Bonaire flag (Caribbean Netherlands)

Which flag represents the Caribbean Netherlands?

The Caribbean Netherlands is the name for three islands in the Caribbean that became special municipalities of the Netherlands on 10 October 2010: Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. They are part of the country of the Netherlands itself, not a separate country, and the official national flag there is the Dutch red, white and blue tricolor (see the flag of the Netherlands).

The group as a whole has no flag. Each island has its own, and the one shown on this page is the flag of Bonaire, the largest and most populated of the three. Sint Eustatius and Saba fly their own island flags. The Bonaire flag is an island flag with local official use, not a national flag.

What the flag of Bonaire looks like

The flag has a white background crossed by a broad diagonal white band running from the lower hoist to the upper fly. This band divides the remaining space into two triangles: a yellow one in the upper left and a blue one in the lower right. At the center of the white band sits a compass rose in black and white, with a six-pointed star at its heart. The flag has a ratio of 2:3.

The mix of blue, yellow, white and black makes the flag easy to tell from the Dutch tricolor, and from the flags of Aruba and Curaçao, which also have blue fields but a different layout. For the flag as a digital symbol, see the Caribbean Netherlands flag emoji, which on most devices shows the Dutch tricolor rather than the Bonaire flag.

Bonaire flag meaning and symbolism

The elements of the flag are commonly explained as follows:

• Yellow triangle: the sun and the warm climate of the island.
• Blue triangle: the Caribbean Sea and the sky.
• White band: peace, and the road that links the sun with the sea.
• Compass rose: the importance of the sea and of sailing to Bonaire, and its role as a guide for sailors.
• Six-pointed star: the six original villages of the island, often listed as Rincón, Nikiboko, Antriol, Nort di Saliña, Tera Kora and Playa.

Red, white and blue are also the colors of the Dutch flag, which ties the island's flag to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. These are traditional explanations and are not set out in a formal definition.

History of the Bonaire flag

Bonaire was claimed by Spain in the early 1500s and taken by the Dutch in 1636, who ruled it as part of the Dutch West India Company's territory and later as one of the Dutch Antilles. In the 20th century it belonged to the Netherlands Antilles, whose flag carried a ring of white stars, one for each island.

Bonaire adopted its own flag in 1981, as the island developed its own local identity within the Antilles. When the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved in October 2010, Bonaire became a special municipality of the Netherlands and kept its flag for local use. Sint Eustatius and Saba took the same path with their own flags.