Hau Mitȟakȟolapi na Mitákuyepi (Hello my friends and relatives), Wophila tȟáŋka to all of our group members who have contacted the Half Acre Beer Co. A very special thank you to group member, Nora Hardin. Nora e-mailed the company and received the following response from Gabriel Magliaro, president of the company: Regarding the use of Heyoka: Fore reference, I’ve included your emails below my signature. My name is Gabriel. I’m an owner and the President of Half Acre Beer Co, and the person that brought the name Heyoka as an idea for this particular beer. I think it’s important to better explain who we are and how we go about naming our beers. We’re a small brewery that brews beer in a traditional method. We take immense pride in what we make for a living and look at what we do in the same light as anyone invested in the creative process with quality being paramount. We also take great pride in how we connect to our community, the role we play in social dynamics and the total impact we have as people. We treat our staff, consumers and community with great respect and work diligently to exist in a positive state. When naming beers, we use it as an opportunity to commemorate something of interest and fascination. We’ve celebrated german traditions and text, french words, mythology, tools, places, popular culture, natural phenomenon, music, lore and science. We’ve never used a word in disrespect, nor have we paired a word with imagery that aims to hurt a particular audience. This is the first time we’ve had an incident like this. It’s not our place to tell you that you shouldn’t be offended by the use of the word Heyoka. We can say that we used it due to an interest in the rich qualities your culture has to offer. It’s difficult to pin point how something is going to be received, but the original intent is extremely important. We didn’t make light of the word and didn’t pair the word with imagery that could be considered disrespectful. We brought the word into light and likely introduced an audience to something they might not have been aware of beforehand. From our perspective, introducing and creating awareness isn’t negative in and of itself. With that said, this word and role has meaning all your own. It is yours, and you don’t have to defend your reasoning. If using it at all is insulting and considered disrespectful, then that’s the last thing we’d want. We’ve received many comments and calls in a short period of time. The discussion has been brought to our website, social media and over the phone. We have no intention of disregarding the dialogue and plan to work with you to resolve any and all issues. However, the solution does require some time and logistical effort to effectively resolve. We ask that you communicate to your group that we’re working on the behalf of all and to please discontinue the negative public dialogue. Publicly attacking our brewery and livelihood doesn’t help to protect your culture and doesn’t help to resolve this issue. We’d ask that we work with one person that may speak on behalf of your community and effort. Please let me know who that will be and we’ll get to work. Respectfully, Gabriel Magliaro / President Half Acre Beer Company 4257 N. Lincoln Ave Chicago, IL 60618 office 773 248 4038 mobile 773 351 5709 I will keep everyone updated :)
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 19:09:59 +0000
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