New Plymouth iwi and locals are questioning why American flags are adorning their streets ahead of Waitangi Day tomorrow, prompting an apology from the local council.
The flags were seen around the Taranaki city ahead of Americarna, with the event scheduled for later this month.
Taranaki iwi CEO Wharehoka Wano told Te Karere he knew American culture has been popular throughout the years, and it was fine for those who supported it.
But in the lead up to Waitangi Day, he said he wondered why the flags that were prepared for Waitangi Day weren’t displayed.
Wano's Facebook post about the American flags caught the attention of the New Plymouth District Council, who took down the flags.
"We're sorry and we dropped the ball in the run up to our national day," the council said in a statement.
“We had new Waitangi Day flags made up for the city centre, but we overlooked the approaches to New Plymouth and a couple of other areas which were booked out by Americarna well in advance.
“We will remove all Americarna flags immediately and have taken steps to make sure this won’t happen again. We’ve been in touch with iwi to apologise.”
New Plymouth District councillor Dinnie Moeahu said there had been “some really good mahi” by council to create special flags honouring Waitangi Day.
“It should have been promoted all throughout our district, and it hasn’t.”
He said the council would look at how they could do things better in future.
Wano said he was happy to see the council had corrected their mistake, but that was the sort of thing they'd always come up against.
Local Māori said the main factor was that the mistake had been fixed, and they would continue to work with the council going forward to ensure there was a clear understanding.
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