Flags ripped down at Kuku

Flags ripped down at Kuku

Many of the flags flying prominently along the highway at Kuku have been ripped down and left in the mud.

In the first of two incidents, five flags were ripped from their snapped bamboo poles on Saturday night just south of Tukorehe Marae. The vandalism was noticed on Sunday morning. At that stage, it was not known who might have been responsible.

“The flags were just left dumped on the ground,” Ngāti Tukorehe spokesperson Tipi Wehipeihana told the Star.

He said none of the flags were damaged or defaced but “pulling a flag down is damaging and defacing it”.

He took the flags and re-erected them on the other side of the road.

Then in broad daylight – between 1pm and 2pm on Monday – a man described as “elderly” who was driving south was seen stopping at the marae gates.

“I believe it was the same person who took down the flags on Sunday,” Tipi says. “In his anger, he snapped the poles and left the six flags on the ground.”

He then allegedly attempted to pull down another flag at a property across the road.

Tipi says the man was confronted by an uncle of Tipi’s, but received a tirade of swearing and racial abuse. A nephew noticed the confrontation as he was driving past and received the same abuse.

The two whānau members noted the man’s vehicle licence plate, before the man drove off.

“The number on the plate was passed on to our marae committee, and they decided to lay a complaint with police,” Tipi says.

He believes the man lives in the Kuku area.

Tipi says a clue as to the man’s anger might lie in a card found near the fallen flags. It was labelled “Stop Co Governance”. On the card was written: “Radical Māori are taking over our country. Fight back. Join the resistance.”

Tipi says he doesn’t know whether the card was dropped when the flags were ripped down, or deliberately placed to send a message.

“When you come across a card like that at the base of flags just ripped down, maybe it was left there intentionally. I feel it probably was just dropped though.”

The flags were originally installed in November last year supporting the national hikoi protesting the Treaty Principles Bill. The marae hosted hikoi participants. All the flags are on Māori-land, with the consent of the owners.

“They’ve stayed up, and you can’t help noticing them” Tipi says. “It’s sad that some people don’t see the pride in having our flags flying on our whenua.”