Flying the Fern

.. our new flag that might have been ..In 2015 and 2016, we had the chance to change our flag. It’s a great shame that we didn’t. Perhaps someone will write a book about the process we went through, because defenders of the current flag said some mighty strange things, in defence of our existing flag.

Worse, many groups, like the Labour Party, New Zealand First and the RSA (Returned Services Association) attacked the then PM John Key, making him the issue, which was tiresome and unfortunate; Mr Key deserved better.

Sadly, too, many Pākehā historians who have been writing ‘Māori history’ for some time – supposedly with some empathy for Māori – came out in support of the current flag, which of course is a colonial relic. This attitude from New Zealand historians was really disappointing. As it turned out, most New Zealanders voted for the old flag. Perhaps New Zealanders have the flag they deserve.

.. one of the suggested alternative flags ..

Meantime, then PM John Key of course staunchly supported the new flag. You can read some of the background behind the flag referendum here –  Changing the Flag.

In our view, New Zealand still needs to change its flag.

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Changing the flag

The old and the new .. sadly, New Zealanders stayed with the old .. Mainly because our current flag is a colonial relic; and the Union Jack was flown by those who invaded New Zealand, depriving Māori of their land, livelihoods and sovereignty.

You can imagine how Rewi Maniāopoto and King Tāwhaio felt on the evening of 19 November 1863, when they peered north from the Rangiriri battlements and saw the British Army approaching. The British Army’s invasion of the Waikato had reached their doorstep.

The flag pole, and Treaty House, at Waitangi. The Union Jack flag was raised here on 6 February, 1840. Fluttering above the invading British Army was the flag now being defended by the RSA and New Zealand First as the flag ‘under which so many of our boys have died’. Defending New Zealand’s flag on these grounds  suffers terribly from forgetting our past.

This is because the flag seen at Rangiriri would go on to devastate Māori communities in the Waikato, Tauranga and Taranaki, in particular, as it had already done in North Taranaki and the far North.

The British attacked Rangiriri from the north – see photo. 50 Māori would die at Rangiri, 67 at Waiari/Rangiaowhia/Hairini, and 160 at Orākau. That’s 277 in the Waikato alone – and these are James Cowan’s conservative estimates.

Rangiriri battle site today. The British attacked from the left of the photograph. The original Pā extended far to the east, over the road and out of the picture; the road (Highway 1) was constructed through the Pā, after the battle (as was often the custom in those days).Add to this the death toll of Māori in Tauranga – 44 – and further later losses elsewhere, especially South Taranaki, the Ureweras and the East Coast, at the hands of the British and its successor, the New Zealand Armed Constabulary. The figure probably exceeds 500, though it is difficult to know precisely.

By some estimates, 2500-3000 Māori died during the Land Wars. That’s a lot of people, defending hearth and home and papakāinga. .. another one of the awesome alternatives what might have been ..

The New Zealand flag, it is true, did not make its appearance until 1902. But variations of it were in unofficial use throughout the wars, and the Union Jack was of the course the flag under which the British, Armed Constabulary and settlers fought against Māori.

For estimates of the Land Wars casualties, see James Cowan, The New Zealand Wars, Volumes One and Two, Wellington, 1922/1923, pages (respectively) 465-466 and 550-553.