Air New Zealand faces backlash over ‘cultural appropriation’ after trying to trademark Maori greeting

New Zealand’s national carrier, Air New Zealand, has offended the country’s Maori people by attempting to trademark an image of the words kia ora; the greeting for hello.The airline applied in May to trademark the image showing the greeting, which is also the name of its in-flight magazine.The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand, told TVNZ the airline was seeking to protect only the “particular stylised forms” of the greeting, rather than the greeting itself, but Indigenous groups said…