A Canadian beer company who used a made up cartoon image of the first Māori King, Potatau Te Wherowhero, has pulled the product and apologised after it upset some Māori.
Ras L.Bock owner Alexandre Caron told 1 NEWS today they didn't intend to offend anyone with the label, but rather to feature a prominent historical character from the Māori culture since the beer is made with New Zealand hops.
"We are so sorry that it offended Māori people, the goal was in no way to mock the Māori culture and his people," Mr Caron said.
Ras L.Bock is removing the beer from its catalogue and has asked untappd.com to remove the beer from its website.
Mr Caron also said he intended to publish a public apology on Facebook.
It is a seasonal beer and not currently sold, but Mr Caron said Ras L'Bock won't be brewing the product again. The beer had been brewed three times in three years, alongside 60 other beers from the company.
"Be sure that our intentions were not to offend anyone. We were stupid and we want to apologise to everybody we hurt," he said.
"They are right to be angry because we should have seen it was not right, we have no excuse. Be sure we will not make the same mistake again and we will not let any other brewery in Quebec do the same thing."
"Please believe me, we are not racist people at all and I can see it have hurt many people."
Mr Caron said Ras L.Bock was a small business in a small town.
"We are not rich and we all have family that we love too. I honestly understand when they say that nobody should use other's ancestor image or story without permission to sell anything. So we want to offer our deepest apologies to the Māori people and I can assure you we are really ashamed of this situation."
However, Kiingitanga spokesperson Rahui Papa called the label "foolish" in an interview with Te Ao Māori News .
"If they had consulted their idea with Māori first before they used it, they would have understood why they should not use it and this would never have happened," he said.
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