Untitled

Untitled

I ahu mai tēnei haki i a Donald Reid o Koputai, arā he hoa ia ki a Ralph Hotere, he kaiwhakaemi i ngā haki ā-motu, ka whakaara i ngā haki i tōna māra e tiro iho ana ki te whanga o Ōtepoti hei tohu atawhai i ngā kaumoana ka ū atu. I te tau 1981, i mino a Hotere i tēnei o ngā haki o Awherika Mātongatonga mai i tana hoa i te wā o te porotū i te terenga whutupōro o Awherika Mātongatonga i Aotearoa nei i te tau 1981. I te ihu o ngā tau 1980, ka hua mai te tohu o te haki hei tūtohu i te kawanatanga whakatāuke tangata (1948-1994), nāwai ā ka pākaha atu i te whakawehewehe ā-kano mātāwaka me te āupēhi. I tā ā-ringa a Hotere i te haki mā ngā taputapu i a ia tonu ki runga i tētehi papakōaka mō tāna tohu porotū tūmatawhānui. I tāhuatia, kātahi i tā i te apakura rirerire a Hone Tūwhare, e kīia ana O Africa, kātahi ka āpiti i tētehi X – he waitohu nāna ake hei tohu whakatūroa i te whakahē me tana takahi i a ia anō.

I muri i te porotēhi, kīhei te haki, kātahi anō ka whakahoungia, i hoki ki te kohikohinga a Reid. I takoha kē a Reid ki Te Whare Pukapuka o Hocken, kia tiakina paitia i runga i te whakatau e āhei ana a Hotere ki te mino hei te anamata hei whakarato atu. I muri i te kuhu ki te kohikohinga, i tukuna te haki ki tētehi atu whakaaturanga. Kīhei i whakahokia, ā, i pūrongotia tōna ngaromanga, tahunatanga rānei.

I runga tonu i te tikanga, kīhei a Hocken i mōhio ki te takohanga a Hotere i te haki ki te tautoko i tētehi atu tikanga – ko te Parihaka Centennial Exhibition and Art Auction i tū ki Govett-Brewster i te tau 1981. I hokona e te whare tēnei haki mo tāna kohikohinga, ā, ko te hua pūtea i riro ki te hapori o Parihaka. I puta i ngā rangahau a ngā kaimahi tokorua o ngā whare nei te mana o te taonga nei mā te pānui i ngā reta i whakawhitiwhitiria i te tau 1994, te tau i oti te whakatāuke tangata, ā, i whakarerekēngia hoki e Awherika Mātongatonga te rātou tohu haki.


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This flag originally belonged to Donald Reid of Carey’s Bay, Port Chalmers. Reid was a friend of Ralph Hotere’s and an avid collector of national flags, who would hoist them from his garden flagpole overlooking Ōtepoti Dunedin’s harbour as a benevolent gesture to visiting sailors. In 1981, Hotere borrowed this South African flag from his friend for use in protest against the 1981 South African rugby tour of Aotearoa New Zealand. By the early 1980s, the flag’s design had become a symbol of South Africa’s apartheid regime (1948–1994), which enforced racial segregation and oppression. Using the materials he had at hand, Hotere turned the flag into a canvas for his handwritten placard. He stencilled and graffitied Hone Tuwhare’s direct and whimsical lament O Africa, and added an X—a signature symbol he often used and a universal sign of negation and personal disapproval.

Following the protest, the flag, now permanently altered, never re-entered Reid’s collection. Instead, Reid donated it to the Hocken Library for safekeeping, with the condition that Hotere could borrow it for “active service” in the future. Soon after entering the collection, the flag was released for another demonstration. It was never returned and was later recorded as lost or possibly burnt.

Unbeknownst to the Hocken, Hotere, in keeping with the work’s ethics, donated the flag to support another cause—the Parihaka Centennial Exhibition and Art Auction at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in 1981. The gallery purchased it for this collection, and the sale proceeds went to the Parihaka community. Staff from the two institutions learned of the work’s provenance through a series of letters exchanged in 1994, the year the apartheid regime ended, and South Africa replaced their flag design.

— Taarati Taiaroa, 2026