A series of hui to see which flag Maori would like to see flying over the Auckland Harbour Bridge next Waitangi Day is to be launched tomorrow.
Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples said the first hui would be held at Te Puea Marae at Mangere Bridge in Auckland at 10.30am.
Last Waitangi Day the authorities that run the bridge angered some Maori by refusing their request for a Maori flag to be flown alongside the New Zealand flag.
Prime Minister John Key defused that row by saying he had no objection to a Maori flag flying from the bridge and national buildings if Maori themselves could agree to which flag should be flown.
Dr Sharples said the response showed the Government was not trying to shut debate down and the relationship between the Maori Party and National was working in a "mana enhancing way".
Those at the hui are to be asked which of the following flags they would like to see flown:
* Flag of the United - later independent - tribes of NZ;
* The New Zealand flag;
* The New Zealand red ensign; or
* The Maori flag - sometimes called the tino rangatiratanga flag.
"I am very happy to be asking Maori communities for their views on a national Maori flag. This is the first time it has ever been done and we are really excited about that," Dr Sharples said.
Dr Sharples had called for the Maori flag to be flown with the New Zealand flag on Waitangi Day to signify the mutual respect accorded to the Treaty of Waitangi partners.
In 2007, Transit New Zealand, which is now the New Zealand Transport Agency, said it could not fly the flag as it only flew flags of official nation states.
So some Maori took the tino rangatiratanga flag and the 1834 United Tribes of New Zealand flag to One Tree Hill in Auckland, where they stuck to council wishes and flew them without planting them in the ground.
Three months later, Transit bosses were red-faced after flying the non-nation state European Union flag to mark Europe Day. It later chose to avoid controversy and decided only the New Zealand flag would fly from the bridge.
