Flying a New Flag
Does Australia’s flag need to change to reflect our changing government and society?
This question has been flicking through my brain since Dan asked it in this post. As I mentioned there, I do have some patriotic feelings for the red, white and blue colours – but the main bone of contention for people who offer their opinions on this argument is the presence of the Union Jack. Why should our country – whose affiliation with Britain is a thing of the past in all except name – depict their flag on our own? Some people suggest that as it represents our history, it has a valid place there. Others scorn the idea of continuing to support a history steeped in genocide by honouring it on our flag. The fact stands that the Australian flag at this moment in time is a reflection only of the European settlers and origins of our society. The Aboriginal aspects of our history and our culture are effectively invisible – which is another true representation of our European history, and something that we should be ashamed to consider as the symbol by which the world identifies us.
Granted, the Aboriginal community have their own flag, which symbolises rather more than a stuffy history of royal families and settlers with guns and rabbits and ideas of ‘cultural reform’. It shows the unity between the land and the people. But it belongs to the Aboriginal people, and isn’t a fair representation of our country either.
The AusFlag website states some rather clear-cut goals for a new flag. They say that it must represent our nation and its people, our past, present and future, our land, our equality and diversity, our achievements and our hopes and aspirations. I have a feeling that it’s the ‘future’ part that most people are getting hung up on. We have to honestly say that our flag as it is now is only a representation of our past. So how do you stylise everything that Australia needs to look to in the future?
One proposal I’ve found for a new Aussie flag simply replaces the Union Jack with the Aboriginal flag. That’s a bit like sticking a Band-Aid on a broken leg. Another colours the Commonwealth Star gold and uses it to replace the Union Jack. However, I did stumble across a few other designs that manage to blend the red, white and blue neatly with the red, black and gold.
The design below is by far my favourite – the circular golden suns, the black and the white, the Southern Cross and the red, white and blue… it seems to include everything, and it does it with harmony and the right combination of history and independence.
But what do you think?
February 3rd, 2010 at 9:37 pm
I think I heard some where that we are the only country who dont have our colours on the flag.
With a quick google search I found this http://www.crwflags.com/FOTW/images/a/au@gold.gif Similar to the curent flag but our countries colours
here are some quick mashes I did using that last flag design but changing the colours to incorporate the Green and Gold
http://bit.ly/ccAzT6
http://bit.ly/91OZga
February 3rd, 2010 at 9:43 pm
Let me here say: I hate the green and gold national colours (as unpatriotic as that may be).
The first of your own flags here is nice, though… although losing the red, white and blue would be a bit sad.
The second one reminds me more of an African flag – they’re full of greens and blues and lots of pretty colours!
The coat of arms instead of the union jack is… ehh, I guess it’s another option, but it’s kinda… boring.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:53 pm
Lol hmmm I have to say I like the current flag and cant imagine having anything different! But then I’m not exactly a strong republican either…(please dont throw rotten fruit at me)
And Playing devils advocate here but if we are going to incorporate aspects of Aboriginal ethnicity (i.e. simply meshing the Aboriginal and Australian flag together) into a new design then what about all the other ethnicities that make up multi-cultural Australia? Surely they would also like to have representation on the flag!
To add furhter to the train of thought – I dont think (as some do) that we should simply use the ‘Eureka Flag’ instead of the current because that is also a representation of Australia linked to a past ‘European’ history which says nothing of where we are as a nation today. Which if you are going to change the flag in the first place surely that should be the point.
Furthermore (just to be annoying) isn’t the Austrlian Coat of Arms a BRITISH symbol as well??? (the original was granted by King Edward VII on the 7th of May 1908) My point is that if the point of changing the flag is simply to break our ties with Britain then replacing he Union Jack with the Coats of arms (in my opinion) is kinda like trading a granny smith with a golden delicious – its still an apple just a diffent kind lol
I dont know I just dont feel a strong need to change the current flag – I grew up with it so it’s a strong part of my cultural identity!
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:58 pm
I’m not so sure about the coat of arms being british… I mean, it has an emu and a kangaroo!! um…
I’m not a big fan of the Eureka flag either, I must say.
Also: *throws rotten banana at Lisa*
February 4th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Mmm, well the other ethnities came over with/because of the British Empire/Live in the Modern Australia. So I assumed we’re already lumped under the current flag. The union jack represents the white british empire, but I don’t think the flag intself only represents white Australia. The real issue is that the empire invaded a land already occcupied by a society/culture and then tried to remove them. Maybe the Australian flag should be respecful of that, i.e. the new occupants and the original occupants, thus only those two needing to be brought together. Just my 2cents.
And yeah, the Australian Coat of arms is.. ugly. lol. The black/red/white lines on th other flag with the yellow suns seems kinda accidentally symbolic of segregation… with red (blood) between the white and black…. unfortunate implications. :-p
February 6th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
I’ll Throw my two cents here and say it should stay the same, i have sympathy for what the aboriginal people have had to endure because of the british colonization, but i feel that putting the aboriginal flag on there would just be like saying that they are more important than every other culture that NOW makes australia what it is.
While i do still disagree with the british flag being there, for all logistical purposes we are still a constitutional monarchy, and the Queen of Australia/England is still our head of state, so it does make sense that the Flag still have the union jack.
The union jack would go if we ever declared full independence from England, which i don’t see happening
Its also worth noting that Great Britain has had a similar problem to what we are discussing now (Sitation from Wikipedia page “Union Jack”)
“In 2003 a private individual started a campaign – dubbed “reflag” or “Union Black” – to interpret the Union Flag in a racial context, and introduce black stripes in it. The proposal was denounced by MSP Phil Gallie as “ridiculous tokenism [that] would do nothing to stamp out racism”.[34] The campaign received little support from any quarter and is now defunct.”
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/New_Union_Flag_proposal_by_Liam_Roberts.png/180px-New_Union_Flag_proposal_by_Liam_Roberts.png
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a2/Union_Flag_of_UK_with_Wales.png/180px-Union_Flag_of_UK_with_Wales.png
[Footnote: This is my opinion, and i am entitled to it, if you have a problem with my opinion deal with it in your own way and don't backlash at me]
February 6th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
Adam, if you look at the other comments on this thread, you can see that everyone has a different idea about this stuff. No one is going to attack your opinion.
Heh, interesting that even some Brits have issues with the union jack! I know that New Zealand have been having the same discussion as Australia off and on for a few years.
I have a feeling that the union jack is there to stay unless or until we become a republic or something similar. Hopefully the name won’t change, though. ‘Republic of Australia’ just sounds dumb.
Andrew – you’ve gone that extra step on me for the symbolism! I guess the lines might be construed as segregationist. I initially saw it as living side-by-side, though. There are still two very distinct cultures, and although we’re not living in an apartheid, we still learn and teach about the difference between our cultures. Also, the red on the aboriginal flag represents the ochre-red earth, so it doesn’t necessarily have to imply bloodshed. The possibility of that interpretation is unfortunate, though!
Lisa – I’m with Andrew on this one. The other nationalities from early settlement days are widely north European, and the union jack represents that white ‘new australian’ element. The higher Asian immigrants these days are a bit tricky – we can’t say they’re not part of our history or our future, but they’re still ‘new australians’ now, so maybe a flag without ties to any other country would be a quick solve for this one.
February 7th, 2010 at 1:21 am
Not an attack on Adam, just so he knows, :-p. But there are countries in the Commonwealth that do not have the union jack on the flag. A major one, very similar to Australia is Canada. There’s no union jack on theirs.
And the flag doesn’t have to only have the Aboriginal aspects on it. Mind you, saying it doesn’t kinda alludes to the fact they aren’t important to Australia, even though their history is like 20,000 years more than British Settlement on this continent… why pretend they don’t exist or aren’t important? Sharing the flag doesn’t mean one is better than the other, it’s about sharing and co-existing. The curent flag doesn’t do that, under this flag Australia committed some horrid things to Aboriginals.
Just my 2cents too, nothing more.