Iwi leader encourages boycott of pub
Local tribal members have been urged to boycott a North Canterbury pub owned by a man who spouted racist vitriol online.
It comes as members of the beer industry say they have been severing ties with Eagle Brewing and Kaiapoi’s Port & Eagle Brewpub owner David Gaughan for more than a year over alleged racist and sexist comments.
Backlash against Gaughan’s business exploded after he called Ma¯ori the ‘‘scurge [sic] of New Zealand’’ on Facebook after ‘‘a few drinks’’ last week, the post being widely circulated.
But Gaughan told Stuff sales were ‘‘through the roof’’ at the weekend, and that staff backed him staying in the business ‘‘wholeheartedly’’.
Te Maire Tau, u¯ poko (head) of the local ru¯ nanga, Nga¯ i Tu¯ a¯ huriri, said Gaughan ‘‘doesn’t feature strongly in the Kaiapoi community’’ and that his comments did not reflect the multicultural town.
‘‘Our people have been friends with Pa¯ keha¯ a long time. That’s not Kaiapoi. You wouldn’t get away with it. He has been exposed for what he is.’’
Tau questioned whether the community should be ‘‘engaging with this nonsense’’.
‘‘I don’t think tribal members should give patronage and I don’t think Kaiapoi residents should.’’
Ava Nakagawa, the general manager of Christchurch pub Pomeroy’s, said Gaughan’s comments that business was doing well may have been ‘‘a little bit too soon’’ after his racist rant. Pomeroy’s stopped stocking Eagle products about a year ago because of allegedly derogatory online comments she said Gaughan had made previously, so his latest comments did not surprise her.
She questioned whether his comments about business being ‘‘through the roof’’ were subjective and strategic. But she said people had to be careful about ‘‘cancel culture’’ because it did not help in the long term.
Ekant Veer, a marketing professor at the University of Canterbury who has made stands against racism before and is known for his efforts to promote diversity, said he made a personal choice not to support Eagle Brewing, but that was his rightful choice rather than being ‘‘cancel culture’’ at play.
‘‘You are allowed to say whatever you want, but you have to face the consequences for that.’’