New Zealand needs a new flag
The flag of a country is meant to be recognisable you can instantly recognise the flag of America, Spain, England and many more, yet New Zealand’s flag is one of the least recognisable out there. To form a proper identity New Zealand needs a new flag to represent itself, one that shows pride and culture instead of a washed up relic back from the colonisation of New Zealand.
The Union Jack is a flag showing the unification of England, Scotland and Ireland, full of culture and heritage and looked at with pride by many people from the United Kingdom. New Zealand is not part of the UK though, the only real connection that New Zealand has with the UK is the colonisation that happened over 150 years ago, which some people actually refer to as a bad thing. By taking the Union Jack off the New Zealand flag, our reputation as an independent country will be more apparent to other countries. Another benefit of taking the Union Jack off of the flag is that it will show people that look at it our heritage and our culture instead of the culture of another country.
If you have traveled out of the country or even seen a television show or movie, you would know that in various countries flags are looked at with pride, especially places like the USA where you see Americans looking at the American flag with the stereotypical twinkle in their eye. While here in New Zealand half the time we are trying to find out whether its actually ours or Australia’s! But in reality the amount of people who look at the New Zealand flag with pride is very few, in fact the only real reason people are still fighting to keep the flag around is because it was used in the Gallipoli campaign, other than that there is not really any reason to keep the current flag.
The Union Jack in the top left to signify the colonisation of New Zealand, the southern cross to signify the geographical location and a blue background to signify the royal navy these are the parts that make up the New Zealand flag now take a look again, can you find any reference to the Maori people or culture on that flag? The New Zealand flag is a gross interpretation of our culture it is a flag that shows the invasion of a local people instead of an integration. 1 in 7 people are Maori in New Zealand according to a census made in 2012. Which means that the New Zealand flag is excluding 15% of the population, even more considering that many New Zealanders embrace Maori culture without actually being Tangata Whenua. Including Maori culture in the flag would be paying long overdue homage to this country’s pre-European heritage.
New Zealand needs to change the flag so that we can be more recognisable as a country by taking out the mark of the United Kingdom, the Union Jack, by putting a design on it that distinguishes us from other countries and by including an aspect of Maori culture in the design. By having a new flag New Zealand’s culture, identity and history will be announced to the world.
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