A Melbourne bar that used an image of a 19th-century St Kilda mayor with tā moko drawn on to promote a New Zealand beer showcase has been accused of mocking Māori culture.
This story was originally published on RNZ
A Melbourne bar has been criticised for using an image of a former St Kilda mayor with tā moko drawn on his face to promote a Waitangi Day event.
The bar, Freddie Wimpoles, is hosting a week-long New Zealand beer showcase with the event to also feature New Zealand music and food.
Freddie Wimpoles, which is named after a former St Kilda mayor and publican, has drawn tā moko on a picture of the bar’s namesake and given him a Māori cloak to advertise the event. (Update 1.45pm, 22 Jan: The bar has since changed the image to remove the mayor.)

The revised image
The original image has offended some Māori and members of the New Zealand beer community.
The co-founder of the Wellington beer education business Craft Beer College, Steph Coutts, said she contacted Freddie Wimpoles last week about the offence using tā moko to promote a beer event could cause.
“Unfortunately, the manager from Wimpoles chose to highlight that as he was a New Zealander, there was no problem with the imagery,” Coutts said.
“[Freddie] Wimpoles’ sought permission for using the image of Frederick Wimpole in association with the bar. They didn’t appreciate that they need the permission of the owner of the tā moko. And, if they just made the tā moko up, they were culturally appropriating something important and sacred to Māori.”
Māori culture advocate Karaitiana Taiuru said it was offensive to have tā moko, which was a deeply personal graphical story of an individual’s genealogy and achievements, or any aspect of the head associated with food and beverages – more so when associated with alcohol.
“It is being disrespectful to the person’s whole genealogy, or simply mocking Māori culture,” Taiuru said.
“This [image] uses a dead person with someone else’s tā moko. Dead people and food is also offensive. Is it the liquid of the dead man that is the beer?”
Taiuru said just because the organiser of the event was Māori, did not mean it was okay to draw tā moko on someone’s face and use it to promote a beer event.
“All Māori are born with whakapapa but not all Māori are Māori practitioners with traditional and customary knowledge.”
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