Whittakers releases new Māori Creamy Milk label in Te Reo for Māori language week
A New Zealand chocolate company has come under fire for its new ‘woke‘ packaging designed to honour Maori native language week.
Whittakers released its new packaging on Tuesday featuring a label which translates Creamy Milk to Miraka Kirimi – the equivalent term in Te Reo Māori, the official Māori language.
The new packaging received massive backlash after right-wing commentator Cam Slater tweeted a picture of the chocolate bar alongside the caption: ‘Go woke, go broke..see ya Whittakers’.
New Zealand chocolate company Whittakers released a new label (above) for their popular Creamy Milk chocolate block written entirely in Te Reo for Māori language week
Some critics accused the chocolate company of going too far to appease ‘woke’ customers while others compared it to ‘forced mandated injections’.
‘Shame on you Whittaker’s we certainly won’t be buying your chocolates anymore,’ one wrote.
However, the dissenting tweets were followed by a frenzy of supportive Whittakers fans vowing to ‘stockpile’ the chocolate’s limited wrapper to ‘stick it to the haters’.
Fans of the new Te Reo package said they would ‘stockpile’ the label and slammed critics that claimed the label was too ‘woke’
‘Huge shoutout for Te Taura Whiri for continuing your mahi (work) to normalise our reo, the latest being the Whittaker’s Miraka Kirīmi,’ one person wrote
‘Thank you both for sticking your necks out on the line while racists slam you from all directions with hate and disgusting comments.’
‘Almost never buy chocolate, it’s a luxury my wallet and waistline can do without, but I bought four large Whittakers blocks this afternoon. Tonight we party,’ another said.
‘What Whittakers have done is make chocolate inaccessible for racists. I approve – they don’t deserve chocolate,’ another joked.
Right-wing Kiwi commentator Cam Slater kicked off the debate with a photo of a Creamy Milk block featuring the new label captioned : ‘Go woke, go broke..see ya Whittakers’
Māori Language Commission, or Te Taura Whiri, Professor Rawinia Higgins further defended the chocolate company’s move.
‘For those who have complained that this is a step too far for our country, the reality is that the rest of New Zealand has already taken that step,’ she told Stuff.
‘We know that eight in 10 of us see Te Reo as part of our identity as a Kiwi while one in three of us can speak more than a few words of Māori.
‘Young New Zealanders are helping to drive change. They are not threatened when they see or hear Te Reo; they see Te Reo as absolutely normal.’
