The New Guinea Council was a unicameral representative body formed in the Dutch colony of Netherlands New Guinea in 1961. The council was inaugurated on 5 April 1961 with 28 council members, 16 of whom had been elected in elections held during January 1961.
The council was requested to make its wishes on self-determination known within a year,[1] but on 18 October 1961 received news of a United States effort to involve the United Nations in a new colonization of the territory. During an emergency session the council drafted a national manifesto and symbols including the Morning Star flag for a new national identity to be known as "West Papua"[2].