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Manus Province (Papua New Guinea)

based on a photograph by Michel Lupant, by Mark Sensen, 10 February 2007

Description

See also:

Papua New Guinea

Description

A yellow Manus Friarbird flies over brown (land) and blue (sea) triangles. The 5 Manus Green Snails represent the five regions. Source: PNG: A fact book on modern Papua New Guinea, Jackson Rannells, Oxford University Press (Melbourne), 1990.
David Cohen, 1 August 1999

Here is the extract from the interview with the designer of the Manus provincial flag Luke Bulei, where he explains the meaning of the flag elements and colours:

..."Many of our people have interpreted the flag and the symbols in it wrongly, either intentionally or because of misunderstanding. In 1977, Worei Community School was informed of the Manus Provincial Flag Design Competition. With limited resources and assistance, I decided to take part in what was to represent the people of Manus later. At the time I was working on the entry, the symbols and colours had specific meanings.

The colour brown represents the inland people and the blue represents the island people. The Chauka is only found in the Manus province. It is not found in any other place in PNG. My second reason for selecting the chauka is that it heralds the coming of dawn and signals the going down of the sun. Thirdly the chauka often warns us of dangers. Fourthly it informs us whether the hunting trip will be successful or not. And of course the NBC Radio Station in Manus had become Maus Bilong Chauka several years before. The other important symbol on the Manus Flag is the green snail. Like the Chauka, the green snail is unique to the Manus province."...

The whole interview is here http://www.pngbuai.com/provinces/manus/manusflagdesigner.html.

Valentin Poposki, 13 February 2008