Flagging a symbolic burning

On the home front the Aboriginal flag, designed by Harold Thomas - a Luritja man from Central Australia, consists of a tricoloured rectangle divided in half horizontally, the upper half black and the lower red, with a yellow circle at the centre. The black represents the Aboriginal people, the red - the earth and the people’s spiritual relationship to the land, and the yellow - the sun, the giver of life. The flag was first flown in Adelaide’s Victoria Square in 1971. It was picked from among several others as the symbol of the Tent Embassy in Canberra the next year, and other Aboriginal groups subsequently adopted it.

To the far north in 1992 a Torres Strait Island flag was designed by Bernard Namok, a 15-year-old school student on Thursday Island. It features three horizontal coloured stripes, with green at the top and bottom and blue in between - divided by thin black lines. A white deri (headdress) sits in the centre, with a five-pointed white star underneath it. The green represents the land and the deri is a symbol of all Torres Strait Islanders. The black represents the people and the five-pointed star symbolises the island groups. The white of the star represents peace. The star, used in navigation, is also an important symbol for a seafaring people. The flag stands for the unity and identity of all Torres Strait Islanders.

The Austalian flag was born with the creation of federation at the dawn of the 20th century. An international contest resulted in 32,822 entries - seven judges representing Army, Navy, Mercantile Marine, Pilot Services and Parliament unanimously choosing five identical winning designs. So was produced “the flag of stars”.

The Union Jack reflected the new federation’s historical background, the Southern Cross its place in space, and the large star the six states making up the federation. Here was a flag containing history, heraldry, distinctiveness and beauty. (In 1908 the government decided that a seven-pointed star, symbolic of the six States and the Territories, should replace the large six-pointed star shown in the original design of the flag - to represent the territories and to conform with the Star in the Crest of the Coat of Arms granted that year.)

Would I burn any of these three flags?

Although mindful that the Union Jack, on the national flag, is a constant reminder of the British Empire that was characterised by greed, arrogance and hypocrisy, I feel it would be rather contradictory of me to condone the burning of the Australian flag while I recoil in utter disgust at the very thought of non-Indigenous people torching the Aboriginal flag.

Do I condemn the actions of my cousin Wayne “Coco” Wharton?

No I don’t, because I understand the passion of his ways and its effect in bringing attention to the plight of our people.

And my wish for next year?

I hope the government adopts a more conciliatory approach in addressing Indigenous disadvantage throughout the year so my cousin won’t have a compulsion to repeat his dramatic flag burning effort again. Besides I’d love to host my cousin Wayne for a firey celebration of a curried variety on “invasion day” 2007.

Curry and rice on January 26 sure beats the shrimp-on-the-barbie any day.