Adopted July 12, 1979 for national and civil usage following independence from Great Britain. It's an armorial banner- so it's design corresponds exactly to that of it's Coat of Arms. The blue and white wavy bands on the bottom half of the flag represent the Pacific Ocean. The bird- which is a frigate bird symbolizes command of the sea. The 17 rays of the sun represent the 16 Gilbert Islands and Banaba (which I guess was formerly Ocean Island) and the bird above the sun is taken from the Shield on the Coat of Arms.
Kiribati is the local pronunciation of the original, colonial name for the island chain (interestingly enough the name in the actual local language is Tungaru- Kiribati is the locals pronunciation of the Gilberts in what Wikipedia refers to as 'Gilbertese'.) the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. In 1975, the Ellice Islands split off from the Gilberts to become the independent nation of Tuvalu.
The Line Islands (part of Kiribati) were used by the UK and the US for nuclear testing back in the 50s and 60s and, of course, Tarawa Atoll where the capitol of South Tarawa is located today was the site of a major battle in the 2nd World War.
So there you have it- the flag of Kiribati. Until next time, keep your flags flying- FREAK or otherwise.
No comments:
Post a Comment