KEY POINTS:
A flag washed ashore from the shipwrecked Wahine is up for auction today and is expected to sell for up to $30,000.
But the sale, on behalf of a private trust, has angered a survivor of the tragedy who lost one child and had another left brain-damaged.
The 2-metre-wide pennant, bearing the vessel's name, was found a day after the interisland ferry capsized in Wellington Harbour on April 10, 1968, leading to the deaths of 53 people.
Forty years later, the battered piece of fabric - frayed at the edges and still tainted with oil and fume stains from the ship - is being put up for auction by Webb's in Auckland.
The auction house lists the expected sale price as between $25,000 and $30,000.
Shirley Hick, who was travelling on the ship, lost her 3-year-old daughter, Alma, when the lifeboat she was in tipped over.
Mrs Hick's baby son, Gordon, suffered brain damage underwater and was cared for by Mrs Hick for 22 years before he died.
"They're selling our people's lives - people died on that ship - 53 lives lost. I feel very deeply when they're sold out for nothing.
"That is our flag, that belongs to us, to the survivors. I feel very strongly about this, if they let people from overseas buy it - no way - it doesn't belong overseas, it just doesn't equate [because] that's ours."
The flag is being sold by a private trust. The vendor, who did not want to be named, refused to reveal the name of the trust, saying he was aware some people might be angry about the sale.
He said there had been a lot of interest from overseas buyers.
Mrs Hick said it was disheartening to know a lot of money could be made from a piece of the Wahine in almost an instant when she and other survivors had campaigned for a monument to be put up for many years.
A plaque was unveiled in April, on the 40th anniversary of the disaster, in honour of those who rescued and saved lives.
However, Paul Moon, professor of history at the Auckland University of Technology, said that because the flag was not officially a national item, auctioning it was fair.
"It has a [monetary] value and if people are prepared to buy it, then it's okay.
"Anything associated with the dead - the moral issue - it's a bit uncomfortable for some people.
"It's a bit like if you had a hangman's rope. Would you sell it, and then who would buy it? You have to ask: 'What's the motive for somebody buying it?'"
