Big call to drop kiwi as NZ icon
It’s time to ditch the kiwi as our national symbol and instead embrace a bird that can actually fly, an expert says.
Northern NZ Seabird Trust cofounder Chris Gaskin believes a more fitting emblem would be a seabird, more specifically, if he had to choose, a Buller’s shearwater (Rako).
‘‘Kiwis can be cute,’’ Gaskin told a seabird forum. ‘‘The label Kiwi will be hard to shake but I do believe seabirds demand our respect.’’
As kiwis were flightless, with a limited range of movement, it was time to choose a bird that better represented New Zealanders, he said.
Speaking at the Taking Flight event at Auckland War Memorial Museum, he argued that our position between two oceans and our liking for overseas travel meant it made sense to have a seabird.
Kiwis have had a bad rap in recent times. In 2015 British comedian John Oliver said a kiwi looked less like a bird, and more like ‘‘a dumb, fat mouse who got its face stuck on a straw.’’
Last year in a promotional video for a BBC television mini-series, Flight of the Conchords star Bret McKenzie paid tribute to the kiwi, calling it a hedgehog with a beak.
The lesser-known Buller’s shearwater, referred to in the United States as the New Zealand shearwater, breed in the Poor Knights and are common around much of New Zealand. After breeding they journey to the North Pacific Ocean.
The Department of Conservation say the kiwi is a tao¯ nga (treasure) to Maori, who have strong cultural, spiritual and historic associations with it.
Department spokesman Des Williams said while the kiwi had been an unofficial symbol for more than 100 years it had no official status as our national bird.
Conservationist and kiwi enthusiast Trevor Johnston questioned why anyone would want to change it.
‘‘I think it would be a great shame,’’ Johnston said.
‘‘If you change it to any other bird it’s just not going to work, it’ll be a huge psychological barrier for generations to get over.’’
AUT history professor Paul Moon said the change would be difficult.
‘‘There’s such a lot of heritage with the kiwi it would be hard to convince people to abandon it,’’ he said.
‘‘It wouldn’t just be a case of changing minds in New Zealand but changing how the word is being used overseas to identify New Zealanders.
‘‘If there isn’t a popular groundswell for change I don’t think it’s got any chance of, can I say it, taking off.’’