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This Union Jack flag was gifted by the British Resident James Busby to the chief Pūmuka in 1833 in recognition of the goodwill, help, and support he gave him in facilitating good relations with local Māori leaders.
The following year Pūmuka assisted Busby to call a meeting of the regional tribes to decide upon an internationally recognised National Māori flag to be used by Māori trading vessels. The representative chiefs chose from three flags,deciding on a british naval ensign.
In 1835 Pūmuka again assisted Busby to call a gathering of chiefs at Busby's residence at Waitangi, this time to consider signing a declaration drafted by Busby recognising the independent authority of the native chiefs of New Zealand. A total of 52 prominent representative tribal leaders, who had gathered together as the inaugural assembly of the Confederation of United Tribes of New Zealand, signed the 1835 Declaration of Independence | He Whakaputanga.
Pūmuka was an early vocal supporter at the Treaty debates, and was the 6th signatory to the Treaty of Waitangi.
This extract originally appeared in Te Ata o Tū The Shadow of Tūmatauenga: The New Zealand Wars Collections of Te Papa (Te Papa Press, 2024) on page 38.
This extract was authored by Matiu Baker.
According to family history, this Union Flag was presented by James Busby, the off icial British Resident in New Zealand, to Te Roroa chief Pūmuka not long after Busby’s arrival in May 1833. Through Pūmuka’s assistance and friendship Busby was able to forge a strong network with many of the region’s tribal leaders. In gratitude, Busby presented Pūmuka with his Union Flag – the Union Jack.1
After the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, relationships in the north deteriorated, and in March 1845 Pūmuka, possibly out of obligation to his elder kinsmen, joined Kawiti and Hōne Heke in an attack on Kororāreka. Prior to the outbreak of hostilities Heke had sent a letter to the people of Kororāreka declaring that he harboured no ill will towards the Pākehā settler community; his enmity was for the Queen’s soldiers.
In the fighting at Christ’s Church, Pūmuka was cut down in dramatic hand-to-hand combat by the acting commander of HMS Hazard, David Robertson. Pūmuka was the mātāika – the ‘first-fish’, or first person of distinction – to fall in the first battle of the New Zealand Wars. Heke requested his body, and Martha Ford, a local doctor’s wife, oversaw its retrieval and escorted it across the harbour to be handed over to Heke and Kawiti for funerary rites and burial.
The flag Pumuka could be said to embody all of the hopes and despair of the Treaty story. Pūmuka had remained a conspicuous supporter of Busby through three of the significant events in New Zealand’s early history – the selection of a national flag, the Declaration of Independence, and the Treaty of Waitangi — and was a vocal advocate for the Treaty during the debates that preceded its signing. It is believed that Busby added Pūmuka’s name to the flag at Waitangi in 1840 in acknowledgement of his support. The words ‘Tiriti Waitangi’, which appear in missionary script, are thought to have been added later at the request of a grateful Hobson.
Pūmuka was the sixth rangatira to sign the Treaty and today his descendants continue to honour their tupuna, and the spirit of the Treaty he endorsed so completely, by raising a replica of this flag every Waitangi Day – a tradition they have maintained for over 175 years.
1 Busby landed at Paihia on 22 May 1833 to a seven-gun salute and an impressive pōwhiri whakatau, formal welcome, by 22 senior rangatira supported by over 600 Māori. Busby read the ‘King’s letter’ to the assembly, which was drafted in response to the 1831 Letter of Petition to King William IV by 13 senior Māori chiefs including Te Wharerahi, Rewa, Tītore, Patuone, Wāka Nene, Te Morenga and others. Busby’s address in Māori describes his appointment as a ‘Kaiwhakarite’, an ‘intermediary between races’. According to Dame Claudia Orange there’s more than a suggestion of ‘ambassadorial representation’ in the tone of the address, suggesting recognition by the Crown of Aotearoa New Zealand as an independent country. Claudia Orange, The Treaty of Waitangi [1987] (Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 1992), p. 13.