The Flag of Vanuatu: The Boar's Tusk, Namele Leaves and the Y

The flag

Adopted at independence in 1980. A black triangle at the hoist carries a yellow boar's tusk enclosing two crossed namele fern leaves. A yellow Y, outlined in black, separates a red field above from a green field below.

What the elements mean

The Y follows the rough shape of the archipelago on a map. Red is for blood, and for the pigs and men that have held the islands together; green for the land; black for the ni-Vanuatu people themselves, with the yellow outline for the light of Christianity.

The boar's tusk is the emblem of prosperity and standing — a curved tusk takes years to grow and is central to grade-taking across much of the country (see kastom). The namele leaves signify peace; the thirty-nine leaflets counted on them correspond to the members of the first parliament.

The coat of arms

The arms show a Melanesian warrior standing before a mountain, with a boar's tusk and namele leaves, above the motto Long God Yumi Stanap — in Bislama, "In God we stand".

The design competition

The flag was chosen in 1980 from entries submitted by ni-Vanuatu artists, and the winning design came from a local artist working to a brief set by a parliamentary committee. The colours had already been in use by the Vanua’aku Pati, which is why the transition from party banner to national flag was visually seamless and politically pointed.

The namele leaf

The cycad frond appears on the flag, in the arms and on boundary markers across the country. Placed on a path, a tree or a garden it signals a prohibition — a tabu — and is respected as such. Its use on the national emblem places a customary instrument at the centre of state iconography.

The thirty-nine leaflets counted on the crossed leaves correspond to the thirty-nine members of the first parliament.

The tusk

A boar’s tusk that has grown in a complete circle takes years of deliberate husbandry: the opposing tooth is removed so the tusk can curve unimpeded. Such an animal is wealth and its sacrifice is an event. Putting the tusk on the flag places grade-taking — see kastom — at the centre of national identity instead of at its margin.

The motto

Long God Yumi Stanap is Bislama, and choosing Bislama for the national motto in 1980 was itself a statement: neither English nor French, and therefore neither half of the Condominium.

Provincial flags

Each of the six provinces has its own flag, and they are flown alongside the national one at provincial offices and at Independence Day gatherings. The designs draw on the same vocabulary — namele leaves, tusks, canoe and island forms — which makes the set unusually coherent for something designed piecemeal.

Currency

The vatu carries the coat of arms, and notes and coins use motifs from customary material culture including the tam-tam and the tusk. The currency has no subdivision, so there are no cents and prices are always whole numbers — a small thing that visitors notice within an hour of arriving.

Independence Day

The flag is raised across the country on 30 July, and the ceremony in Port Vila includes custom dance, sport and a parade. In villages it is generally the biggest gathering of the year after Christmas. See independence for what is being marked.

Other national symbols

The national anthem, Yumi, Yumi, Yumi, is in Bislama, as is the motto. The national flower is the hibiscus, and the tam-tam — the carved slit drum from Ambrym — functions as an unofficial national emblem, appearing on currency and in the logos of national institutions.

Using them

Namele leaves placed as a tabu marker are respected as law in customary terms. A visitor encountering crossed leaves across a path or on a tree should treat them as a closed gate, not as decoration, because that is what they are.