Papua New Guinea’s national flag, adopted on July 1, 1971, is the result of a nationwide effort that began in the 1960s. The First House of Assembly in 1964, chaired by Sir John Guise of the Select Committee on Constitutional Development, initiated a call to the public and schools across PNG for flag designs. Receiving hundreds of submissions, the committee, overwhelmed by the response and constrained by time, passed the task to the Second Select Committee chaired by Paulus Arek, the MP for Ijivitari.

The committee staff sifted through the submissions, identifying common themes of green, gold, and blue colours, along with symbols like birds, drums, spears, and stars. These elements were given to Hal Holman, an artist with the Department of Information and Extension Services, who incorporated them into a tricolour design featuring a white Bird of Paradise and the Southern Cross. Presented in November 1970, this design, however, represented a composite of public input rather than a single vision.

Despite general approval of the crest, public feedback on the flag design varied significantly during a subsequent fact-finding tour. In January 1971, while visiting a Catholic Mission School on Yule Island, a 15-year-old student named Susan Karike offered a revised design she sketched on a torn page from her exercise book. This design caught the committee’s attention.

Returning to Port Moresby, the committee faced clear public opposition to the proposed flag design. They decided to consider alternate designs gathered during their tour, eventually narrowing the choices down to two, including Karike’s. Her design ultimately won approval, leading to the flag we know today: a symbol of unity with its distinctive red, black, and gold colours, which has come to represent the diverse nation of Papua New Guinea proudly.