Te Tino Rangitiratanga

Today is Waitangi Day. On this day in 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between Maori chiefs and the representative of the British Crown, William Hobson. This Treaty remains the moral (if not the legal) basis of the concept of nationhood in this country. Officially the country is called New Zealand and unofficially as Aotearoa (but increasingly given status as a second name for the country e.g. on our passports). The treaty gives many rights and privileges. Increasingly this day of commemoration has become also a day of protest and demand for fair treatment.

One issue which keeps emerging is the NZ flag. Currently our flag is almost indistinguishable from the Australian one. A large part of the flag continues to signify the attachment to Britain, with the Union Jack occupying one quarter of the flag. Perhaps the alternative with the greatest support is seen here flying from the western flagpole on the Harbour Bridge. It is known as Te Tino Rangitiratanga flag, a national Maori flag.

You may see the flag a little more clearly by going large.

For some information about the development of this flag and a description of it go to this official Government site.

An article in this morning's NZ Herald described the history of the Treaty signing.

ADDITIONAL:

I have come back to add an interpretation of Tino Rangitiratanga. A rangatira is a chief; tanga makes the word become an abstract noun referring therefore to the attributes of chieftainship. Tino is an intensifier which in this context means the "highest chieftainship". The closest English translation is 'absolute sovereignty', or self determination. That is the source of disagreement. Was the intention of the treaty to have parallel systems; one Maori and one Pakeha? [To me that seems unlikely]. Or was the intention to say that Maori would be free members of a single society with equivalent rights and obligations to non Maori? Somewhere in between seems to be the preferred option of many Maori, and a significant proportion of Pakeha.