Hello? Indigenous Maori have words with Air New Zealand over trademark of phrase

By: Rina Chandran

BANGKOK - It's a friendly greeting heard everywhere in New Zealand, but charges of cultural appropriation have pitted Kiwis with indigenous Maori heritage against the national airline, after it sought to trademark a logo with the words "kia ora".

Air New Zealand said the logo with the phrase - which means "good health" and is used commonly to mean "hello" - is also the name of its in-flight magazine.

But a spokesman for the New Zealand Maori Council said the community was "tired" of businesses using their culture and language, and threatened a boycott of the airline.

"Maori is ours. You don't get to culturally misappropriate it for profit; you certainly don't get to trademark it," Matthew Tukaki, an executive member of the council, said in a video posted online this week.

He added that it was especially insensitive as this is Maori Language Week.

Air New Zealand said it was "standard corporate practice" to trademark all its corporate logos, and that its application only referred to the logo of its in-flight magazine Kia Ora, which it has published since 2007.

Read more >> https://www.indigenouspeoples-sdg.org/index.php/english/all-global-news/1162-hello-indigenous-maori-have-words-with-air-new-zealand-over-trademark-of-phrase