As black is a traditional colour of the Māori, the flag has a black flagstaff on the left. There is a fern green spiral which starts by taking up the entire width of the flag but decreases gradually, splitting it diagonally and finally curling up into a spiral on the right side. This curling fern is based on a Māori pattern known as the koru, and the corresponding white spiral alludes to Aotearoa, a Māori name for New Zealand meaning Land of the Long White Cloud.
Hundertwasser also saw the design as representing humanity in harmony with nature.