Flag of Kiribati

Last crawled date: 10 months, 3 weeks ago

The flag of Kiribati is based on the coat of arms adopted for the Gilbert and Ellice islands (a British colony) in 1937, on an original drawing by the then British resident commissioner, Sir Arthur Grimble. It represents a rising sun (in the gilbertese language otintaai), flown over by a frigate (te eitei, Fregata minor), which emerges from the waves of the Pacific. The sun casts 17 rays (the 16 Gilbert and Banaba islands). There are versions of the flag with 21 or 22 rays, as many as the atolls currently inhabited in the republic. The waters of the Pacific are three as the three main archipelagos (Gilbert, Phoenix Islands and islands of the Equatorial Line or Sporades). The frigate (Fregata minor) is the emblematic bird of the Gilbertians or I-Kiribati. The flag was adopted and hoisted on 12 July 1979, independence day from the United Kingdom. #flag #Kiribati