The Secret History Behind Kiribati's Flag
Kiribati's flag comes from a coat of arms drawn by a colonial administrator in 1932.
The flag was adopted on July 12, 1979, and it was adapted from the arms of the former Gilbert Islands, drawn by Sir Arthur Grimble in 1932 and granted by the College of Arms on May 1, 1937.
The top half is red with a yellow frigatebird flying over a rising sun, and the bottom half is blue with three pairs of white wavy stripes. The frigatebird stands for power and freedom, and it also echoes the patterns of Kiribati's traditional dances. The sun has 17 rays, for the 16 Gilbert Islands and Banaba, and it is the tropical sun, as Kiribati lies across the Equator. The wavy stripes are the Pacific Ocean, and the three pairs stand for the three island groups: the Gilbert, Phoenix and Line Islands.
The date printed on every Kiribati design in our catalog, July 12, 1979, is Independence Day.
A bird, a sun and a sea in three parts.
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