VANUATU, FLAG OF

national flag consisting of horizontal stripes of red and green separated by a black hoist triangle and a horizontal yellow Y-shape (known in heraldry as a pall) with black borders. On the triangle are two crossed leaves encircled by a pig's tusk. The flag has a width-to-length ratio of 3 to 5. At the first South Pacific Games in 1963 a team from the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) displayed a flag of blue-yellow-white vertical stripes with a central emblem. Later, political parties developed flags of their own. Not surprisingly for a Melanesian-populated area, the traditional colours red, black, and green found favour. In 1977 a flag of almost the same colours and symbolism as the future national flag was designed by local artist Kalontas Malon (Malon Kalontas) and adopted by the Vanuatu Party. Following minor modifications, it was hoisted as the national flag on Independence Day, July 30, 1980. Its black triangle is symbolic of both the rich soil of the islands and the people who live there. The lush vegetation is suggested by the green stripe, while the red is associated with the local religious traditions. The sacrifice of pigs is a common religious rite on Vanuatu; their blood is reflected in the dark red stripe. The emblem on the triangle is a further acknowledgment of that important ritual: it is a full-round pig's tusk, held in high veneration by the people. Within the circle of the tusk are two crossed namele leaves. The yellow Y-shape that spreads from the hoist to the fly end of the flag suggests the layout of the islands forming Vanuatu, while its yellow colour stands for peace and the light of Christianity spreading through the archipelago. The references to traditional beliefs and Christianity are also reflected in the national motto, We stand with God, which appears on the coat of arms. Whitney Smith History Archaeological evidence indicates that by 1300 BC islands in northern Vanuatu were settled by the makers of the distinctive Lapita pottery from Melanesian islands to the west. Since then, there have been successive waves of migrants, including people of Polynesian origin on the southern islands of Futuna and Aniwa. Around AD 1200, a highly stratified society developed in central Vanuatu with the arrival (from the south, according to tradition) of the great chief Roy Mata (or Roymata). His death was marked by an elaborate ritual that included the burying alive of one man and one woman from each of the clans under his influence. European contact began with the Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernndez de Quirs (1606), followed by the French navigator Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1768) and the British captain James Cook (1774). Cook mapped the group and named it the New Hebrides. European missionaries and sandalwood traders settled on the fringes of islands from the 1840s, but their impact on the indigenous people was minimal. Significant cultural change occurred only after the 1860s, as thousands of ni-Vanuatu men and women who had been indentured to work on plantations in Fiji and New Caledonia, and in Queensland, Australia, began to return to their homes. Many established new forms of political influence within the network of Protestant (mainly Presbyterian) missions or successfully competed against European traders and planters in the group. To protect the interests of the mainly British missionaries and mainly French planters, the British and French governments established rudimentary political control with a Joint Naval Commission in 1887. This arrangement was succeeded in 1906 by an Anglo-French condominium, under which resident commissioners in the capital, Vila, retained responsibility over their own nationals and jointly ruled the indigenous people. This clumsy administrative arrangement had only a slight impact, however, on most ni-Vanuatu, whose chief European contact continued to be with either missionary or planter. The islands became a major Allied base during World War II, when the spectacle of free-spending black American troops inspired the transformation of the John Frum cargo cult on Tanna into an important anti-European political movement. After the war, local political initiatives originated in concern over land ownership. At this time more than one-third of the New Hebrides continued to be owned by foreigners. Independence was agreed upon at a 1977 conference in Paris attended by British, French, and New Hebrides representatives. Elections were held and a constitution was drawn up in 1979. Despite an unsuccessful attempt in mid-1980 by Jimmy Stevens, the Na-Griamel Party leader, to establish Espritu Santo Island as independent from the rest of the group, the New Hebrides became independent within the Commonwealth under the name of the Republic of Vanuatu (Our Land Forever) on July 30, 1980. Ron Adams