Aboriginal Flag

Aboriginal flag panel at Dandiiri Maiwar.

Harold Thomas, a Luritja man from Central Australia, designed the Aboriginal flag in 1971 as a symbol of unity and national identity for Aboriginal people during the Land Rights movement of the early 1970s.

The flag was first flown on the 12th of July 1971 in Victoria Square, Adelaide, on National Aborigines Day.

The flag was chosen in 1972 as the official flag for the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. The symbolic meaning of the flag colours (as stated by Mr Harold Thomas) are:

• black representing the Aboriginal people of Australia;
• red representing the earth, red ochre and spiritual relationship to land; and
• yellow is the sun - the giver of life and protector.

In 1995, the Australian Government proclaimed the flag as an official ‘Flag of Australia’.