Over a decade on from New Zealand’s flag referendum, the influence of cult favourite laser kiwi continues to be felt around the world.
Some say that if you fired a laser beam into space, it would continue to travel on and on, for ever and ever, until it hit something. But we need not look to the cosmos to find a laser beam so enduring, so powerful that it has already traversed time and space, and made history several times over. Since laser kiwi’s neon green beams first shot from the eyes of our national bird during the 2015 flag referendum, they have travelled from Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, to an All Whites game, to the battlefield in Ukraine, to obliterating Stuart Nash live on television.
Now laser kiwi has made history once more as a key influence on a viral “laser loon” resistance flag made by the designer of the flag of Minnesota, a state where tens of thousands of people continue to protest the Ice (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency) crackdown and the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. The flag depicts the loon, the state bird of Minnesota, shooting lasers out of its eyes next to a beheaded yellow rattlesnake and above the text “don’t tread on us”, both allusions to the far right.
As the snake sizzles, the narrative becomes clear: the loon’s laser eyes have defeated the enemy.
The flag’s creator Andrew Prekker, a 26-year-old graphic designer from Luverne, a small town in the far southwest corner of Minnesota, confirms to The Spinoff that laser kiwi is “100%” to thank for this design flourish. “I remember briefly seeing the laser kiwi flag go viral online, and I – adoring kiwi birds – loved the flag.” He explains that the laser kiwi connection to Minnesota first began when its own state flag redesign called for public submissions in 2023, with several members of the public submitting entries with loons shooting lasers out of their eyes.
Prekker himself submitted a design that in 2024 was selected to become the new state flag for Minnesota, featuring no loons, nor lasers, but an eight-point North Star against a backdrop of dark blue night sky paired with light blue waters. “Every time I see it in public or online I feel a great sense of pride,” he says. “I designed it with the intention of representing unity, hope, strength, inclusion, equality and progress. And I’ve never felt more proud of it than seeing Minnesotans (and people across the nation) embrace it now during this incredibly difficult time.”
As it turns out, this was just the beginning of Prekker’s vexillological journey. Although it has gained momentum online recently in the wake of Ice’s presence in Minnesota, his “Don’t tread on us” laser loon flag was first designed nearly a year ago. “I remember feeling an immense frustration with right-wing authoritarianism and wanting to express that somehow,” Prekker says. “I originally designed it without lasers, favouring a more serious tone. But I knew the first thing any Minnesotan would tell me is ‘add lasers’ and, sure enough, that’s what happened.”
Back in Aotearoa, AV technician and laser kiwi creator Lucy Gray tells The Spinoff she never imagined her design would endure and influence like this. Evolving from a chatroom joke about New Zealand’s lack of dangerous animals and the kiwi’s night vision, the design began with Gray playing around in MS Paint before she made the final version of laser kiwi in Inkscape and submitted it. The whole design process took no more than a couple of hours. “To be honest, in retrospect, I wish I spent a little bit more time on it,” she says, before adding, “or maybe that wouldn’t have helped.”
From there, laser kiwi found global fame when it featured in a story about the flag referendum on Last Week Tonight With John Oliver in August 2015. “You would remember that flag,” Oliver said of laser kiwi at the time. “If you ever saw that flag, it would be impossible not to pledge allegiance to it.” While laser kiwi making it to John Oliver was “a proud moment” for Gray, she is happy to see its influence in Minnesota over a decade later. “That is a really good thing,” she says. “It’s really unsettling what’s happening in the United States and all over the world.”
Over in Luverne, Prekker is grateful to have encountered laser kiwi online all those years ago. “Without the icon that is laser kiwi, laser loon wouldn’t exist, and I would never have thought to add lasers to my flag,” he says, adding that their sales are now raising money for the Minnesota Immigrant Defense Network. While laser kiwi in 2015 represented what Gray called “an unserious use of taxpayer money”, its relative the laser loon has come to symbolise a novel symbol of resistance during an extremely serious moment in American history.
“I think the laser birds offer a fun perspective on the people they represent,” says Prekker. “They’re silly, they’re heartwarming, but they’re also symbols of power and strength.”
