Press

RIGHT ARGUMENT, WRONG FLAG

31 January 2009

by Hamish Keith

According to the online Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, something like 1500 flags have fluttered in the New Zealand breeze over the past 300 years. Flags of Nation, Empire, Iwi, Company and Faction. Most we have either forgotten or never thought about. Te Papa alone has some 100 Te Kooti flags that no casual visitor has seen, which is a pity. It is amazing, though, how much passion can still be raised by some stitched bunting flying from a pole.

Now adding to the annual stoushes on Waitangi Day is one about whether or not the Maori tino rangatiratanga flag can fly over Auckland Harbour Bridge alongside the national ensign. Transit New Zealand says no. It owns the poles and claims they are reserved for the flags of sovereign states only. On the face of it, that seems fair enough. The Maori flag, however much justice its cause – that of Maori sovereignty – might have, is still a flag of faction and not of state. Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples has weighed into the row, adding the argument that since his party is a part of the National-led Government, the flag has more of a reason to be there. A bad argument. No one would want to see one of the bridge’s poles flying Rodney Hide’s yellow jacket.

But Sharples’ more substantial argument that sporting the flag would re-inforce the partnership between Maori and Crown, which is what Waitangi Day is really about, deserves more scrutiny. It is the right argument, but the wrong flag. When the Treaty was signed in 1840, it was signed between the British Crown and an internationally recognised sovereign state that not only had a flag but had ships flying it on the high seas protected by it: the ensign of the United Tribes of the independent and sovereign state of New Zealand, adopted at a meeting of 25 chiefs at Waitangi in March 1834. Recognised by King William IV and the British Royal Navy as the official New Zealand flag, it flew until arbitrarily swept off the country’s flag poles by the Union Jack in 1840. After that, it was flown only by the Wellington settlers and Hone Heke – both were forced to remove it, giving Heke another reason for chopping down the flagpole. Its last official outing was on a Boer War medal.

It does fly below the national ensign on the flagstaff at Waitangi and it should fly everywhere else on the day – including Auckland Harbour Bridge. It is a handsome flag and the undisputed ensign of Maori sovereignty. We got it by choice. It has mana for Maori and for the rest of us a proud history. It bows its symbolic head to no other country, and best of all it is not some dinky logo designed by an advertising agency de jour. It is an image worth fighting for and we should have it back now.
FROM THE LISTENER ARCHIVE 31-February 6 2009 Vol 217 No 3586