure that offensive logos and brands are not trademarked".

"The brand was scrutinised and we received approval to go ahead - there was no breach of Māori IP and no offence.

"You will all be aware, but just to be clear, the meaning of the English word indigenous is: native, not exotic; natural, occurring naturally in a particular place.

"This was the inspiration for creating gins where the origins of the ingredients and the people who came together to make them would always be centre stage. We hope that clears up any confusion around our brand name. It was never about being or being perceived to be Māori.

"Notwithstanding, we have decided to not only change the label of the bottle but to change our name entirely. We want there to be no confusion about who we are or what we stand for.

"Our mission is to be supportive, sustainable and celebrate all communities and cultures."