Flag of Papua New Guinea

What the flag of Papua New Guinea looks like

The flag is split along a diagonal that runs from the upper corner next to the pole to the lower corner at the outer end. The upper triangle, nearest the fly, is red and holds a yellow Raggiana bird-of-paradise, shown flying with its long tail feathers streaming. The lower triangle, nearest the hoist, is black and carries five white stars: four larger stars arranged as a cross and one smaller star. The flag is 3:4 in proportion (height to width).

The five stars form the Southern Cross constellation, drawn with the small star off to one side, as it appears in the night sky. A smaller version is available as the Papua New Guinea flag emoji.

Papua New Guinea flag meaning and symbolism

Red and black have long been traditional colors of many Papua New Guinean tribes, and red, black and yellow are traditionally used to represent the country. Black, white and red were also the colors of the flag of the German Empire, which colonized New Guinea before 1918.

• The Raggiana bird-of-paradise is a symbol of tribal culture in Papua New Guinea, and its soaring position represents the nation's emergence. It also appears on the national coat of arms.
• The Southern Cross stars represent the constellation that is visible in the southern sky. It also signifies the country's links to its neighbors in the South Pacific, since the same stars appear on the flags of Australia, New Zealand and Samoa.

History of the Papua New Guinea flag

The eastern half of the island of New Guinea and nearby islands were split between several colonial powers. Germany ruled the northern part, called German New Guinea, until World War I, and Britain ruled the southern part, which it transferred to Australia as the Territory of Papua. Australia took over the northern part after the war, and the two were joined as an administrative union after World War II. Before independence, the territory had no official locally significant symbols.

As the territory prepared for self-government in the early 1970s, a national contest was held to choose a flag. The winner was Susan Karike Huhume, a schoolgirl who was 15 at the time. Her design, with its diagonal division, the Raggiana bird and the Southern Cross, was adopted on 1 July 1971. The flag is also said to have been chosen after a design by the Australian administration was poorly received. Papua New Guinea gained self-government in 1973 and became independent from Australia on 16 September 1975. The 1971 flag remained the national flag at independence and has not changed.