Four Pacific Flags and the Stories Behind Them
The Pacific Ocean covers a third of the planet, and the flags of its islands carry the sea, the stars and the land in just a few colors. Here are four of them, and the stories behind how they came to be.
Fiji: a sky-blue flag and a shield of island crops
The flag of Fiji flew for the first time on Independence Day, October 10, 1970. Its pale blue background stands for the Pacific Ocean, and the Union Jack in the corner recalls the islands' historical ties with the United Kingdom. The design came out of a national competition in which two entrants had submitted the same design.
On the right is a shield with a British lion at the top holding a cocoa pod, and four scenes below it: sugar cane, a coconut palm, a dove of peace and a bunch of bananas. Most of them are crops that carried the island economy, and the dove of peace was already on the flag of the chief Ratu Cakobau before the islands became a British colony.
The flag has had its moment of doubt. In 2015 the government announced it would replace it, and in August 2016 it dropped the idea and kept the one that had flown since independence.
Vanuatu: a Y-shaped archipelago, a boar's tusk and two fronds
Vanuatu's flag was adopted on February 18, 1980, a few months before independence on July 30 of that year. It is credited to Kalontas Mahlon, from the island of Emau, who won a competition for the design. Its four colors, red, green, black and yellow, come from the flag of the Vanua'aku Pati, the party that led the country to independence.
The Y lying on its side is a map in miniature: it follows the pattern of the islands across the sea. Green is the richness of the islands, black is the Melanesian people and red is blood. In the black triangle sits a boar's tusk, a symbol of prosperity and tradition, curled around two namele fronds, a token of peace.
Marshall Islands: a sunrise chain, a sunset chain and a star
The flag of the Marshall Islands was designed by Emlain Kabua, the wife of the country's first president, and dates from 1979, when the islands began to govern themselves. The blue field is the Pacific Ocean, crossed by two widening diagonal bands: white for the Ratak chain, the "sunrise" chain, and orange for the Ralik chain, the "sunset" chain.
The star in the corner has 24 points, one for each of the country's 24 municipalities. Four of its rays are longer than the rest and stand for four of the main centers of the islands, including Majuro.
Samoa: a flag with a star added the year after
Samoa's flag is red with a blue rectangle in the upper corner and five white stars in it, the constellation of the Southern Cross. The version we know came in two steps. In 1948 a new flag was approved, designed by Malietoa Tanumafili II and Tupua Tamasese Meaʻole, with four stars. In February 1949 a smaller fifth star was added, and the flag has kept it ever since, including after independence on January 1, 1962.
The colors can be read in more than one way. Blue is usually read as freedom and white as purity. Red is read as courage by flag scholars, and as blood and, with it, life by the long-serving prime minister Tuilaʻepa Saʻilele Malielegaoi.
Island flags are small maps and small histories at the same time: a chain of islands, a star for each municipality, a crop, a constellation. If you come from one of these places, have family there, or fell in love with one on a trip, a flag is a way to carry it with you.
We print the flags and cultural symbols of countries and territories around the world, including many small islands. Read our earlier article, Six Small Island Flags and the Stories Behind Them, see the full list on our page of flag T-shirts for small countries and territories, or read the story behind any other flag on our free Flag Stories page.