Local brewery changing design on one of its products out of respect for MMIWG

The old can design for the Redhanded Irish red ale crafted by Stone Angel Brewing. The company is changing after it was asked to stopped using it due to its connection with Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Sept. 6, 2022. (Source: Stone Angel Brewing/website)

Stone Angel Brewing is making a change to one of its can's design.

The company announced on its website that it will be changing the design on the Redhanded Irish Red Ale.

The design had a stylized red hand on it.

"With two thirds of our ownership group being proudly of direct Irish descent and/or birth, that symbol was specifically chosen to evoke the culturally important and centuries old Red Hand of Ulster," said Paul McMullan, the president and director of operations, in a statement on the company's website.

He said in the past week, the company had been asked to stop using the image and when the reason was shared with them, they agreed to not use it anymore.

"In recent years, for many of Canada's Indigenous community a red hand symbol very close in appearance to the one we have been using has become an increasingly important symbolic representation of violence that affects Indigenous women across Canada,” he said.

McMullan said while the company used the hand to celebrate Irish culture, they understand it could be seen as hurtful or disrespectful to others.

"Out of respect for the MMIWG in particular, we are redesigning our labels and marketing of this product,” he said.

McMullan said they will not package any new cans using this design and all future cans will have a different name and design.

He noted that a new design could take some time and people may still see the old label in stores due to a recent shipment.

"Thank you for your patience and understanding as we clear out our existing can stock using the current design. However, in support and solidarity with MMIWG, Stone Angel will donate a portion of profits on sales of these last 'red hand label' cans shipped from September 1, 2022 to the Indigenous Women's Healing Centre."