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Reuters
The Canadian company said it used the word to mean that its beer was “so light a feather”
A Canadian brewery has apologized for unknowingly naming one of its beers after a Maori word often used to mean pubic hair.
Hell’s Basement Brewery in Alberta said it released its Huruhuru pale ale two years ago, thinking it meant “feather.”
But Maori TV personality Te Hamua Nikora showed the common interpretation of the word in a Facebook video.
The founder of the brewery said the product would now be re-applied.
“We acknowledge that we did not consider the use of the term huruhuru to be a reference to pubic hair, and that consultation with a Maori representative would have been a better reference than online dictionaries,” Mike Patriquin told the Canadian network CBC.
“We especially want to make it clear that it was not our intention to offend, suit or insult Maori culture or people in any way; to those who do not feel respected, we apologize.”
Mr. Nikora also criticized a New Zealand leather shop for using the name Huruhuru, saying he had contacted both the shop and the brewery about the mistake.
“Some people call it appreciation, I call it appropriation,” he said.
“It’s that legal disease they have. Stop it. Use your own language.”
A spokeswoman for the New Zealand learning shop told the news site RNZ that they did not mean crime with the name they intended, as feather or fur.
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