Silver fern flag

The Silver Fern Flag (English: Silver remote flag ) is sometimes regarded as the unofficial flag of New Zealand. The silver fern is New Zealand's national plant, next to the word kiwi ( this refers kiwifruit kiwi fruit and the New Zealanders themselves) one of the most important national symbols of the Pacific state and is to be compared with the maple leaf in Canadian society.

The silver fern itself serves as a single symbol or on flags and flags of various institutions, associations and organizations and will render differently. Thus, the plant is for example found in the coat of arms of New Zealand and will appear along with the kiwi on the one - dollar coin of New Zealand. In addition, many national sports clubs in the country to use a silver fern, such as the Silver Ferns, New Zealand Netball National Team, and the more well-known All Blacks, the New Zealand rugby union team. As part of the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, the five participating New Zealand athletes ran on under the silver fern flag.

The silver fern is the latest since the South African War 1899-1902 official badge on almost all uniforms of the New Zealand armed forces. At about this time, the uniform predecessor wreath that surrounded a particular coat of arms or emblem on the uniforms of the Dominion soldiers was (until then the Union wreath of roses, thistles and shamrocks ) replaced by country-specific Wreaths: The respective national plant of the Dominions were or colonies used, so for Canada maple, acacia for Australia, protea for South Africa and provide a silver fern for New Zealand.

In recent years there have been efforts to replace the current national flag of the country through a form of silver fern flag. A supporter of a flag change was the former Minister of Culture of New Zealand, Marie Hasler, which began in 1998 for the silver fern flag. It was supported by the then Prime Minister Jenny Shipley and the New Zealand Tourist Board (New Zealand Tourism Board). Up to the elections, the project was no longer implemented (see also: Flag of New Zealand ). Even a planned January 2005 referendum on the introduction of the silver fern flag by the NZ Flag.com Trust was not successful due to poor participation of the population.

? Proposal by Kyle Lockwood

• Culture ( New Zealand)
• Flag ( New Zealand)