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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Elle Hunt

New Zealand announces final shortlist for new flag design – as it unfurled

The final four designs for New Zealand flag.
The final four designs for an alternative New Zealand flag. Photograph: www.govt.nz

Between three ferns (and a koru)

I just caught myself wondering if New Zealand really needs a flag, or if New Zealand even exists at all. I’m in the eye of the koru and it’s time to wrap this up.

So, the flag consideration panel has published its shortlist. What now?

The public will be asked to rank the four designs in the first binding postal referendum this year, which will be held between 20 November and 11 December.

This will determine a preferred alternative.

It is statistically likely to be a silver fern design.

The second binding postal referendum will be held in March next year. It will ask voters to choose between the fern (come on, let’s be real) and the current flag.

If the outcome is the new (fern) flag, it will be adopted six months after the decision is announced.

It will be interesting to see which version of events is confirmed.

Guardian Australia will cover each stage of the process.

In the meantime, a “hypnoflag” parody account has already been started on Twitter, and I am thinking about a message from a friend I received about 15 minutes ago, which said, “It is brave of you to run this live blog even though it should objectively be causing you permanent brain damage”.

Thanks for following along.

Guardian writer Oliver Burkeman is one person who has been enthusiastically following the Flag Consideration Panel’s deliberations from the other side of the world.

This was his pick. “This is the one that should win and I’ll be massively outraged for weeks on Twitter if it doesn’t (maybe),” he tweeted before the shortlist was announced.

“He seems unusually concerned for someone who has zero connection to the story,” remarks my Guardian Australia colleague Claire Phipps.

Before I wrap this up, let’s reminisce about the optimism we felt in the process’ earliest stages, when the new New Zealand flag could have been just about anything.

The official correspondence from the Flag Consideration Panel is fairly sunny in spite of the outpouring of bile aimed at them on Twitter. They made this nice graphic thanking every New Zealander for their contribution to the process. Is it a Magic Eye? Put your nose to your monitor! Then let us know what you see in the comments!

But they haven’t publicised much in the way of details about how they reached their decision of the final four, beyond the following metrics:

  • 10,000+ alternative designs suggested
  • 140,000+ views of New Zealand flag history video
  • 43,000+ New Zealanders shared what they stand for online and via post
  • 1,100,000+ reached via social media
  • 6,000+ visits to workshops and information stands
  • 9,500+ km travelled to 25 public meetings and hui around the country
  • 2,000,000+ page views of alternative designs gallery
  • 850,000+ online visits

In appealing for alternative flag designs, the panel asked New Zealanders to share what they “stand for”. The findings of that stage of the process are a fascinating insight into Aotearoa (please excuse this text rendering of a word cloud).

Large sized words:

  • freedom
  • history
  • equality
  • respect
  • family
  • heritage
  • present
  • future
  • kiwi
  • integrity.

Medium sized words:

  • commonwealth
  • peace
  • māori
  • green
  • pride
  • honesty
  • love
  • environment
  • past
  • unity
  • unique
  • tradition
  • fairness
  • british.

Smaller words:

  • community
  • culture
  • free justice
  • democracy
  • clean
  • equal
  • united
  • fair
  • independence
  • beautiful
  • independent
  • caring
  • helping
  • opportunity
  • pacific.

New Zealanders be like:

No take is hotter than that of Guardian Australia’s comment editor, Adam Brereton, and he’s just filed:

As a New Zealand citizen I will be voting in the postal referendum in November or December. My own submission to the open gallery, way back in May, was rejected because it showed a person’s image and/or “is offensive or divisive”.

It was nonetheless subsequently held up by a comedian on national New Zealand television as an example of how stupid New Zealanders can be, which I suppose is fair enough.

The New Zealand government thinks this may inform your decision, too.

This may inform your decision.

Flying the flag for crowdsourced design.

Silver Fern (Black, White and Blue), designed by Kyle Lockwood

The designer’s description: The silver fern: A New Zealand icon for over 160 years, worn proudly by many generations. The fern is an element of indigenous flora representing the growth of our nation. The multiple points of the fern leaf represent Aotearoa’s peaceful multicultural society, a single fern spreading upwards represents that we are all one people growing onward into the future. The bright blue represents our clear atmosphere and the Pacific Ocean, over which all New Zealanders, or their ancestors, crossed to get here. The Southern Cross represents our geographic location in the antipodes. It has been used as a navigational aid for centuries and it helped guide early settlers to our islands.

This blogger’s take: nuhrghghhgrghhjhgfghh

Updated

Koru, designed by Andrew Fyfe

The designer’s description: As our flag unfurls, so too does its koru. The koru represents the fern frond, but is also reminiscent of a wave, a cloud, and a ram’s horn. In Māori kowhaiwhai patterns the koru represent new life, growth, strength and peace, and for this reason has taken a special place in Aotearoa’s visual language.

This blogger’s take: It isn’t a fern! And John Key doesn’t like it. If you didn’t like John Key, maybe you would vote for this one. But, more likely, you’d just not vote at all.

Silver Fern (Red, White and Blue), designed by Kyle Lockwood

The designer’s description: The silver fern: A New Zealand icon for over 160 years, worn proudly by many generations. The fern is an element of indigenous flora representing the growth of our nation. The multiple points of the fern leaf represent Aotearoa’s peaceful multicultural society, a single fern spreading upwards represents that we are all one people growing onward into the future. The red represents our heritage and sacrifices made. Blue represents our clear atmosphere and the Pacific Ocean, over which all New Zealanders, or their ancestors, crossed to get here. The Southern Cross represents our geographic location in the antipodes. It has been used as a navigational aid for centuries and it helped guide early settlers to our islands.

This blogger’s take: This is John Key’s preferred alternative because it has a fern on it and it doesn’t look like Isis’ flag. It invokes less a feeling of patriotism in me than a feeling of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also:

Silver Fern (Black & White), designed by Alofi Kanter

Enough dwelling on what could have been. Let’s find out a little bit more about the four flags that New Zealanders will rank in November or December (or not, whichever – there’s no compulsory voting).

First up: Silver Fern (Black & White), designed by Alofi Kanter

The designer’s description: The fern has been a distinctive symbol of New Zealand for the past 100 years. Strong and simple, it represents our uniqueness as Aotearoa New Zealand and the black and white colours show our ‘yin and yang’, with the softly curved spine of the frond binding us all together as a young, independent and proud nation. Credit for the fern goes to The New Zealand Way Limited.

This blogger’s take: The silver fern is obviously an iconic symbol of New Zealand, and we already know it looks good on an All Blacks jersey, second only to the flag in terms of fabric representations of nationhood. I suspect that the fact it’s familiar, and John Key’s enthusiastic support for it, will be enough for it to come out on top in the first referendum.

But the fern is the logo of not only the All Blacks but also “The New Zealand Way Limited”, a joint venture company owned by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and Tourism New Zealand. (You can read a very interesting academic paper (really) about the history of the silver fern brand here.)

I might be being precious, but making it the flag seems a bit on-the-nose so far as national branding goes. Why not capitalise on our lively Lord of the Rings tourism industry and make the flag of The One Ring or a Hobbit-hole?

Updated

You wouldn’t know it to look at the final four, but it didn’t have to be this way: the flag consideration panel had more than 10,000 designs to choose from, many of which did not feature silver ferns or the Southern Cross.

The backlash about the final four seems aimed squarely at the process, rather than the designers. The lack of transparency about the panel’s decision-making, the absence of public consultation, and the resulting Hobson’s choice of mostly ferns seems to have soured people from both sides of the political spectrum on the process.

It’s hard to identify a clear favourite among the shortlist of four from the response on social media, especially given that three are so similar. Could the black-and-white koru be in with a shot given that it’s a) the only design without a (botanically incorrect) fern, and b) the only design that prime minister John Key doesn’t prefer to the current flag?

“I don’t know if Kiwis care enough,” said my colleague (and New Zealand citizen) Shalailah Medhora.

If you wanted to express your discontentment with the process, your other alternative would be not voting in the first referendum at all.

Updated

One person I’m holding in my thoughts today is the Sydney-based gentleman who emailed me when the longlist of designs was announced to point out that “the majority of the designs [are] botanically incorrect”, attaching both a drawing and a scan of a silver fern to make his point. “You would expect them to get right,” he said.

It’s a big day for branding in New Zealand, with new banknote designs also announced today. They have been described as “funky”.

Twitter isn’t happy with them, either.

Allowing for the fact that New Zealanders on Twitter are not representative of New Zealanders as a whole, the reaction to the shortlisted four is overwhelmingly negative. There seems to be a sense that an opportunity was squandered and the population wasn’t listened to.

The flag consideration panel did not consult with the public on either its longlist of 40 (39, if you disregard the one that breached copyright!) published two months ago, or the shortlist of four just announced.

Still, every cloud:

Updated

The final four: same, same, bit different

These are the final four flags that New Zealanders will be asked to rank in a postal referendum later this year. As far as I am aware, “none of the above” will not be an option, despite clear calls for it from Twitter commentators.

The preferred fern design (let’s be real here) will then be deemed the “preferred alternative”. Early next year, the public will vote whether they’d rather it or the current flag they know and love (or, at least, now newly appreciate).

Updated

The flag consideration panel was appointed to represent “everyday New Zealanders” – was this in the back of their mind when they made their decision?

What could have been.

So, the final four: a fern, a fern, a fern and a koru.

This seems to sum up the response of New Zealanders to the shortlist on Twitter.

It could be fatigue with the drawn-out process, it could be displeasure with having been given a choice between three ferns, but people aren’t happy.

Aaaaaaaaand: here they are.

Here’s the third option.

Given that prime minister John Key has been unequivocal about his preference for a silver fern design, it seems reasonable to assume that this is the one of the shortlisted four that he doesn’t prefer to the current flag.

The first two of the final four flags have been unveiled – unfurled? – by the deputy prime minister, Bill English. So far: two silver ferns!

This prediction is shaping up to be on the money.

Updated

Members of the flag consideration panel are waiting for the deputy prime minister, Bill English, to announce their decision.

The makeup of this panel has been one of the most contentious points of the process to change the flag, the fact that there’s not a graphic designer or vexillologist among them in particular.

The 12 people were chosen to represent New Zealanders “from all walks of life, age and experience” by a cross-party group of MPs in late February.

Updated

The final four are being picked from all but one of the 40 designs that made the panel’s longlist in August. One design was made ineligible after it was found to have been in breach of copyright. You had one job …

New Zealand Twitter, which is disproportionately journalists and communications professionals, is playing along at home with flag bingo.

It’s not about which flag you want anymore. It’s about who can best
guess the hivemind of the flag consideration panel.

Updated

New Zealand’s hunt for a new flag has been observed with interest by the rest of the world and this morning the government-appointed flag consideration panel of 12 people will announce their shortlist of four designs.

Before the end of the year, the New Zealand public will be rank these four designs in the first of two public referendums – this one will determine a preferred alternative, while the next, early next year, will pit that against the current pairing of the Union Jack and the Southern Cross.

So, after all this expense and lively debate about nationhood, there’s a chance that New Zealand won’t end up with a new flag at all.

But that’s putting the cart before the kiwi-with-laser-eyes – which, unfortunately, won’t be appearing on the shortlist of four this morning. The panel published its longlist of 40 designs only two months ago – prompting the world’s media to mourn what could have been (man on a bicycle! deranged cat!) and to start taking the debate seriously.

The prime minister John Key – his preference is for a silver fern flag, if not necessarily on black (because, you know, Isis) – has said that three of the four would be an improvement on the current flag. But the New Zealand public – eventually by referendum, inititally on Twitter – will be the judge of that.

Keep up with the decision and the reaction here, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Updated

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