Hone Papita Raukura "Ralph" Hotere was widely regarded as one of Aotearoa New Zealand's most important artists. Known for his large-scale painting and sculptural works, and his use of power tools on corrugated iron and steel, Hotere has also collaborated with poets Hone Tuwhare and Bill Manhire and artist Bill Culbert on major works.

His work is often political, protesting an aluminium smelter site on the Aramoana wetland, the sinking of Greenpeace’s flagship Rainbow Warrior and in this work, the controversial New Zealand Springbok rugby tours by apartheid-era South Africa. Stripping the Union Jack motif of its colour and structural cohesivity, Hotere’s work questions the colonial motive, and protests New Zealand’s complicity within these social policies.

Ralph Hotere (born 1931 Mitimiti, Northland, died 2013, Dunedin; Te Aupōuri and Te Rarawa) was educated at Auckland Teachers' College, moved to Dunedin to specialise in art, before working as a government education arts advisor in the Bay of Islands. Hotere was awarded a 1961 New Zealand Art Societies Fellowship for London’s Central School of Art, subsequently travelling and studying through Europe until 1964, and was the University of Otago's Frances Hodgkins Fellow in 1969. Hotere has numerous awards, notably an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Otago, 1994; an Arts Foundation inaugural Icon Award, 2003, a Te Taumata Award recognising outstanding leadership and service to Māori arts from Te Waka Toi, 2006 and New Zealand's highest honour, the Order of New Zealand in 2012. Ralph Hotere's work is represented in every major public and private collection in New Zealand and in art museums throughout the world.