10 June 2005
Robyn McLean
Pataka has devoted five exhibitions to the debate on New Zealand's flag.
It's only a matter of time before we change our flag, says the curator of an exhibition looking at our flag and the move to replace it with something unique.
Bob Maysmor has spent months immersed in issues surrounding our flag for an exhibition at Pataka - an exhibition he says is not just a debate about change, but a show that looks at the history, the power and the emotional ties we have with our flag.
Originally starting out with an idea for a single show, Maysmor says the more he realised there were a numerous facets which needed to be looked at. The result is five different exhibitions looking at the flags in New Zealand.
"We realised it was a quite an exciting theme," he explains. "Each exhibition grew from the other, we kept building on the idea until we realised all our galleries could be filled with flag-related exhibitions."
In response to the debate about changing the existing flag, the museum decided to get 23 of the more popular options currently being bandied about made in to full size flags to let visitors see what they would look like, something Maysmor says is hard to garner from a flat image on apiece of paper.
With vocal group of New Zealanders lobbying for a new flag to represent the country, Maysmor says the timing for the show couldn't be better.
"Because of media coverage of the issue we realised it was topical but to do it on it's own would be bias. We wanted to put it in the public area for debate but also thought that it would be good to back it up with a historical overview on the evolution of the flag in New Zealand and then adding the other components," he says of the way the exhibition expanded.
"The full-sized flags looked great and allow people to really stand back and make up their own minds about it. I think we are provoking debate and thought on the subject."
Through his research, Maysmor discovered a number of prominent artists had in turn used the flag symbolically in their own paintings- something that gave rise to the exhibition Flagworks, which features artists including Laurence Aberhart, Shane Cotton, Tony de Lautour, Ralph Hotere, Erena Koopu, Fiona Pardington, Ian Scott, and Wayne Youle.
"There have been some amazing artworks with flags and their theme," he says. "Ralph Hotere, for example, did a series called the Black Union Jack and not everybody is aware but that has some very strong political comment about the Springbok tour. Some of the staff here have commented that he's almost turned the Union Jack into a swastika. I don't know, but that was probably his intention because it was a comment on the fascism of apartheid."
The exhibition, Protest and Celebration, features images by some of our leading documentary photographers showing the various ways flags have been used for both protest and celebration purposes.
The display included Porirua teacher Paul Hopkinson burning a flag in protest, Sarah Ulmer with a flag draped around her after she won gold and the recent Olympics, the coffin of the Unknown Warrior draped with the New Zealand and schoolchildren waving flags at eh Queen during various Royal visits.
"In a way the protest photos are also a way of celebration," Maysmor says. "Celebration of freedom of speech, of self determination on the part of the hikois. You could say it's not just negative, they show unity."
Maysmor says the exhibition, History Unfurled, will provide an interesting insight for those who are unaware of how our current flag, and past flags, came to be chosen.
"The first flag came about when a trading vessel from New Zealand went into Sydney Harbour. Because it wasn't registered or sailing under the national flag, it was seized and it brought up the issue that we had to have a flag for our ship to sail under.
"Three designs were presented to chiefs and they chose one which came to be known as the flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand. That became the first flag. We've actually had seven flags representing this nation," he says.
"Of all the indigenous people in the indigenous people taken over by colonial powers the Maori were virtually the only people who developed a flag culture all of their own. They developed an amazing array of flags with complex deigns.
"What they saw was that when the flag was put up the pole it had the power to claim the land that it was flying over. Therefore the flag became something which had great mana for the Maori and still (does). The iwi flags and some of the flags we see on the hikois are symbols of self-determination, of Maori sovereignty, they really unite the people."
Maysmor admits he thinks it is time for a change of flag and points to the success of Canada's maple leaf flag as a "flag-change" success story.
"I look at our current flag and think it is a wonderful piece of design, the colours, it works well but it is very similar to Australia's.
"My ancestors arrived here in 1840…but we've moved away from Britain, we've moved away from the trading and political connections we had. In some form or another I'd like to see the koru on our flag. It's such a unique motif. I'm not one for black though.
"There is a new generation of Kiwis who have a different outlook. We're a Pacific Rim nation now. When I was a kid the response would have been, 'we're part of the Commonwealth', you still heard people saying, 'I'm going home for a holiday', talking about England. You'd never hear that from young folk now. I spoke to young women the other day who said she was so proud travelling around Europe with a New Zealand flag on her back and I said, 'well how would you feel about a change?" She said, 'as long as it's distinctively New Zealand I'd be happy about it'."
After similar conversations with other visitors and colleagues at the museum, Maysmor says there is no denying the topic is one people feel very passionate about.
"There's not a lot of half measures," he says.
"It's the older folk who say, 'we fought and died under for that flag'. But as one of the quotes in the gallery says, 'you don't fight and die for your flag, you fight and die for the freedom of your nation'. It's splitting hairs but it is only a piece of cloth."
In his opinion, Maysmor thinks a change is inevitable but admits it could be a while away.
"I think the Government is sympathetically aware there are still returned servicemen. But to reference back to the Canadian flag, the maple leaf was a great success even though it was resisted."
History unfurled opens 12th June at Pataka and is on till October 16. Protest and Celebration is on till September 11; Jack or black runs till August 21; Flagworks till September 11; Niu Tireni till August 21. All exhibitions are on at Pataka in Porirua.
The Dominon Post
© Fairfax New Zealand Limited 2005.