Cultural Artefact: Solomon Islands Flags
Details
The British Solomon Islands used several flags between 1883 and 1977. From 1893 to 1906, the British Union Jack was used, then from 1906 to 1947 the flag had a Union Jack in the top left with a Crown and 'British Solomon Islands' inserted into a white oval on a blue background. This was replaced in 1947 by a similar design with a turtle and a customary design in the oval along with 'British Solomon Islands'. In 1956, the oval shape was filled with a shield with a heraldic lion at the top (to signify the United Kingdom) and four symbols of Solomon Islands: an eagle, a turtle, frigate birds and a shield and spear. In 1966, the white oval containing the shield was removed and colour in the shield was altered from dark blue to light blue.
A competition to design the flag of the independent Solomon Islands was announced by Chief Minister Solomon Mamaloni in April 1975, with a closing date of 30 June. About two hundred designs were submitted. The four front-runners selected were designed by Bill Robson and Elliot Omese, Dick Keevil, Eddie Daiging and Fred Osifelo (q.v.). Bill Robson and Elliot Omese's design was chosen, which had flying frigate birds surrounded by a gold chain, but this was widely decried in the media as meaningless and was not accepted. In the end none of the final four looked like the final version. In 1976, a design was decided on by Cabinet and sent to Britain for approval. It had a blue background with a green triangle, with five stars inside the triangle, representing Western, Central, Malaita and Eastern districts as well as the outlying islands. In the centre was a yellow circle containing the standard four regional symbols from earlier flags in a coat of arms but without the British lion. One earlier design had ten stars to represent the Ten Commandments. (SND 19 Mar. 1976)
Cabinet eventually chose to use natural features that could not be altered. The final design, and current flag, had five white stars in the top left, representing the five major island groupings: Malaita, Central, Eastern, Western and the Polynesian Outliers. The diagonal yellow stripe represents the sun's golden rays, which divine the land (green) and the sky and ocean (blue). Queen Elizabeth II approved the flag in early December 1977. (SND 11 Apr. 1975, 30 May 1975, 9 Dec. 1977; Kenilorea 2008, 236)
Related entries
Published resources
Books
- Kenilorea, Peter, Tell It As It Is: Autobiography of Rt. Hon. Sir Peter Kenilorea, KBE, PC, Solomon Islands' First Prime Minister, Clive Moore, Centre for Asia-Pacific Area Studies, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 2008, xxxvi, 516 pp. pp. Details
Journals
- Solomons News Drum, 1974-1982. Details
