Hawaii's flag is the ONLY state flag with another country's flag on it
The Union Jack sure does find its way onto a lot of flags 🤔
So I was scrolling through a carousal of state flags the other day. It’s not weird. It’s just a geography thing to do I guess. 😅 Some state flags are truly amazing in my opinion. New Mexico, for example, is about as perfect a flag as I can imagine. Somehow it just screams New Mexico to me without requiring any text, being very simple in design, but still being really cool.
Anyway, as I was scrolling through the flags one in particular caught my eye: Hawaii’s. I wouldn’t say Hawaii has a great flag, to be honest. It’s certainly not the worst — looking at you Illinois! — but it’s definitely distinct because it has another country’s flag on it: the Union Jack. No other state flag has another country’s flag as part of their flag. Some had the Confederate Flag up until relatively recently (yikes!), but that’s a whole other thing.
So, being the good geographer that I am, I got curious as to why Hawaii, an island chain more than 7,000 miles away from the United Kingdom, would opt to incorporate the Union Jack on their state flag. Hawaii was never part of the British Empire even though British Captain James Cook did attempt to rename the islands the “Sandwich Islands” (after the Earl of Sandwich, not the food). And even after its forced annexation by the United States in 1898, Hawaii kept the same flag which is a little odd! So what’s going on here? Well, it all starts with one particularly powerful anglophile… King Kamehameha I.
How Hawaii got its Union Jack
As it turns out, the Union Jack’s presence on its flag goes back way before Hawaii was part of the United States. This was a time when Hawaii was an independent country and when King Kamehameha I, the ruler who unified the Hawaiian Islands, sought to balance relationships with foreign powers, namely the British Empire and United States. In the late 18th century, British explorer Captain James Cook visited Hawaii, marking the beginning of a significant British presence in the islands. As British influence grew, Hawaii began to navigate diplomatic ties with both Britain and the United States due to pressures from British and American imperialism.
You see, King Kamehameha I was keenly aware of the geopolitical forces at play and knew that Hawaii wouldn’t stand up to either the Royal Navy or U.S. Navy should either want to gain control of Hawaii. So, to maintain sovereignty, Hawaii carefully navigated its relationships with both foreign countries, including adopting symbols that would acknowledge their influence. The Union Jack on the flag was a nod to British protection and the importance of Britain in Hawaii's trade and foreign relations. Early versions of the flag may have been flown as early as 1794, when Kamehameha entered into a friendship treaty with Britain, although the exact date of its adoption is debated.
The current version of Hawaii’s flag, with its eight alternating stripes representing the major Hawaiian Islands, was standardized during the reign of King Kamehameha III. Despite the growing influence of the United States, particularly as American missionaries and businessmen gained power in Hawaii, the flag retained the Union Jack as a symbol of the historical relationship with Britain.
Even after Hawaii became a U.S. territory in 1898 and eventually the 50th state in 1959, the flag did not change. There are a few reasons for this. First, the flag is seen as a historical artifact, representing the legacy of the Hawaiian Kingdom and its era of independence. Removing the Union Jack would be seen by many as erasing a part of that history. Second, the flag has become a symbol of Hawaii’s distinct identity within the United States, serving both as a reminder of the islands' former independence and as a sort of rebelliousness against the United States.
Will Hawaii ever change its flag?
Despite the history behind the flag, some argue that it’s still a legacy of colonialism and that Hawaii should have a flag that better represents its own unique culture. After all, Hawaii does not share much culturally with the United Kingdom today. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your stance I guess), there doesn’t appear to be any official movement to redesign the flag. But there have been a couple popular attempts!
In 1993, Louis Agard created and proposed this flag as a replacement for the Union Jack-heavy current flag. It features nine stripes and a puela crossed by two paddles. I’m not entirely sure what the nine stripes represents as there are only eight main islands in Hawaii. Regardless, this flag didn’t seem to go anywhere. But, just eight years later in 2001, another flag was introduced: the Kanaka Maoli flag!
This flag was “found” by a person named Gene Simeona and looks and feels very similar to the 1993 flag but with a few aesthetic changes, such as centering the design and giving it a shield.
According to Gene, this was the original flag of the Kingdom of Hawaii and he “found” it after encountering a descendant of Lord George Paulet, an officer in the Royal Navy who served during the time of Hawaii’s current flag adoption. Basically suggesting that, before the Royal Navy got involved, this was the flag being flown to represent the Kingdom of Hawaii. None of this has been verified, however. In fact, people who have looked into it have come up with absolutely nothing so it all seems to be false as far as I can tell.
To be honest, I think the biggest give away in Gene’s tale is that the Kanaka Maoli flag looks so similar to Louis Asgard’s flag from 1993. It looks like he just ran with the exact same ideas and changed the colors and placement a bit.
And that’s the kind of oddball story of how the Union Jack found its way onto Hawaii’s state flag! I have no idea if native Hawaiians or residents of Hawaii even like the flag, but there doesn’t appear to be much interest in changing it anytime soon. So, until that time, Hawaii will just have to exist side by side with the other country’s of the world who also have a Union Jack on their flag: Australia, New Zealand, Tuvalu, Fiji, and, of course, the United Kingdom.