An Australian activewear brand accused of cultural appropriation for using the name AROHA previously claimed to be Māori-owned.
AROHA has faced fresh waves of criticism since owner Katie Bourke posted a now-deleted video discussing why she chose the name.
“I didn’t want to use an Australian name. I wanted to be a little bit different,” said Bourke, who does not whakapapa Māori, according to her company’s website.
Since then, Māori creator Holly-May Neho, along with dozens of others, has called out the brand, saying it is appropriating indigenous culture.
Bourke posted a new video addressing the controversy on Friday, claiming to have never identified as a Māori brand, and saying she had been transparent about this.
“We’ve always advised them that we are not a Māori brand, but we are inspired by the meaning of love.”
However, in a now-deleted Instagram comment from June seen by the Herald, the brand said it was Māori-owned.
A social media user posted a screenshot of the comment on Bourke’s latest video, to which the brand responded: “our platforms are used by many people and one of [our] workers thought the owner was Māori.”
The three-minute-long video she posted on Friday shows the owner sitting down in her brand’s activewear, apologising to “the entire Māori culture”.
“Our intentions were never to offend any of you, it was purely based on the fact that we wanted our brand surrounded by love.”
“To everyone who is upset regarding our decision in regards to naming the company AROHA, there is absolutely no disrespect towards you. It was ... because we actually loved and we wanted to spread love through your language.”
However, she did not confirm the name would be changed.
“It’s not something that can happen overnight ... At the moment we are weighing up what’s best for the business moving forward.”
Bourke said they were not aware of the cultural ties the word had until six months ago, having only done “surface research”.
Bourke repeated that her choice to choose a Māori name was to set themselves apart.
“We didn’t wanna use an Australian name of love, we thought it was quite boring. We did wanna use aroha cause it was different and unique.”
Creator Holly-May Neho, who got more than 700,000 views on a recent Tik Tok about the issue, was not impressed with the owner’s response video, nor the claim of the company being Māori-owned.
She said a name change was needed.
@hecticbyhm Morena @arohaofficial_co This ain’t it. Using Māori language/culture to represent your brand while you don’t even whakapapa Māori is extremely out of touch. Saying your company represents “love & compassion” and using Māori language to separate yourself from others is ignorant and straight up cultural appropriation and exploitative. You need to understand how harmful it is as pakeha sitting up there using our culture as your prop, I’d be interested to know if your business supports any Māori/Aborigional kaupapa since you’re all about “love & compassion” because wanting to be “a little bit different” is crazy work. #culturalappropriation #australia #maoritiktok
♬ original sound - Holly-May
“It’s the best thing for them and it’s the best thing for Māori.”
She questioned the owner stating she could not rebrand overnight, when criticism about the name started six months ago.
While she understood the business didn’t mean to hurt anyone, she believed they meant to make money off Māori culture, which did, in turn, hurt people.
“It wasn’t an apology. It was just a little stunt to take the heat off,” she believed.
The brand has continued to post regular promotional material on social media, which Neho believed was “just shoving it down everyone’s face like, ‘We don’t give a f***. We’re gonna keep doing this.’”
Neho referenced Kim Kardashian’s own cultural controversy, when in 2019 she dropped the business named Kimono, inspired by traditional Japanese clothing.
“If Kim Kardashian can do it, and get it through her head, I’m sure she [Bourke] can.”
The Herald contacted AROHA for comment but did not receive a response.
Sammy Carter is a journalist for the New Zealand Herald covering news in the Wellington region. She has previously worked at the Rotorua Daily Post.