Australia Buys 200 Billion Aboriginal Flag Copyrights, Removes License That Causes Controversy

Illustration of an Aboriginal flag. (Wikimedia Commons/Stephen Hass)

JAKARTA - The Australian government said on Tuesday it had acquired copyright to the Aboriginal flag so it can be used freely, resolving a commercial dispute that has restricted sports teams and Aboriginal communities from reproducing the image.

The Aboriginal flag has been recognized as the official flag of Australia since 1995, flown from government buildings and held by sports clubs.

After a deal was negotiated with its creator, Indigenous artist Harold Thomas, the flag could be used on tracksuits, sports fields, websites and even works of art without permission or payment of fees, the government said on the eve of the Australia Day public holiday.

Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday, Thomas said he first made the black, yellow and red flag to lead demonstrations in 1971, and it has become a symbol of indigenous unity and pride.

"The flag represents the eternal history of our land and the time of our people on it," he said in a statement, citing Reuters January 25.

The Australian government has paid $20 million to Thomas, as well as to remove licenses held by a small number of companies that have stirred controversy since 2018, demanding payment for the reproduction of the flag.

Illustration of an Aboriginal flag. (Wikimedia Commons/Andrew Mercer)

A parliamentary inquiry in 2020 said licensees had demanded payments from health organizations and sports clubs, which could cause communities to stop using the flag to avoid legal action.

Against this practice of commercialization, a number of prominent Australian Aboriginal figures, including former Olympian Nova Peris led the 'Free the Flag' campaign.

Separately, Australia's Minister for Indigenous Peoples Ken Wyatt said the flag had become an enduring symbol for Aboriginal people.

"For the last 50 years we have made our own Harold Thomas art, we marched under the Aboriginal flag, stood behind it, and flew it aloft in pride," he said in a statement.

"Now the Commonwealth holds the copyright, it belongs to everyone, and no one can take it away."

To note, the celebration of Australia Day, marked by a national holiday on 26 January, has become controversial as the date was seen by Indigenous Australians to mark the invasion of their land by the British.

This is the date the British fleet sailed to Sydney Harbor in 1788 to start a penal colony, viewing the land as uninhabited despite facing settlement. There is debate whether to move the national holiday to another date.