‘Australia always was and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land. This is why Australia has three flags. The Aboriginal flag, the Torres Strait Islander flag and the Australian flag.’ On the opening spread for the book, two men dressed and painted for ceremony are caught mid-action with spears against a background of palm leaves on the left-hand page. Three children are cross-legged on the sand-coloured background of the facing page – drawing materials lie at their feet as they each hold up their renditions of the three named flags.
Illustrator Mordey’s strong pen-and-ink line creates strong profiles for each character laid against the vivid blue greens of the islands. Plant and animal life are reduced to elemental simplicity which make them recognisable to the youngest reader. Co-author Namok identifies himself as the narrator and relates how his late father chose the design elements for the Torres Strait Islander flag in use today. The flag is shown, over subsequent pages, as a black and white profile with each coloured design element explained in turn – the green stripes top and bottom for the neighbouring countries; Dhari headdress; and five-pointed star for the five distinct groups of islands. He uses the Kala Lagaw Ya language names for countries that the non-Indigenous reader knows as Australia and Papua New Guinea. Namok underscores the diversity of the more than 100 Torres Strait Islands within this story. Two pages at the end of the book provide extra geographical and cultural information.
Bernard Namok Jr is a Torres Strait Islander man from Thursday Island, son of the man who designed the Torres Strait Islander flag. A photograph of Bernard Namok Sr is appended, with an excerpt from a speech he gave when the flag was recognised with a design award in 1992. Thomas Mayo, an Aboriginal and Torres Islander man born and raised in Darwin, is a signatory to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Illustrator Tori-Jay Mordey is an established illustrator and artist who produces work based around her Torres Strait Islander and English heritage.
Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Resource
