A New Zealand flag printed with the words ‘please walk on me’ and laid on the floor of an art gallery has once again been packed away following public outcry, 30 years after protests forced the removal of the same artwork.

The Suter Art Gallery in the city of Nelson said Thursday it had taken down the work by Māori artist Diane Prince due to escalating tensions and safety fears. 

The episode mirrored an Auckland gallery’s removal of the work amid public backlash and complaints to law enforcement in 1995.

This time, the flag was meant to remain on display for five months.

Instead, it lasted just 19 days, reigniting long-running debates in New Zealand over artistic expression, national symbols and the country’s colonial history.

Police said that officers were investigating ‘several’ complaints about the exhibition.

The piece, titled Flagging the Future, is a cloth New Zealand flag displayed on the floor with the words ‘please walk on me’ stenciled across it. 

The flag features the British Union Jack and red stars on a blue background.

The work was part of an exhibition, Diane Prince: Activist Artist, and was meant to provoke reflection on the Māori experience since New Zealand’s colonization by Britain in the 19th century. 

Prince created the piece in 1995 in response to a government policy that limited compensation to Māori tribes for historical land theft.

‘I have no attachment to the New Zealand flag,’ Prince told Radio New Zealand in 2024. ‘I don’t call myself a New Zealander. I call myself a Māori.’ 

New Zealand’s reckoning with its colonial past has gathered pace in recent decades.

But there has been little appetite among successive governments to sever the country’s remaining constitutional ties to Britain or change the flag to a design that doesn’t feature the Union Jack. 

Warren Mundine said the artwork made no sense especially since New Zealanders had already voted against changing their flag in 2015. 

‘Like the Voice Campaign in Australia, New Zealand actually voted on their flag,’ Mr Mundine told Sky News Australia.

‘The vast majority of New Zealanders  – all supported the flag.

‘This is not going to fix race relations in New Zealand.’

‘Some artist is just having a brain explosion.’ 

New Zealand is among countries where desecrating the national flag is considered taboo and prohibited by law. 

Damaging a flag in public with intent to dishonor it is punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 New Zealand dollars, but prosecutions are fleetingly rare. 

The country’s flag is synonymous for some with military service. But for others, particularly some Māori, it’s a reminder of land dispossession, and loss of culture and identity. 

A veterans’ group also denounced the piece as ‘shameful’ and ‘offensive.’ City council member Tim Skinner said he was ‘horrified’ by the work’s inclusion.

But others welcomed it. Nelson’s deputy mayor, Rohan O’Neill-Stevens, posted on social media ‘in strong defense of artistic expression and the right for us all to be challenged and confronted by art.’