Mer (Murray) Island (Australia)

Last modified: 2006-02-05 by jonathan dixon
Keywords: australia | mer | murray island | leaf: brown |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

Mer Flag
image by Ivan Sache
Mer Flag (Simplified version)
image by Ivan Sache

• Description

See also:

• Australia
• Torres Strait Islanders
• Indigenous Peoples of Australia

Description

Murray Island is a small island in the Torres Strait, locally known as Mer. More facts can be found at the site of the Torres Strait Regional Authority.
Helge Jacobsen, 25 March 2001

The flag of Murray Island (Australia) is described in Franciae Vexilla #21/67, March 2000, by M.Corbic.

In the 70's, Edward Koiki Mabo (1936-1992), trade-unionist and Aboriginal leader, born in Murray Island, sued the tribal council and the Queensland authorities in order to secure the return of his land. The High Court of Australia, on appeal from the Supreme Court of the State of Queensland, finally recognized Mabo's rights on his land on 3 June 1992. Unfortunately, Mabo had passed away a few months before the decision. The decision of the Supreme Court was commemorated by a ceremony during which the Aborigines used both the well-known Aboriginal flag and the Murray Island flag.

The flag of Murray Island is made of three vertical stripes, red-white-black.In canton, a brown leaf is placed in a white disk. Eight white six-pointed stars surround the disk. A simplified version of the Murray Island flag, without the emblem in canton, was also seen during the ceremony.

M. Corbic's original source is the report 'Mabo, le combat d'une vie' (Mabo, a lifetime fight), dated 1997, seen on the French-German TV channel 'Arte' on 7 September 2000.
Ivan Sache, 25 March 2001