Silver fern flag

1980 Moscow Summer Olympics

New Zealand officially boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics as part of the US-led boycott of the games. However, four New Zealand athletes competed under the flag of New Zealand's Olympic committee, which was a black flag with a white silver fern imposed over the Olympic Rings.

National flag proposals

The first suggestion that a silver fern flag be adopted as New Zealand's official flag came in 1998 from Cultural Affairs Minister Marie Hasler of the National Party. Hasler's proposal was backed by then Prime Minister Jenny Shipley. Along with the New Zealand Tourism Board, Shipley backed a white silver fern on a black background as a possible alternative flag, along the lines of the Canadian Maple Leaf flag.

In 2003, New Zealand's America's Cup team, Team New Zealand, launched the "Loyal" campaign, using a silver fern flag and a song of the same name by New Zealand musician Dave Dobbyn.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key preferred the All Blacks version of the silver fern flag, but opponents of the design believe it gives undue emphasis to the country's sport, or resembles a pirate flag or the Islamic Black Standard as used by ISIL.

2005 referendum proposal

2015–2016 referendums

Main article: 2015–2016 New Zealand flag referendums

On 11 March 2014, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key, announced a referendum on whether to change the New Zealand flag or not, to be held within three years, saying that he liked the silver fern as an option. Of the 10,292 design submissions, approximately 3,113 incorporated elements of a fern, 12 designs of 40 were selected for the long list, and three flag designs to the shortlist alternatives have a silver fern.

Gallery

File:The-Black-and-Silver.svg|The Black & Silver flag is based on a stylized version of the original silver ferns used in the emblems of the military and sports representative teams of the 1880s. John Ansell's silver fern flag designs won him a Colenso Scholarship to New York in 1986 and in 1990 came second out of 600 alternative flag designs in The Listener contest to mark New Zealand's sesquicentennial. File:NZflag proposal-dignan.svg|James Dignan's 2002 proposed New Zealand flag. File:Koru Fern NZ Flag.png|James Bowman's suggested New Zealand flag. The Koru Fern combines two iconic New Zealand symbols: the silver fern and the koru. It was one design that helped stimulate debate prior to official submissions and was submitted to the New Zealand Government as an alternate design for the New Zealand Flag in 2015. File:Kyle Lockwood's New Zealand Flag.svg|A Silver fern flag designed by Kyle Lockwood. It won a Wellington newspaper flag competition in July 2004 and appeared on TV3 in 2005 after winning a poll which included the present national flag. It was voted on in the 2015 referendum. File:NZ flag design Silver Fern (Black & White) by Alofi Kanter.svg|Silver Fern (Black & White) by Alofi Kanter was voted on in the 2015 referendum.

References

References

1. [https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/1980-moscow-olympics-boycott 1980 Moscow Olympics boycott] NZ History.net.nz.
2. John Moody. "Past Attempts to Change New Zealand's Flag". The XIX International Congress of Vexillology.
3. (12 March 2014). "A symbol solution". The Listener.
4. (10 March 2014). "New Zealand plans vote on changing national flag". [[The Washington Post]].
5. (11 March 2014). "New Zealand to hold referendum on national flag".
6. "There are 3113 flags tagged with Fern".
7. Young, Audrey. (11 August 2015). "Forty flags, and only one with a Union Jack—so which one is best?". [[The New Zealand Herald]].
8. Trevett, Claire. (1 September 2015). "NZ flag referendum: The final four designs revealed". [[The New Zealand Herald]].
9. John Ansell. (1 August 2015). "Flag debate is 'an opportunity for New Zealand'". Fairfax's stuff.co.nz.
10. (2024-01-04). "Let's fly a new flag with pride".
11. (April 2015). "Flag signals". [[North & South (New Zealand magazine)]].
12. (19 March 2015). "Symbol solution". [[New Zealand Listener]].
13. "Koru Fern". [[New Zealand Government]].
14. (8 April 2005). "Campbell Live Flag Poll". [[TV3 (New Zealand).
15. (2016-03-17). "First Referendum on the New Zealand Flag - Results by Count Report".