New Zealand - National Flag

New Zealand chose to keep its current flag. More than 2 million people voted in a referendum on whether to replace the flag's Union Jack with a silver fern leaf. A survey undertaken in the last week of February 2016 showed 59 percent of people wanted to keep the current flag, 32 percent wanted to change it and 9 percent were unsure. National Party voters were evenly split between keeping the current flag and retaining the old one, but opposition voters overwhelmingly supported keeping the current flag. The deadline for posting back voting papers was 21 March, and a preliminary result was expected late in the day on 24 March.

On 15 December 2015, New Zealand announced results of a referendum that will determine which design will compete against the national flag. According to some observers, the debate over a new flag doesn’t carry much urgency. For years, New Zealanders had called for a change, arguing the current flag is too beholden to the United Kingdom - it features the Union Jack in the top left-hand corner - and too similar to Australia's. Prime Minister John Key had been at the forefront of the movement, going so far as to post an online video arguing why his country should adopt a new flag.

The current New Zealand flag harkens back to a colonial past. While New Zealand had no aspirations to establish a republic, the Union Jack carried old world connotations. In addition, the current flag represented for some Maori New Zealanders the symbol of colonial oppression.

Between 5 May and 16 July 2015, the Flag Consideration Panel (the Panel) asked New Zealanders to share their views and values as well as suggest alternative flag designs. Following an extensive public engagement program, 10,292 alternative designs were suggested and 4 were selected by the Flag Consideration Panel. Following this process, Parliament extended the number of alternatives to 5, adding a fifth option for ranking in the first binding postal referendum.

In the first binding referendum from 20 November to 11 December 2015, eligible voters ranked the 5 alternative designs in their order of preference. On 15 December 2015, the Electoral Commission announced that the Silver Fern Flag would be the flag to move forward to the second referendum as the preferred alternative. The flag that receives the most votes in the final referendum will become the New Zealand flag.

The New Zealand Flag is New Zealand’s national symbol. Its royal blue background is reminiscent of the blue sea and sky, and the stars of the Southern Cross signify a place in the South Pacific Ocean. The Union Flag recognises historical foundations and that New Zealand was once a British colony and dominion.

The design of New Zealand's national flag emerged over several years before being officially approved in 1902. Its origins date from 1865 when the British Government instructed that vessels from the colonies should fly the Blue Ensign with the seal or badge of the colony on it.

New Zealand didn’t have a recognised badge at the time, so its vessels flew the Blue Ensign without any markings until reprimanded by the British Government. Mr G Eliott, Secretary of the General Post Office, recommended that the four stars of the Southern Cross be used as New Zealand's badge but this was rejected. Instead the words ‘New Zealand’ were added to the Blue Ensign, and later shortened to ‘NZ’ in red letters with white borders.

In 1869, Governor Sir George Bowen directed that the Southern Cross replace ‘NZ’ on the Blue Ensign. The Southern Cross was represented by four five-pointed red stars with white borders to correspond with the colors of the Union Jack. Still officially a maritime flag, the flag was used on land and gradually became recognised as New Zealand’s national flag. In 1902, the flag officially became the National Flag of New Zealand.

Both Australia and New Zealand chose the Southern Cross constellation for their flags because it is only seen in the Southern Hemisphere. The stars on the Australian Flag are white and have more points than the New Zealand Flag to show their brightness in the sky.

The fifth smaller star on the Australian Flag can be seen when looking at the Southern Cross and there was some debate in New Zealand as to whether the fifth star should be included on the New Zealand Flag. They decided just to use the four stars that mark the points of the compass. The sixth and largest star on the Australian Flag, below the Union Jack, is the Federation Star, representing the federation of the colonies of Australia on 1 January 1901.

There is one point for each of the six original states, and one to represent all of Australia's internal and external territories. The colours of the stars on both flags were chosen to complement the colours of the Union Jack shown in the top left-hand corner of both flags.

The national Maori (Tino Rangatiratanga) flag was identified through a nationwide consultation process. While it does not carry official status it is a symbol of this land that can complement the New Zealand flag. Flying the two flags together on days of national significance such as Waitangi Day symbolises and enhances the Crown-Maori relationship.

In January 2009, the Hon Pita Sharples, Minister of Maori Affairs, publicly called for a Maori flag to be flown from the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Waitangi Day. He thought that flying a Maori flag at sites of national significance would reflect and enhance Crown-Maori relationships. The Rt Hon John Key, Prime Minister, answered that call, saying he would support flying the two flags together if agreement could be reached on a preferred flag.

In October 2014 Cabinet agreed on the details of the flag referendum process with every political party represented in Parliament invited to take part. The Flag Consideration Panel announced 01 September 2015 the four flag designs that eligible voters will rank in the first binding postal referendum this year, between 20 November and 11 December.

The four designs are:

• ‘Silver Fern (Red, White and Blue)’, designed by Kyle Lockwood, originally from Wellington
• ‘Silver Fern (Black, White and Blue)’, designed by Kyle Lockwood.
• ‘Silver Fern (Black & White)’, designed by Alofi Kanter from Auckland
• Red Peak, designed by Aaron Dustin
• ‘Koru’, designed by Andrew Fyfe from Wellington

The New Zealand Story Group license the use of the New Zealand Fern (a trade mark owned by New Zealand Way) and have confirmed they would support the use of its fern design depicted on “Silver Fern (Black & White)” by Alofi Kanter, should this alternative flag be chosen by eligible voters in the upcoming referenda.

“New Zealand is a small nation at the bottom of the world and most of us are pretty humble people who don’t like talking that much about ourselves. When designing a flag, you have to put all that behind you and say, okay, what will make the world recognise us, what will make Kiwis proud to carry it and what will bring a tear to your eye when you see it on the podium?” said architectural designer [and flag designer] Kyle Lockwood.

Silver Fern (Red, White and Blue)
Designed by: Kyle Lockwood

Official Description

The dominant feature of this flag is a white fern frond that sweeps up diagonally from the bottom left corner to the right of the top centre. The left side of the fern is sitting on a red background. To the right of the fern there are four stars in the formation of the Southern Cross constellation, sitting on a blue background. Each star is red with a white border, and has five points.

Designer’s Description

The silver fern: A New Zealand icon for over 160 years, worn proudly by many generations. The fern is an element of indigenous flora representing the growth of our nation. The multiple points of the fern leaf represent Aotearoa’s peaceful multicultural society, a single fern spreading upwards represents that we are all one people growing onward into the future. The red represents our heritage and sacrifices made. Blue represents our clear atmosphere and the Pacific Ocean, over which all New Zealanders, or their ancestors, crossed to get here. The Southern Cross represents our geographic location in the antipodes. It has been used as a navigational aid for centuries and it helped guide early settlers to our islands.

Silver Fern (Black, White and Blue)
Designed by: Kyle Lockwood

Official Description

The dominant feature of this flag is a white fern frond that sweeps up diagonally from the bottom left corner to the right of the top centre. The left side of the fern is sitting on a black background. To the right of the fern there are four stars in the formation of the Southern Cross constellation, sitting on a blue background. Each star is red with a white border, and has five points.

Designer’s Description

The silver fern: A New Zealand icon for over 160 years, worn proudly by many generations. The fern is an element of indigenous flora representing the growth of our nation. The multiple points of the fern leaf represent Aotearoa’s peaceful multicultural society, a single fern spreading upwards represents that we are all one people growing onward into the future. The bright blue represents our clear atmosphere and the Pacific Ocean, over which all New Zealanders, or their ancestors, crossed to get here. The Southern Cross represents our geographic location in the antipodes. It has been used as a navigational aid for centuries and it helped guide early settlers to our islands.

Silver Fern (Black & White)
Designed by Alofi Kanter

Official Description

The dominant feature of this flag is a black and white fern frond. The fern frond sweeps diagonally up from the bottom left corner to the top right corner of the flag. The leaves and the stem on the top side of the fern are black on a white background. The leaves and the stem on the bottom side are white on a black background.

Designer’s Description

The fern has been a distinctive symbol of New Zealand for the past 100 years. Strong and simple, it represents our uniqueness as Aotearoa New Zealand and the black and white colours show our ‘yin and yang’, with the softly curved spine of the frond binding us all together as a young, independent and proud nation. Credit for the fern goes to The New Zealand Way Limited.

Red Peak
Designed by Aaron Dustin

Official Description

In the centre of this flag are two thick white diagonal lines. They start in the left and right bottom corners and meet in the centre top, forming an upside-down V shape. The spaces around the shape form triangles. The triangle in the centre of the shape is red, the triangle to the left of the upside-down V shape is black and the triangle to the right is blue.

Designer’s Description

Designed to reflect powerful and fundamental visual elements from New Zealand culture this flag breaks down multicultural elements into simple, shared forms. The chevron is inspired by traditional Maori weaving taniko patterns and refers to the collision of two tectonic plates which form the Southern Alps. The colours suggest a landscape of red earth and black sky and reference the story of Rangi and Papa, a creation myth in Maori mythology. The red triangle with a white stripe is also an iteration of elements of the tip of the stars from our existing flags. This design communicates the uniqueness of our land, light and position.

Koru
Designed by Andrew Fyfe

Official Description

The right half of this flag is black. At the halfway point of the flag the black forms a koru on a white background. The black koru spirals down and to the left from the top of the flag.

Designer’s Description

As our flag unfurls, so too does its koru. The koru represents the fern frond, but is also reminiscent of a wave, a cloud, and a ram’s horn. In Maori kowhaiwhai patterns the koru represent new life, growth, strength and peace, and for this reason has taken a special place in Aotearoa’s visual language.