What do the colors of the Aboriginal flag mean?

The Australian Aboriginal Flag uses three colours: black across the upper half, red across the lower half, and a yellow circle centred between the two. Each colour carries a specific meaning chosen by the designer, Harold Thomas, when he created the flag in 1971.

The black band represents the Aboriginal people of Australia. It is placed at the top of the flag in a position of honour, signalling that the people are the most important element of the design. The red lower band represents the red earth, the ochre used in traditional ceremony, and the spiritual relationship between Aboriginal people and the land. Red ochre has been used for tens of thousands of years across the continent in body painting, cave art, and burial ceremonies, and it carries deep ceremonial weight in many Aboriginal traditions.

The yellow circle represents the sun, the giver of life and the common provider for all peoples. By placing the sun at the centre of the flag, between the people above and the earth below, Thomas linked the human, terrestrial, and celestial elements into a single design. The same colour combination, black, red, and yellow, also appears on Aboriginal cultural objects, artworks, and clothing across Australia, and is widely understood as an Indigenous palette even when no flag is present.

The flag's design was given legal status by Governor-General proclamation under the Flags Act 1953 on 14 July 1995, and was freed from copyright restrictions on 25 January 2022 after the Commonwealth paid Harold Thomas 20.05 million dollars to release the design into the public domain. Today the flag is flown at schools, sporting events, government buildings, and public gatherings as a symbol of recognition for the more than 60,000 years of Aboriginal occupation of the continent.