Flag and coat of arms of Freice

Freice

Use	Civil and state flag, civil and state ensign
Proportion	1:2
Adopted	17 January 1972 (original) 5 October 2021 (Current version)
Design	A light blue field with a rectangle on the upper hoist-side corner bearing the colours blue, green, orange, and white in vertical bars.
Designed by	Desa Tuqei and Toqa Efame

The National Flag of the Country of Freice (Freician: Fira Tehua'i oe te ma Tehua oe Faio), often referred to simply as the flag of Freice and sometimes as the Blue and Bars (Kaue ka Tume) was adopted as the flag of Freice in its current form by the provisional Freician legislature on 17 January 1970. The flag consists of a light blue field with a canton featuring four verticle stripes of stripes of blue, green, orange, and white.

The origins of the current flag can be traced to 1959, when a horizontal tricolour flag featuring the colours blue, green, and orange, and a white depiction of Freice, was first flown. The flag's creator remains unknown, but it was quickly adopted by Freician nationalists as a symbol of nationhood and sovereignty. In 1961, a new version of the flag was adopted that took the tricolour flag and added a fourth white band in place of the central island symbol. This design was incorporated into the current national flag.

History

Although a single Freician community has inhabited the island for centuries, there was no single flag used by the islanders prior to the mid-twentieth century. Historically, various banners of different colours were used to represent different groups, with a particular colour assigned to different classes of people. The most common colours were red, orange, white, blue, and green. These historical banners formed the basis of the first flag, which incorporated the latter four colours, three of which were in the form of a horizontal triband.

This early flag was not widely adopted, limited only to a small group of nationalist activists. These political associations, which resulted in the flag being suppressed by the colonial government, led to the creation of a new flag. Desa Tuqei is credited as the creator of this flag, which took the colours featured in the previous flag and arranged them in a horizontal quadband. This flag was widely used as a symbol of Freician nationality rather than nationhood, and was recognised by the colonial government as a representative flag for the Freician people.

Upon independence in 1969, the Desa flag was adopted as the de facto national flag, widely used by both government and civil society but without any legal recognition. Opposition from non-Freician groups, particularly the Riamese community resident on the island, prevented the formal adoption of the flag in its existing form. Local artist Toqa Efame, who's husband was Maricoenian, submitted a compromise design that incorporated the core elements of the flag, in the form of a verticle quadband in the canton of a light blue field. Efame summarised the design as representing the Freician people as a 'cornerstone' but only 'one constituent part' of the Freician nation, with the light blue representing the ocean and the many communities that had travelled across it to settle on the island. The flag was formally adopted by the Freician assembly on 17 January 1972.

In October 2021, slight amendments were made to the proportions of the canton (extending 35 percent along the length and 45 percent along the width rather than half) along with the formalisation of the Pantone colour scheme contained within the original legislation establishing the flag.

Variants

The civil ensign (for merchant ships) is identical in design to the national flag, but has an aspect ratio of instead of 3:5 (instead of 1:2). The Sovereign's Representative (the representative of the Riamese Crown in Freice) uses the national flag charged with the emblem of Freice.

Variant flags of Freice

Variant flag	Usage
	Civil ensign
	Standard of the Sovereign's Representative

Historical flags

Historical flags of Freice

Historical flag	Duration	Description
		A golden cross on a burgundy field.
		A horizontal tricolour of gold, blue, and red.
	Until 1902	A blue ensign featuring the flag of Riamo in the canton and a golden crown in the fly.
	1902-1911	A blue ensign featuring the flag of Riamo in the canton and the word "FREICE" surmounted by the Vallyan Crown in a white disc.
	1911-1931	A yellow banner bearing a red phoenix circled in red.
	1913-1931	A yellow ensign featuring a vertical tricolour of blue, green, and orange in the canton and the words "Hoterallian Mandate for the Governance of the Freice Island" in Hoterallian in the fly.
	1931-1972	A blue ensign featuring the flag of Riamo in the canton and the coat of arms of Freice in the fly.
	1969-1972 (de facto)	A horiztonal quadcolour of blue, green, orange, and white
	1972-2021	A sky blue ensign featuring a vertical quadcolour of blue, green, orange, and white.

Symbolism

The blue field, which continues the majority of the flag's design, embodies the Kaldaz Ocean that surrounds the island and dominates economic, social, and political life in the country. The colour blue was also chosen to symbolise tranquility and harmony, both between Freice and the ocean and between the different groups resident on the island. The canton references the Freician ethnic flag in use before the national flag's adoption, with alterations to the design to provide a symbolic separation between the flag of Freice and the flag of the Freicians.

Although the colours of the Freician flag relate to the traditional banners flown prior to colonisation, the colours featured in the flag's canton bear additional meanings:

• Blue represents the integrity of the Freician people and the truth that they embody.
• Green represents the renewal of the nation on its independence and the relative youth of the modern Freician state.
• Orange represents the warmth of the Freician land and of its people.
• White represents the purity and the goodness of Freice's aspirations within the international community.

(1972/2021–present)	Light blue	Dark blue	Green	Orange	White
Hex	#89b2c4	#506d85	#385542	#F1be48	#ffffff
RGB	137, 178, 196	80, 109, 133	56, 85, 66	241, 190, 72	255, 255, 255
Pantone	2205c	2167c	7736c	142c	1c
CMYK	47, 14, 10, 1	70, 42, 21, 19	71, 30, 67, 52	0, 21, 77, 0	0, 0, 0, 0

See also

• Emblem of Freice
• Politics of Freice

External links

• Visit Freice - National Flag
• Island Government - Flag Protocol