As our 60th anniversary approaches next year as a self-governing country, flags serve as powerful emblems of nationalism and identity. They represent a nation’s values, history and aspirations, writes Thomas Tarurongo Wynne.

Historian David C. Martens said, “A national flag is not merely a piece of fabric; it is imbued with the collective memory and identity of a people.”

On August 4, 1965, the Cook Islands became self-governing in free association with New Zealand. Then in 1973, Premier Sir Albert Henry announced a competition to design a new national flag for our young democracy. This caught the eye of Tasmanian artist Len Staples, married to Mama Temuana Rahui, and subsequently submitted two designs. One of these would become our green and gold flag with 15 stars until 1978.

Staples’ other design was one in light blue, with the Union Jack in the corner and 15 gold stars to the left. The winning design was a green background and gold stars and was accepted as the new national flag of the Cook Islands in 1974.

So who was Papa Len Staples and the woman and family that lived and did business in Titikaveka. Staples was married to Mama Temuana Rahui from Manihiki and together they built the Little Polynesian motel, named after their daughter Teremoana who passed away when she was very young. It was sold to Te Tika Mataiapo – Dorice Reid in 1982. The family then moved to Tasmania, with daughters Lisa and Tere who had grown up and attended school in Rarotonga. After Papa Len’s passing, Mama Temuana Rahui married again and became Reverend Temuana Rahui Raggini.

Mama Temuana Rahui’s mother Tiaia was born in Tukao, Manihiki. Her father was Papa Mehau Tiare Phillipa Rahui, and her great-grandfather, Timoteo Rahui, who married Tamara Morara from Tongareva, weaving a rich tapestry to Manihiki, Tongareva, and the Pa Tokerau.

In Rarotonga, she was a pioneer, as a businesswoman, building the Little Polynesian motel with her husband, the first female rugby referee in Rarotonga, a netball umpire, and tennis official. In Australia, she was an integral part of the ASCIC in Sydney and played a crucial role in promoting and advocating for our communities in Australia until her passing in 2018.

But the Green and Gold with 15 stars was not our first attempt at a national flag. In 1892, a Federal Flag Bill was tabled in the Cook Islands Federal Parliament that proposed a flag to be flown at sea by ships owned by the Cook Group Federation. The British Union flag would still to be flown in public places, however, after annexation by New Zealand in 1901, when the Union flag was replaced by the New Zealand flag, the governor rejected the Federation flag.

Eighty-two (82) years later, the Green and Gold Ensign with 15 gold stars would fly on January 24, 1974, in Rarotonga and all but three of the other inhabited islands. The new ensign was also flown in New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, where Cook Islands’ athletes participated with pride waving their new flag in January 1974.

Then in 1979, after the tumultuous ousting of Papa Arapati, Sir Tom Davis, with a majority government, unchallenged and without referendum, changed the Cook Islands flag to the blue flag with a British ensign and 15 white stars we know of today. Severing our green and gold ties politically, but not in our conscience or sense of nationhood.

As our many teams of green and gold make their way to Paris for the Olympics, does our current blue flag best reflect who we are, or was it a political statement, politically necessary at the time, and is it still relevant today?

Our Moana, the deep blue, has become so important to our consciousness, and nationhood, but the green and gold with fifteen stars is also part of who we are. And as we reach 60 years next year, is it time to think about our flag, our identity, and who we are as a people again – blue, green, gold, and its fifteen stars, not a flag driven by politics, but one for our ocean, of our land and by our people.