Australian Aboriginal Flag

The Aboriginal flag was designed and created by artist Harold Thomas, a Luritja man from central Australia and a member of the Stolen Generations.

The flag has become a symbol of Aboriginal Australia and holds special legal and political status worldwide.

History
Australian Aboriginal FlagThe Australian Aboriginal Flag was designed by artist Harold Thomas and first flown at Victoria Square in Adelaide, South Australia, on National Aborigines Day in July 1971. It became the official flag for the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra after it was first flown there in 1972. Since then, it has become a widely recognised symbol of the unity and identity of Aboriginal people.

In view of the flag's wide acceptance and importance in Australian society, the Commonwealth took steps in 1994 to give the flag legal recognition. After a period of public consultation, in July 1995 the Aboriginal flag was proclaimed a 'Flag of Australia' under the Flags Act 1953.

In 1997 the Federal Court recognised Harold Thomas as the author of the flag.

Form and symbolism
The Aboriginal flag is divided horizontally into halves. The top half is black and the lower half red. There is a yellow circle in the centre of the flag.

The meanings of the three colours in the flag, as stated by Harold Thomas, are:

Black - represents the Aboriginal people of Australia.

Yellow circle - represents the Sun, the giver of life and protector.

Red - represents the red earth, the red ochre used in ceremonies and Aboriginal peoples' spiritual relation to the land.

Display
The Aboriginal flag should be flown or displayed with the black at the top and the red at the bottom. Any questions on how and when to display the Australian Aboriginal Flag should be directed to the Commonwealth Flag Officer in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Further information on flags is available on the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet website.

Copyright
Thomas held the intellectual property rights to the flag's design until January 2022, when he transferred the copyright to the Commonwealth.

My Flag

By Harold Thomas - creator of the Aboriginal flag

The Aboriginal flag design is a deeply personal artwork, brought about by my experiences as an art student among the greatest collection of Aboriginal material culture at the South Australian Museum, as well as the driving force of demonstrations and marches for Aboriginal rights and justice.

I made this flag to lead a demonstration of the National Aboriginal Day Observance Committee, which started from Victoria Square, Adelaide, on Friday July 9, 1971. There were black and white folk united. The memory has not diminished.

It was where the expression of identity was stamped. That pivotal moment shaped what was to come.

I have been the copyright holder of the flag but, today, a deal with the federal government will be announced, ensuring that the flag can be used by all Australians.

I recognise the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra on January 26, 1972, which has resonated through Indigenous communities and the Australian people at large since then.

My people's capacity to rise above depressing circumstances to express themselves in art is one of the greatest art movements of any Indigenous group in the world. It has given Australia the finest gift to its identity as a whole.

If I was asked who were our greatest artists, I would have no hesitation to say Yirrawalla and Mandarg. I would say Yirrawalla is our Picasso, Mandarg our Braque.

I have painted from the age of 14 as a watercolourist and landscape painter. Then I won a scholarship in 1965 to the SA School of Art. My world changed forever. The art that came to me was the various forms of contemporary expression, modernism and abstract art.

One strong feature of modernism is the simplicity of design. The lineal horizontal and vertical line format and the perfect circle of the flag energises the total design.

Fifty years on, it is a National Flag of Australia and copyright now belongs to the Commonwealth, as custodian for the people. Before assigning copyright, I created the flag's digital representation, which I minted as a non-fungible token (NFT) on December 21, 2021, to commemorate the 50th year of the flag . I will hold the NFT on behalf of Indigenous communities.

I created the flag as a symbol of unity and pride that harks back to the birthing of our dreaming.

The flag was never intended to be a political platform. In the future, it will remain, not as a symbol of struggle but of pride and unity.