In 1830, the Hokianga-built trading ship Sir George Murray was seized in Sydney by Customs officials for sailing without a flag. It is said that the two rangatira on board, Te Taonui and Patuone, flew up a Māori cloak to show where the ship was from, without success. In 1833 a second ship was seized. It was clear an official flag for Aotearoa was needed.

On 24 March 1834, British Resident James Busby helped rangatira resolve the issue by proposing three alternative designs for an official Māori flag. Around 25 rangatira from the Far North and hundreds of supporters gathered at Waitangi to make their choice.

Busby addressed the crowd, and then each rangatira was called forward in turn to select their favourite design (the votes were recorded by Eruera Pare, the scribe of He Whakaputanga in 1835). The preferred design, known as the United Tribes flag, received 12 out of the 25 votes, with the other two designs receiving 10 and 3 votes each. Busby declared the United Tribes Flag (also known as Te Kara, the colours) the national flag of New Zealand and had it hoisted on a central flagpole, accompanied by a 21 gun salute from HMS Alligator.

The selection of Te Kara was a significant event. As well as being New Zealand’s first official flag, Busby considered it ‘the first national Act of the New Zealand Chiefs’. Historian Mānuka Hēnare sees it as part of a series of Māori nation-making events that began with Hongi Hika’s meeting with King George IV in 1820. In time the flag became a symbol of Māori sovereignty, and was at the centre of the Northern War of 1845-46.

This is the drawing of Te Kara that was sent to the Colonial Office.

Archives New Zealand Reference: CO209/1 p.124 (microfilm only)