Exploring New Zealand's brand

Perhaps the most popular colour associated with New Zealand is green; another could be blue. Photo / Herald graphic.

In 2015 New Zealand will hold a nationwide debate and referendum about our country's logo - the flag. This will be a pivotal moment for Brand New Zealand. Whatever design might be chosen, this will be a chance to have a nationwide discussion about how we view ourselves and what face we present to the rest of the world. Just as any brand should reflect the culture of the organisation supporting it, out flag should reflect the values and stories that underpin our shared sense of identity.

New Zealand has a rich historical narrative but it is curious that we have assumed only a small part of this into our common understanding of who we are. Our shared stories bind us together - sacrifice in war, sporting prowess, pride in our environment, and the distinctive bicultural nature of our founding document, overlaid with the multiculturalism of another 175 years of immigration.

Some of these shared stories are under threat - are we really clean and green? How visible will our bicultural foundation continue to be with ongoing immigration? So of course we must clean up our rivers, should celebrate our diversity and ought to live by the Treaty of Waitangi. But I think we must go well beyond simply respecting and strengthening these familiar narratives.

New Zealand was founded on some of the world's most extraordinary acts of exploration - the voyages of the great Polynesian and European navigators. All who followed them here took great risks in leaving behind their familiar life for the new land of Aotearoa. Many were determined to reverse the injustice and failure they perceived in their own societies.

This tradition of exploration and the willingness to take a leap in the dark has continued in other ways. New Zealanders have always pushed back the frontiers of human achievement - as mountain climbers, sailors, scientists, engineers, suffragists and filmmakers. We often achieve something remarkable because we simply don't stop to think that it should not be possible.

Alongside this history lie remarkable tales of entrepreneurship. These range from the unsavoury - the whalers and sealers of Kororareka, or the Maori who hired European ships to pillage the Chatham Islands - to the inspirational, the gold miners who came to New Zealand from Guangdong, California and Australia, the Maori who traded by schooner around the Pacific from the mid-19th century, the artisans who came to build a 'better Britain,' and the modern business people who have transformed traditional industries as diverse as film, bookkeeping and adventure tourism.

Our history also includes stories of social entrepreneurship - votes for women, the welfare state, marriage equality, and the first transsexual MP - voted in by a conservative electorate. We remain one of the best places in the world to do business and one of the most inclusive societies. But we don't take kindly to being told what to do, whether by an aristocracy, a foreign government or a German internet entrepreneur. We like our heroes to be humble and stand with us rather than above us.

These are our vital stories, yet we seem in danger of forgetting them in the search for prosperity. I hope a debate over our identity in 2015 will encourage our creative community to rediscover these narratives, as Eleanor Catton did with The Luminaries. We need literature and a visual oeuvre that celebrates our sense of who we have been, and of whom we might become. The flag is part of this, but should be the tip of a broader narrative. If there was a mental image that captured all this for me it would be a waka filled with a diverse community, travelling with courage towards an uncertain future.

I hope the referendum kindles broader debate about our sense of self, or we may slip quietly towards prosperity, going straight from gawky adolescence to a bland, comfortable middle age. I would rather we lived a little longer as an ambitious, idealistic youth. Let us be explorers. Let us be entrepreneurs. Let us be inclusive but humble. Let that be our brand.

Pinning our colours to the flagstaff

Malcolm Mulholland, Maori and Pasifika research advisor at Massey University, is New Zealand's leading flag historian. He gives his personal view on the best design for a new New Zealand flag.

The ultimate aim of a flag is to invoke patriotism. Chests should inflate, the throat should gulp, and the heart should pound. For some, our flag fails that test.

Designed by a British Naval Lieutenant and approved by a career British diplomat, our flag represents the United Kingdom and the Southern Cross. It is often confused with Australia's and reinforces the view New Zealand is the "Britain of the South Pacific".

Though there is a sense of inevitability about the eventual need to change our flag, next year's referendum provides an opportunity for an intergenerational debate and perhaps consensus.

The silver fern design is by far the most popular alternative because it has been emblazoned on almost all national sporting uniforms and is now part of our national consciousness. The fern is based on our indigenous flora and appropriately signals regeneration. As the whakatauki (proverb) states 'Mate atu he tetekura, ara mai he tetekura' - 'When one plant frond dies, another plant frond rises to take its place'.

Colour is also important. Some have expressed concern over the use of the colour black, given its association with mourning and the symbols of some terrorist organisations. Perhaps the most popular colour associated with New Zealand is green; another could be blue. We pride ourselves on being 'clean and green' and are surrounded by the ocean.

A flag with the silver fern design on a blue or green background has a better chance of invoking a sense of patriotism amongst the broad, multicultural mix of people who now make up the New Zealand public.