A Brewery In Canada Had To Apologize After They Named One Of Their Beers “Pubic Hair” In The Maori Language.

There is a very fine line between cultural inspiration and cultural appropriation. Most people, cross this, often blurry line without even realizing it. The thing is, while a lot of people try to merely take inspiration from a particular culture, all they end up doing is either playing into its stereotypes or just getting it completely wrong. And that can only go one of two ways- either it’s extremely offensive or extremely hilarious. And sometimes, it’s both. Although that doesn’t make it okay to rip off someone’s culture for your own personal gain. 

A lot of celebrities and brands and companies have come under the scanner for this exact reason. The latest brand though that has been called out for cultural appropriation is a beer brewery in Alberta, Canada. 

You see, they made one really hilarious and somewhat offensive mistake. Two years ago, the Hell’s Basement Brewery launched a beer and called it Huruhuru (The Feather) New Zealand pale ale. Now, they thought the Maori word meant “feather” and it reflects the light citrus taste in the summer brew. Little did they know, something else was brewin’ (get it, get it?) 

It wasn’t until recently that a Maori TV personality, Te Hamua Nikora, took to Facebook to share a video that explained that the word Huruhuru was more commonly used, in the Maori language, to describe not feathers but pubic hair. 

https://www.facebook.com/tehamua101/videos/3289260964454958/UzpfSTEwMDAwMDI2NzY2OTc1NjozNTkxMDI2NDM0MjQ5NTc3/?q=Te%20Hamua%20Nikora

Basically, this Canadian brewery named their beer “pubic hair” instead of naming it “feather” all because they relied on an online dictionary instead of consulting with an authentic Maori person. 

Mike Patriquin told Canadian network CBC that the product would be completely rebranded.

He said, “We acknowledge that we did not consider the commonplace use of the term huruhuru as a reference to pubic hair and that consultation with a Maori representative would have been a better reference than online dictionaries.” 

He also added, “We wish to make especially clear that it was not our intent to infringe upon, appropriate, or offend the Maori culture or people in any way; to those who feel disrespected, we apologise.” 

Am I the only one who finds this extremely hilarious? Yes, of course, it’s wrong but what’s important is that Hell’s brewery owned up to their mistake and apologised immediately. It could’ve been much much worse. Besides, I highly doubt they called their beer “pubic hair” on purpose. 

It’s not just this brewery that made this mistake. Mr Nikora also criticised a leather store in New Zealand for using the name Huruhuru. He contacted both the store and brewery in an attempt to make them aware of their mistake. 

Also Read: #Trending: Desis Slammed K-Pop Singer For Culture Appropriation After She Posted A Video Of Her Dancing to A Punjabi Song. It Was Wrong But She Apologised

This is why cultural appropriate is dangerous… Hell's Basement brewery named their beer "Huruhuru (The Feather)"…

The only problem… "huruhuru" isn't the Māori word for "feather"… it's the Māori word for "pubic hair". pic.twitter.com/Dwn02zyYjd

— Ciarán the Masked Shadow Sorcerer (@notagain127) August 8, 2020

Even the store had made the same mistake. They too believed that the word meant feathers and not well, pubes. 

The fact that they didn’t realise for two years that their beer was called pubic hair makes it even funnier. But well, at least now they are rebranding and hopefully, the new name will be a little less provocative and a little more beer-y.  

I know that cultural appropriation is not a laughing matter since it propels stereotypes and could very easily turn into casual racism. But sometimes, people don’t mean it like that. Sometimes, it’s just an error in judgement that needs to be corrected. And since Hell’s Basement Brewery and the New Zealand store have apologised and agreed on rebranding, I think we can laugh at just this once.

https://thehauterfly.com/lifestyle/this-delhi-based-store-is-receiving-a-lot-of-backlash-for-misrepresenting-traditional-costumes-from-nagaland-why-are-we-so-racist-against-our-own/