Skip to main content

Kōrero: Flags

Tino rangatiratanga flag: the national Māori flag

Tino rangatiratanga flag: the national Māori flag

In December 2009, cabinet (the decision-making body of executive government) recognised the tino rangatiratanga flag (seen at left) as the national Māori flag of New Zealand. It was chosen after a public consultation process. The tino rangatiratanga flag has no official status but can complement the New Zealand flag on days of national significance. Here, Parliament's messengers and support-services team leader Euan McCade prepares the tino rangatiratanga and New Zealand flags for hoisting at Parliament on Waitangi Day in 2010.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

New Zealand Herald

Reference: 040210NZHMMFLAGS3.JPG

by Mark Mitchell

Permission of the New Zealand Herald must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Kerryn Pollock, Flags – Māori flags, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/33981/tino-rangatiratanga-flag-the-national-maori-flag (accessed 10 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Kerryn Pollock, i tāngia i te 14 March 2012.

Comments

Jvdey_cat
05 April 2014
It does not bother me if they change it. Though if they where to, i believe it should be cultural and support New Zealand as a country. An independent country. Hit what John Key says, it should not be the silver fern, well atleast Not the silver fern alone. That is more of a club flag to me. It should be something similar to this, something showing are original culture. Though Maori where not the first in New Zealand. They where the ancestors of the first people here and they lived longer.