150 years of flying the flag
From naval beginnings to a burning and a failed referendum, the NZ flag has seen a lot in its 150 years. Caroline Williams reports.
Birthday celebrations are in order: the flag of New Zealand has turned 150 years old.
The flag – also known as the New Zealand Ensign – was designed by Royal Navy officer Albert Hastings Markham and was approved in October 1869.
However, perhaps not every New Zealander is celebrating its birthday this month – specifically, the 921,876 people who voted for the black, white and blue silver fern flag in the 2016 referendum.
Former prime minister Sir John Key, who called for the referendum, did not respond to Stuff asking if he’d like to wish the flag a happy birthday.
To mark the birthday, we’ve put together a list of New Zealand’s most pivotal, outrageous and funny flag moments.
The birth of the flag
New Zealand’s first flag, the United Tribes Flag, was created to allow ships to sail in Australian waters, as flags were a requirement under British navigation laws. Not having a flag put ships at risk of being seized, and with Australia being New Zealand’s major trading market, to have ships seized would be a problem.
It was designed by the Rev Henry Williams of the Church Missionary Society and presented, along with two others, to 25 Far North Ma¯ ori chiefs to vote upon.
The United Tribes flag won with 12 votes, and was erected during a 21-gun salute at Waitangi in 1834.
The current flag came about, again, due to British navigation laws. During the New Zealand Wars, the new colony was told it could sail ships only if they flew flags featuring the Union Jack on a blue background, alongside the colony’s seal or badge. However, the colony did not have a badge or seal, so the letters ‘‘NZ’’ were added to the flag in the lower right corner.
Two years later, Markham submitted his design, with four red stars replacing the initials, to the governor of New Zealand. It was approved, and the rest is history.
Conviction quashed for Anzac flag burning
The flag is special enough to New Zealanders that we, like many countries, have a law protecting it.
Under the Flags, Emblems and Names Protection Act, it is an offence to publicly display, destroy or damage the New Zealand flag with the intention of dishonouring it.
In 2007, long-time activist Valerie Morse was convicted for behaving in an offensive manner in a public place after setting the flag on fire in an anti-war protest opposite the Wellington Cenotaph during the Anzac Day dawn service.
However, the Supreme Court found the lower courts had proceeded on a wrong basis of law by failing to assess the impact on public order. It said offensive behaviour must be behaviour that gives rise to a disturbance of public order.
Morse’s conviction was set aside in 2011.
Auckland University law professor Bill Hodge said the decision set a precedent, giving protesters more right to freedom of expression under the Bill of Rights, The Dominion Post reported at the time.
‘‘You can now burn the New
Zealand flag any time, anywhere you like, because I can’t think of a time any more sensitive with the right people in the right place than Anzac morning in our nation’s capital while the morning ceremony is ongoing.’’
Morse claimed it as a victory for those who believed in freedom of speech, and said the protest was about the war in Afghanistan, rather than being aimed at returned servicemen. The flag referendum 2015-16
The $26 million referendum – which led to no change whatsoever – is a strong contender for New Zealand’s most outrageous flag moment.
Many Kiwis argued the millions spent on the referendum could have been put towards other things, such as schools, health, or alleviating poverty, with then-Labour MP Phil Goff calling the project a ‘‘great diversion’’ and Key’s ‘‘vanity project’’.
Despite the public’s lack of interest in changing the flag, more than 10,000 designs were submitted. The Flag Consideration Panel eventually narrowed it down to 40, and then to just four designs on which Kiwis could vote. The winner would go up against the current flag.
A campaign was then mounted for the Red Peak design to be included in the vote, which led to it being added to the official shortlist.
But it was all in vain, as Red Peak missed out on making it to the final stage of the referendum in favour of the black, white and blue silver fern flag designed by
Kyle Lockwood.
However, the existing flag, with its Union Flag and Southern Cross,
proved itself tried and true in the final vote.
It captured the hearts of 1,200,003 voters, while Lockwood’s design gathered only 915,008.
In memoriam: the flags that weren’t to be
While most took great care in submitting flag designs for the referendum, not all had the best intentions. But it would be rude not to mention the flags that made international headlines and gave us a good chuckle.
Designers were told their flags could not be offensive or divisive, could not include words or photos, and could not include images of people. We’ll give them a gold star for trying, but it didn’t stop the penises, ‘‘sheep shaggers’’, swastikas and images of John Key pulling ponytails and flushing money down a toilet.
Others were less subtle, with text saying ‘‘We are not Australians’’, and the Tui slogan ‘‘Yeah right’’ sitting beside a silver fern.
The parody flags even got us a mention on the US current affairs and comedy show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, who urged New Zealanders to vote for a flag titled ‘‘Eggsplosion’’, which featured a singing egg and an explosion.
Perhaps the best-known flag of the debate was James Gray’s ‘‘Fire the Lazar’’, also known as ‘‘laser kiwi’’, which depicted a kiwi shooting a laser beam from its eye.
Gray told
Stuff in 2015 that the design was mocked up on Microsoft Paint one night after some ‘‘random inspiration’’.
‘‘You look at Australia, they’ve got all sorts of deadly animals,’’ he said. ‘‘We don’t even have one. I thought it was about time we had one.’’
What next for the flag?
Flag historian Malcolm Mulholland, who was also on the Flag Consideration Panel, predicts a flag change in the future is ‘‘inevitable’’, especially with Brexit looming.
‘‘If they [any part of Britain] were to become independent of the UK, it would be inevitable that the Union Jack flag as we know it today would change quite dramatically. It would be a redundant flag.’’
He believes the only emblem readily recognisable as Kiwi is the silver fern, given most of our national sports teams already use it.
Despite the popularity of the kiwi icon, he says ‘‘animals never work on flags’’.
‘‘People would look at the kiwi and think it’s a fat chicken.’’