The Kanaka Maoli Flag
The National Banner of the Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi — first raised in the 1600s and preserved by the lineage of the Aliʻi Nui
Two classes of record
Historical Hawaiian Kingdom Record
Material originating with the Hawaiian Kingdom as a historical state — its institutions, laws, treaties, decrees, and governmental activity.
Contemporary Atooi Record
Material of the modern Kingdom — its leadership, ceremonies, missions, agreements, correspondence, and Kingdom-issued instruments.
Historical Hawaiian Kingdom records document the institutions, laws, diplomacy, and governmental activity of the historical Kingdom. Their inclusion does not by itself establish the authority of any particular contemporary claimant. Contemporary claims of continuity, succession, genealogy, or authority are documented separately.
Archival Photograph
The Kanaka Maoli flag — the original national banner of the Native Hawaiian people, preserved within the custodial lineage of the Aliʻi Nui of the Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi. Nine horizontal stripes of green, red, and yellow surround a central green shield bearing the royal kāhili crossed by two paddles.
Video Documentation
Smithsonian Flag Video — Provenance Record
AssertedMedia Record — Pending Publication
Smithsonian video of the Kanaka Maoli flag documentation
Catalogue No. HF-V001 — Video Record
Video documentation of the Kanaka Maoli flag, described within the Kingdom's records as connected to a Smithsonian Institution display of the Kingdom of Atooi's national banner. This entry preserves the provenance chain of the video for the archive as it was received and retained by the Office of the Aliʻi Nui.
Documentation pending: no accession number, department, or institutional correspondence has been located in the Kingdom's records to confirm the terms of the display. The embedded video will be published once its source URL and provenance have been confirmed against a primary record, following the same honest-sourcing standard used elsewhere on this site. Until then, this entry stands as the formal placeholder for the video and its provenance description.
Historical Record
Historical Significance
First raised in the 1600s, the Kanaka Maoli flag is the original emblem of representation for the Native Hawaiian people — predating the eight-striped Hawaiian Kingdom flag with its Union Jack canton that was adopted following diplomatic exchanges with Great Britain in the early nineteenth century. To those who know of its existence, it remains the true national banner of the Hawaiian nation.
At the center of the flag stands a green shield bearing the coat of arms of the kanaka maoli: the royal kāhili, the original Hawaiian royal standard, crossed by two paddles. The paddles represent both the voyaging traditions of the Polynesian people and Kamehameha's Kānāwai Māmalahoe — the Law of the Splintered Paddle — which guarantees the safety of every traveler on the land.
Unlike the later eight-striped flag, the Kanaka Maoli flag bears nine horizontal stripes, each representing one of the inhabited Hawaiian Islands. The colors carry distinct meanings within the traditional order of Polynesian society: green for the makaʻāinana (commoners), the land, and goodness; red for the landed konohiki, genealogy, and strength; and yellow for the aliʻi, spirituality, and alertness to danger — all bound together by love for the land and the people.
Archival Note
The provenance and material analysis of this flag are documented in the Kingdom's cultural archives. Access to detailed conservation records is available through formal research inquiry to the Office of the Aliʻi Nui.
Oral Family Account
The Kapuna Chest
TraditionThe account below is preserved as family oral tradition. It is not offered as verified history, and the Kingdom does not claim documentary proof of the events described.
As told within the family, in the days following the overthrow of 1893 the original banner was taken from public view by a kapuna of the line and carried away rather than surrendered. The telling holds that the flag was folded and placed into a wooden chest, and that the chest was carved on its lid with the name Aipoalani.
The chest, the account continues, was locked, and the key was not kept with it. The key was buried beneath a banyan tree on the family land on Kauaʻi, so that the two could not be taken together by anyone who came looking. Knowledge of the tree and of the chest was entrusted only within the family, spoken and not written.
In the telling, the trust passed from one generation of the line to the next — each keeper charged with the same obligation and the same silence — until it came down to the Aliʻi Nui, who holds the account today as it was received.
Archival Note
This section records the account as it has been transmitted orally. No chest, key, or contemporaneous document has been catalogued in support of it. Should material evidence be placed in the archive, this entry will be re-labeled accordingly.
Reference Documents
Supporting Documentation
Historical Analysis
The Kanaka Maoli Flag: Origins of the National Banner
Examination of the original Kanaka Maoli flag, first raised as an emblem of the people of Hawaiʻi in the 1600s — predating the later eight-striped Hawaiian Kingdom flag with the Union Jack canton adopted in the nineteenth century.
Vexillological Registry Entry
Heraldic Reading — Kāhili, Paddles, and the Nine Stripes
Documentation of the central green shield bearing the royal kāhili crossed by two paddles — representing Polynesian voyaging tradition and Kamehameha's Kānāwai Māmalahoe (Law of the Splintered Paddle) — and the nine horizontal stripes representing each of the inhabited Hawaiian Islands.
Reference Document
Color Symbolism of the National Banner
Registry of the flag's tricolor symbolism: green for the makaʻāinana (commoners), the land, and goodness; red for the landed konohiki, genealogy, and strength; and yellow for the aliʻi, spirituality, and alertness to danger — bound together by love for the land and the people.
Archival Certificate
Preservation Record — Lineage of the Aliʻi Nui
Formal documentation of the flag's custodial chain within the lineage of the Aliʻi Nui, confirming its preservation as the national banner of the Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi.
Institutional Notice
The historic Hawaiian flag is a protected cultural artifact of the Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi. Reproduction, commercial use, or unauthorized display of images depicting this artifact is prohibited without written authorization from the Office of the Aliʻi Nui.