Flag of New Caledonia

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Independentist movement flag in common use.

French flag, used officially.

The only flag in official use in New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France, is the French tricolour. A flag in fairly widespread unofficial use, however, is the flag of the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), an independentist political party in New Caledonia.

The FLNKS flag, first adopted by the party in 1980, is composed of three fesses of blue (Pantone 286c), red (Pantone 032c) and green (Pantone 347c) charged with a yellow (Pantone 102c) disc of a diameter two-thirds the height of the flag centred at a position of one-third the width of the flag, measured from the hoist side. The disc is fimbrated black and defaced with a vertical symbol, also black.

The blue symbolizes both the sky but more importantly the ocean surrounding New Caledonia. The red symbolizes the blood shed by the Kanaks in their struggle for independence, socialism, and unity. The green symbolizes the land itself and by extension the ancestors buried within it. The yellow disc is a representation of the sun and the symbol upon it consists of a flèche faitière, a kind of arrow which adorns the roofs of Kanak houses thrust through tutut shells.

[edit] External links

• Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front at Flags of the World