God Defend New Zealand

The product of an Irishman’s song writing competition during the 1800s, judged by three German guys living in Australia!

– David Farrier

This is a contribution to Australasian nationalism.

– Thomas Bracken, author, God Defend New Zealand

Races mixed living hand in hand, Aotearoa is New Zealand.

– Robert Steed’s alternative anthem

The reality is that in this first New Zealand edition from 1882 there are five verses in English and five verses in Maori. It’s actually saying: right from the beginnings of this it was something that both English and Maori could aspire towards. And so I see it as one of our founding documents.

– David Dell, Sheet Music Archive of New Zealand

Climbing up onto the dais the five-man John Hunter said: I suppose they’re going to play that Pommie song. And then suddenly they didn’t. They played our song. And it made a huge difference to us.

– Dick Joyce, Rowing Eight gold medallist, 1972 Olympics