Why Does Kiribati's Flag Have a Bird Flying Over a Sun?

Most national flags stick to stripes, crosses, or a coat of arms tucked in a corner. Amongst them Kiribati's flag looks a bit different: it tells a story in one image - a golden frigatebird flying over a rising sun, above three wavy stripes symbolizing the ocean.

The design didn't start out as a flag : It began in 1931 as a coat of arms, created by Sir Arthur Grimble, a British colonial administrator serving as Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. The College of Arms in London formally approved it as the colony's official coat of arms in 1937, and for decades it appeared as a small emblem on the British Blue Ensign flown over the islands.

The flag of Kiribati from our Country pack collection

That changed in the lead-up to independence. In 1976, the Gilbert Islands and the Ellice Islands (which would later become Tuvalu) split into two separate territories following a referendum. As the Gilbert Islands prepared to become the independent nation of Kiribati - the local pronunciation of "Gilberts" - a national contest was held to design a proper flag of its own.

The College of Arms suggested changes to the original 1931 badge for the new flag (like enlarging the bird and sun, and narrowing the wavy stripes) but the people of Kiribati pushed back. They wanted the original proportions restored instead: equal red and blue halves, and a smaller sun and bird outlined in black, closer to Grimble's original design. Their version won out, and that's the flag that was raised for the first time on July 12, 1979, in the capital, Tarawa, on the same day Kiribati became independent.

Like most flags, every element carries specific meaning. The red half represents the courage and spirit of the Kiribati people. The golden frigatebird flying above the sun stands for power, freedom, and command over the sea  (a fitting symbol for a nation spread across dozens of remote Pacific islands). The sun itself has 17 rays, representing the 16 Gilbert Islands plus Banaba (formerly known as Ocean Island). Below, the three wavy white stripes on blue represent both the ocean waves and Kiribati's three island groups: the Gilbert, Phoenix, and Line Islands.

The flag of Kiribati

One more detail worth knowing if you're working with this flag visually: Kiribati's flag uses a 1:2 width-to-height ratio, noticeably more elongated than the 2:3 or 3:5 ratios most countries use. It's a small thing, but it means the flag needs a bit of extra care to render at the right proportions - squeeze it into a standard rectangle and it'll look ugly. You can't treat flags with complexe imagery like your go to striped flags. 

It's exactly this kind of detail that made building out all 195 flags in our World Pack more challenging than just resizing a template (I wish!). When you need to make a flag fit a 16:9 ratio, you have to adjust without creating deformation, and it's a process that cannot be automated. Kiribati isn't a very well known flag, but it's a personnal favorite of mine!