1834 Pou Whenua - Pou Haki, The Sovereign Flag
Aotearoa's gifted
International Flag
International Alliance Established
Images used with permission - Rangatira Reti Boynton
New Zealand's 1st Flag 1834 recording the International Alliance including protections later reaffirmed in He Wakaputanga O Te Rangatiratanga O Nu Tirani, The Declaration of Independence of the Confederated Hapu(s) of New Zealand 1835
THE MAORI PEOPLES GUARANTEE OF PROTECTION, IN PERPETUITY, OF ANY & ALL ATTEMPTS TO ASCEND THEIR SOVEREIGNTY
The flag was gifted by King William IV following personal confrontation by Maori over violation and non-recognition of a Maori trading vessel & it's flag of flax. The Declaration of Independence 1835 with the English flag as background is the fulfilment of King William's promise to send His flag which would be recognised throughout the world, open up more than 60 trading ports worldwide to the Maori nation plus give protections against challenges to our sovereignty, hence the Maori peoples words of endearment to him in Article 4 of the Declaration).
PRE-1830 Maori are already internationally trading at home and on the high seas. They already have their own bank, the "Awaroa Native Reserve Bank" and their mail services, "Te Karere", Native Mail or Maori Messenger. They have total guardianship of their 66 million acres, resources and assets. The country while needing "discovery" only by the pakeha mentality was never 'lost' to the indigenous people, Te Iwi Oriori, or their mixed-blood descendants, MA-ORI.
1831 A Maori whanau hapu trading vessel "Ngahuia" is hijacked in the West Indies, the flag they carried is not recognised. The vessel and all cargo is confiscated, it's crew dumped. The flag brandished in the hand by our tupuna and not recognised, was made from harakeke dyed in the underwing colours of the then already extinct Hokioi, the giant eagle, Maori's way of giving life to that manu/bird. The tupuna find their way home again, identify the flag that hijacked them as English, red cross on white background, and determine to confront the offender to correct the offence.
1832 House of Lords records speak of "tongue-poking, stick-wielding barefooted, scribble-faced, natives wearing birds alighted the wall at Buckingham Palace." King William IV is confronted and shamed. He promises the aggrieved tupuna he will send his personal trading flag which will be recognised in over 60 ports worldwide, that they may enjoy all the privileges and protections that go with the flag, and that he would make arrangements for it to reach our shores This is our first dealing sovereign to sovereign. (P&O, once Union Steamship, as they circle the globe brandishing the hokioi colours and all privileges that go with it, are present day testament to the agreement between the English Sovereign and Maori Sovereigns.)
Images used with permission - Rangatira Reti Boynton
1834 The King's promise is kept, the gifted flag with English background is piped ashore at Kororareka Russell from the H.M.S. Alligator to a 21 gun salute, normal for the time recognising Sovereign to Sovereign protocol, King William IV to the Maori people. Maori choice of flag is the one with the blue background to represent and include the sea mass in which the land sits under the blue sky above; the repetitive star pattern, 4 in total, indicating Nga Hau E Wha that all 4 directions of this country is accorded all protection and privileges; the red cross representing every bloodline; the 8-points of the stars representing the 7 Waka all Maori can whakapapa to while the 8th representing the protection we accorded any non-Maori who might be in our territories as traders or settlers living under our laws of wellbeing. (All of this is further recorded in our Founding Document, He Wakaputanga 1835.)
1835 Maori having had their meetings around the country, traditionally recorded for all time in waiata, draw up their Declaration of Sovereignty & proclaim it to the world, 28 October 1835. Access to the ports, the privileges and protections promised by the English Monarch, King William IV, implicit in the Flag, is cemented in writing in perpetuity, dissolution possible ONLY by ROYAL ASSENT.
Should Royal Assent be given or the Flag of the Confederated Hapu(s) of N.Z. be removed all rights and privileges of ALL who have arrived in N.Z. by any means other than Maori whakapapa/geneaology i.e. through the unlawful processes of the settlers legislative machinery will have to be likewise removed by the English Monarchy?
Image used with permission - Rangatira Benoir Midwood-Murray
Maori Sovereignty protected by the English Crown against all-comers, cemented & visible for all to see in the Confederated Hapu(s)' of Aotearoa, (New Zealand) flag & the Declaration of Independence, is guaranteed IN PERPETUITY.
1837 King William IV dies & Queen Victoria, an18 year-old, succeeds.
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1839 July - Rangatira, Te Werowero signs the Declaration of Independence
1840 Te Kawenata Urunga Whenua re-affirms the mana of the Declaration
Queen Victoria's Request
By personal letter addressed to: "the Rangatira, the Lawmakers and every person of Maori descent... that Maori consider the adoption of the Laws of England [which] you are observing [practiced by] we the pakeha." More sovereign to sovereign correspondence. Governor Colonel Thomas Gore Brown, Queen Victoria's secretary of the day, is commissioned to write the letter and presented it in the midst of a war.
The flag representing the Confederated Hapu(s) of Tiritiri-O-Te-Moana /Aotearoa, (New Zealand)
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Holds the English Crown accountable for all attempts on our sovereignty including that of it's own people, the settlers who are bound to live with us under our laws, Tikanga/Immutable Divine Law
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Is our continued access to international support. Should the Queen deny that support we have by virtue of the same flag access to the support of the more than 50 nations who recognise our flag
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portrays for all time the Sovereign Status of Maori in their indigenous homelands. NO other flag before or since eclipses it, or even remotely, commands protections and privileges equivalent.
The explanatory notes above are history as handed down by traditional Maori wananga and training. The myth that Maori are a conquered people is quashed. (Why would the English conquer their own flag?)
The information here is an attempt by us to dispense to our own people and any honourable pakeha, the knowledge as recorded by our own people, about themselves. Just as many Pakeha today choose not to, or simply cannot understand our people, language or culture after living with us more than 160 years; it would be reasonable to presume there was even less understanding of us after just 20 years. (The same ignorance and arrogance that proclaimed the 'discovery' of N.Z. continues.)
We seek no-ones permission to BE. We will NOT be dismissed or legislated out of existence.
We must value our own korero and ancient oral archival processes. The living word that was in the beginning, SPOKEN WITH INTEGRITY, with mindful awareness of tone, vibration, body language, physical presence etc., all revelations to the discerning mind and heart is still the ultimate demonstration and communication means. Herein rests all that one is, whether individual or nation.
Truth is not seen with the eye or heard with the ear alone. Truth is discerned in the heart.
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