Two flags are in use in New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France. Up to 2010, the only flag used to represent New Caledonia was the flag of France, a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

( hoist side),

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

, and

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

known to English speakers as the French Tricolour or simply the Tricolour. However, in July 2010, the

Congress of New Caledonia The Congress of New Caledonia (french: Congrès de la Nouvelle-Calédonie), a "territorial congress" (''congrès territorial'' or ''congrès du territoire''), is the legislature of New Caledonia. It has 54 members who serve five-year terms, s ...

voted in favour of a wish to fly the

Kanak The Kanak (French spelling until 1984: Canaque) are the indigenous Melanesian inhabitants of New Caledonia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southwest Pacific. According to the 2019 census, the Kanak make up 41.2% of New Caledonia' ...

flag of the independence movement

FLNKS The Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (french: Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste, FLNKS) is a pro-independence alliance of political parties in New Caledonia. It was founded in 1984 at a congress of various politica ...

alongside the French Tricolour. The wish, legally non-binding, proved controversial.Voeux n° 1 du treize juillet 2010
/ref> A majority of New Caledonian communes, but not all, now fly both flags, the rest flying only the French Tricolour.

Overview

Two official flags of New Caledonia on same flagpole

In 2008, the government of New Caledonia debated the introduction of an official regional flag and anthem, as required by the Accord de Nouméa. A flag in fairly widespread unofficial use was the flag of the

Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front The Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (french: Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste, FLNKS) is a pro-independence alliance of political parties in New Caledonia. It was founded in 1984 at a congress of various politica ...

(FLNKS), a political party favoring independence for New Caledonia, thus a highly controversial emblem, and the French Tricolour would remain the only flag used for the next two years. In July 2010, the

voted in favour of a non legally binding wish (''vœux'') to fly the FLNKS flag alongside the French Tricolour in the territory. On 17 July 2010, French Prime Minister

François Fillon François Charles Armand Fillon (; born 4 March 1954) is a retired French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 2007 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy. He was the nominee of the Republicans (previously known as the Union ...

took part in a ceremony in Nouméa where the FLNKS flag was hoisted alongside the French Tricolour. The coexistence with the pro independentist flag proved controversial, with the New Caledonian deputy to the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

Gaël Yanno Gaël Yanno (born 2 July 1961 in Nouméa, New Caledonia) is a French politician, and a member of the Union for a Popular Movement. He served as President of the Congress of New Caledonia from 2014 to 2015, and again from July 2018 to May 2019. ...

calling it "akin to raising the

Palestinian flag The flag of Palestine ( ar, علم فلسطين) is a tricolor of three equal horizontal stripes (black, white, and green from top to bottom) overlaid by a red triangle issuing from the hoist. This flag is derived from the Pan-Arab colors and ...

over the

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

". In the capital city Nouméa, the first raising of the FLNKS flag on the town hall happened without any ceremony, as the mayor refused to participate. The New Caledonian delegation to the Olympic Games used the combined flags for the first time in 2011. According to

Philippe Gomès Philippe Gomès (born 27 October 1958) is a New Caledonian politician and, from 5 June 2009 to 11 March 2011, President of the Government of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. He served as a member of the Natio ...

, then

President of the Government of New Caledonia This article lists the presidents of the Government of New Caledonia since 1999, after the Nouméa Accord was signed in 1998. The President is often from the largest party in the Congress of New Caledonia, though the government itself is made ...

, "this flag was imposed on us. Is it representative of all communities? No, it's the flag of the Kanak, the flag of independence. Is it the choice of all? No, it's the choice of a lone man who chose to play along with the independence movement". Thus, the debate on finding a permanent official regional flag continued as the adoption of the Kanak flag proved controversial. Some New Caledonians argued for a completely new flag for New Caledonia, which would incorporate designs from both the French Tricolour and the Kanak flags. Such new flag would aim to promote a "common destiny" for ethnic Kanaks and ethnic French residents in New Caledonia.

FLNKS political flag

The FLNKS flag, first adopted by the party in 1980, is composed of three horizontal stripes of

(

Pantone Pantone LLC (stylized as PANTONE) is a limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphi ...

286c),

(Pantone 032c) and

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

(Pantone 347c) charged with a

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the ...

(Pantone 102c) disc of a diameter two-thirds the height of the flag centered at a position of one-third the width of the flag, measured from the hoist side. The disc is outlined in

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

and defaced with a vertical symbol, also black. It has the same color pattern as the

Flag of Azerbaijan The national flag of Azerbaijan ( az, Azərbaycan bayrağı), often referred to in Azerbaijani language, Azerbaijani as ( en, Tricolour flag), is a horizontal tricolour (flag), tricolour that features three equally sized bars of bright blue, ...

. The blue symbolizes both the sky and more importantly the ocean surrounding New Caledonia. The red symbolizes the blood shed by the

Kanaks The Kanak (French spelling until 1984: Canaque) are the indigenous Melanesian inhabitants of New Caledonia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southwest Pacific. According to the 2019 census, the Kanak make up 41.2% of New Caledo ...

in their struggle for

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

socialism Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...

, 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 that adorns the roofs of Kanak houses thrust through ''tutut'' shells.

Provincial flags

New Caledonia is divided into three provinces, each with its own flag. File:Bandera Province Sud.svg, Flag of South Province File:Drapeau Province Nord Nouvelle Calédonie.svg, Flag of North Province File:Iles-Loyauté drapeau.svg, Flag of the

Loyalty Islands The Loyalty Islands Province (French ''Province des îles Loyauté'') is one of three administrative subdivisions of New Caledonia encompassing the Loyalty Island (french: Îles Loyauté) archipelago in the Pacific, which are located northeast of ...

Other flags

File:New Caledonia Sports Flag.svg, One of the various flags used to represent the New Caledonian team at the

Pacific Games The Pacific Games (French: Jeux du Pacifique), is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from Oceania. The inaugural Games took place in 1963 in Suva, Fiji, and most recently in 2019 in Apia, Samoa. The Games wer ...

, all of which depict a stylized cagou in the center New Caledonia flags merged (2017).svg, Flag used to represent New Caledonia by FIFA File:Flag of New Caledonia with Emblem.svg, French tricolour defaced with New Caledonia's emblem

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Flag of New Caledonia New Caledonia New Caledonia New Caledonian culture