The Māori flag: its name, colours and history

The Māori flag is the Tino Rangatiratanga flag: black above, red below, and between them a white band that curls into a koru. In Māori it is te kara Tino Rangatiratanga ‘the Tino Rangatiratanga flag’, and the name comes from the Māori text of the Treaty of Waitangi, where tino rangatiratanga is what the chiefs were guaranteed; Te Aka Māori Dictionary translates it as self-determination, sovereignty, autonomy. By the account of the group that commissioned it, the black is Te Korekore, the realm of potential being; the white is Te Ao Mārama, the realm of being and light; the red is the realm of coming into being; and the koru is the unfolding of new life. It was designed in 1989 by three Māori women artists, Hiraina Marsden, Jan Dobson and Linda Munn, and on 14 December 2009 the Cabinet recognised it as the preferred national Māori flag, to fly beside the New Zealand flag on days such as Waitangi Day. It has no official status in law. This guide covers the name word by word, the colours and where the published meanings differ, how the flag came about, how the Ministry for Culture and Heritage says it should be flown, and the Māori flags that came before it.

Updated 22 October 2026 · 10 min read

Tap 🔊 to hear an example. Māori examples play Papa Reo, the te reo Māori voice made by Te Hiku Media from recordings of native speakers.

What the Māori flag’s colours mean

The meanings come from Te Kawariki, the Far North group that ran the competition for the flag. Posters carried an explanation of the flag written by Walter Erstich, and Te Kawariki’s own account of its activities, quoted by NZ History, sets the elements out like this:

Te Kawariki’s account sums it up: “The design represents the balance of natural forces with each other.” The Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives the same three realms, black at the top, red at the bottom and white in the centre, and says the koru is symbolic of a curling fern frond, representing the unfolding of new life, hope for the future and the process of renewal.

The realm names are words in their own right. Te Aka defines Te Korekore as the “realm of potential being, The Void”, and gives Te Kore as another name for it. Ao mārama ‘world of light’ is the world of life and light, the Earth, the physical world. For the red, Te Aka has the word in two spellings, whaiao and wheiao, both meaning daylight, the world of light, and usually coupled with ao mārama; one of its examples calls the wheiao the place between the world of darkness and the world of light, closer to the light. The koru itself is, in Te Aka, a fold, loop or coil, or a curled shoot; what the koru means in carving and in pendants is in Māori symbols and their meanings, and the everyday words for black, white and red, pango, mā and whero, are with the rest in Māori colours.

Where the accounts differ

The published descriptions agree on the design and almost everything else. These are the details where they do not:

What “tino rangatiratanga” means

Word by word, from Te Aka Māori Dictionary:

The phrase is from the second article of te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Māori text of the Treaty signed in 1840. As NZ History prints it, without long-vowel marks, Article 2 begins:

Ko te Kuini o Ingarani ka wakarite ka wakaae ki nga Rangatira ki nga hapu – ki nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani te tino rangatiratanga o o ratou wenua o ratou kainga me o ratou taonga katoa.

NZ History summarises it: in the Māori text, Māori were guaranteed “te tino rangatiratanga”, the unqualified exercise of their chieftainship over their lands, villages and all their property and treasures. The English text has different wording, guaranteeing “exclusive and undisturbed possession” of lands, forests, fisheries and other properties. NZ History notes that it is widely accepted that the words kāwanatanga in Article 1 and tino rangatiratanga in Article 2 contributed to later differences of view between the Crown and Māori, and that legally there is one Treaty, whose meaning in its two texts the Waitangi Tribunal has exclusive authority to determine.

The flag’s two English names are both in use. The Ministry calls it the Tino Rangatiratanga flag, “also known as the national Māori flag”; NZ History’s page is titled “The national Māori flag” and also writes “the Māori (Tino Rangatiratanga) flag”. In the 1990s, NZ History says, Te Kawariki sold it on hats, badges and t-shirts with the words “Tino Rangatiratanga/Māori independence”. What the word Māori itself means is in what does Māori mean?

Who designed the Māori flag, and when

1. The idea (1980s). Māori activists visiting Aboriginal activists in Redfern, Sydney, around the 1982 Commonwealth Games, were struck by how widely the Aboriginal flag was displayed. One of them, in Te Kawariki’s account, remembered “vowing that one day we would have a flag of our own”.
2. The competition (1989). When the government set aside $20 million to mark the 150th anniversary of the Treaty, a coalition of Māori independence organisations, Te Kotahitanga, agreed to look for “creative ways” to inform Māori about breaches of the Treaty. Te Kawariki proposed a competition for a national Māori flag and advertised it on iwi radio and in the Black Power newspaper.
3. The design. Te Kawariki decided that none of the entries was what it was looking for and asked a collective of Māori women artists for help. Hiraina Marsden, Jan Dobson and Linda Munn created the design; it was shown at hui in the north and hand-sewn by Jan Dobson. Te Ara and the Ministry date the design to 1989.
4. The launch (1990). The flag was flown during a hīkoi ‘march’ from Te Rerenga Wairua (Cape Rēinga) to Waitangi in the lead-up to Waitangi Day 1990.

Te Kawariki say they “did not actively promote the flag” but that “it travelled on its own”, and acknowledge that some Māori adopted it while others disliked it or preferred other designs. NZ History records that it became widely seen through protests: at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds on Waitangi Day through the 1990s, where in 1999 and 2000 protesters raised it in place of the New Zealand flag; at Pākaitore (Moutoa Gardens) in Whanganui in 1995; and on the 2004 foreshore and seabed hīkoi. Te Ara says it has become a symbol of Māori independence.

The 2009 decision: the national Māori flag

In 2007 Transit New Zealand refused a request from the group Te Ata Tino Toa to fly the flag on the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Waitangi Day. In January 2009 the Minister of Māori Affairs, Pita Sharples, publicly called for a Māori flag to fly there, and the Prime Minister, John Key, said he would support flying the two flags together if agreement could be reached on a preferred flag. The Ministry and NZ History describe what followed:

• The consultation. In July and August 2009 the Government held 21 public hui around the country and invited written and online submissions.
• The four candidates. The New Zealand flag, the New Zealand Red Ensign, the United Tribes of New Zealand flag and the Tino Rangatiratanga flag.
• The result. More than 1,200 submissions, 79 percent of them from people identifying as Māori; about 80 percent preferred the Tino Rangatiratanga flag, and most said it should fly on Waitangi Day and other significant occasions.
• The decision. On 14 December 2009 the Cabinet recognised it as the preferred national Māori flag and noted it would complement the New Zealand flag.
• First flown. On Waitangi Day 2010 it flew on the Auckland Harbour Bridge, and at Parliament, the National War Memorial, Te Papa and other government buildings.

What “recognised” means is spelt out by both sources: NZ History says the flag “does not carry official status”, and the Ministry that “it does not have official status” but is “a symbol of this land that can complement the New Zealand flag”. The Ministry lists the New Zealand flag and six other flags that can be displayed for official purposes, and the Tino Rangatiratanga flag is not among them. NZ History adds that support was “far from universal”: some considered the flag divisive or preferred the United Tribes flag, it did not fly at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds in 2010, and Ngāi Tahu and Te Arawa did not support it being flown at official commemorations in their rohe ‘tribal areas’.

How the Ministry says the flag should be flown

The Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s guidance is short. The flag should be flown in a way that:

• respects the status of the New Zealand flag as “the symbol of the Realm, Government and people of New Zealand”;
• expresses a spirit of mutual respect and nationhood;
• respects its status as the preferred national Māori flag.

It should always be flown with the black at the top, the red at the bottom, and the top of the koru closest to the flagpole. Flying the two flags together on days of national significance such as Waitangi Day, the Ministry says, symbolises and enhances the Crown–Māori relationship. Everything else follows the New Zealand flag display rules; Te Ara notes that under them the New Zealand flag takes the position of honour when it flies beside other flags.

Māori flags before 1990

The Tino Rangatiratanga flag is the newest of many. Te Ara and NZ History describe these:

• Chiefs’ cloaks. From the early 19th century some Māori used clothing, especially chiefs’ cloaks, as flags; Te Ara says these could perhaps be seen as the first Māori flags.
• The United Tribes flag (1834). On 20 March 1834, 25 Far North chiefs met at James Busby’s residence at Waitangi and chose a flag from three designs drawn up by the missionary Henry Williams; the winner, already used by the Church Missionary Society, reportedly got 12 votes to 10 and 3. It became known as the Flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand. Te Ara says it can be seen as the first Māori flag, though it was not designed by Māori; NZ History says it remains important to northern Māori.
• Kīngitanga flags (from 1857). When Pōtatau Te Wherowhero became the Māori king, flags were raised bearing Kingi (king) and Niu Tireni (New Zealand), always with three small crosses. Each monarch since has had a flag of their own, buried with them when they die.
• Prophetic movements (1860s). Pai Mārire, led by Te Ua Haumēne, used flags and niu ‘ritual pole’ poles, which Te Ara glosses as “news” poles, in its rituals, with flags for Rura (peace) and Riki (war); the Ringatū leader Te Kooti also carried flags, some captured in battle.
• Gifted ensigns. After the wars of the 1860s the government gave flags, most often the British and later the New Zealand Red Ensign with a tribe’s or canoe’s name along the bottom, to iwi who had fought alongside colonial forces. The Flags, Emblems, and Names Protection Act 1981 lets the Red Ensign be flown on land in places or on occasions of Māori significance.

The Kīngitanga and its monarchs, from Pōtatau Te Wherowhero to today, are listed in order in the Māori kings and queens.

Going further

Waitangi Day is also when the national anthem is most often sung in Māori: its words, line by line, are in the New Zealand national anthem in Māori. Most of the words on this page, among them tino, rangatira, whero and pango, are taught early in Verbavia’s free te reo Māori course, one lesson a day.

Sources

1. NZ History (Ministry for Culture and Heritage): Flags of New Zealand, The national Māori flag
2. NZ History: The national Māori flag, elements of the flag (from Te Kawariki, 20 years of protest action 1979-1999)
3. NZ History: Cabinet endorses Tino Rangatiratanga flag, 14 December 2009
4. NZ History: Flags of New Zealand, United Tribes flag
5. NZ History: Flags of New Zealand, Other official flags
6. NZ History: Read the Treaty, Māori text of Te Tiriti
7. NZ History: Read the Treaty, Differences between the texts
8. Ministry for Culture and Heritage: Tino Rangatiratanga flag / Te kara Tino Rangatiratanga
9. Ministry for Culture and Heritage: Other official New Zealand flags
10. Ministry for Culture and Heritage: New Zealand flag
11. Te Ara: Kerryn Pollock, Flags – Māori flags (2012)
12. Te Ara: Tino rangatiratanga flag: Linda Munn, 2009 (caption)
13. Te Ara: Kerryn Pollock, Flags – Flag law and protocol
14. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tino
15. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: rangatira
16. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: -tanga
17. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: rangatiratanga
18. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tino rangatiratanga
19. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: kara (flag)
20. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Korekore, Te
21. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: ao mārama
22. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: whaiao
23. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: wheiao
24. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: koru
25. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: niu (Pai Mārire pole)