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Sandaun Province (Papua New Guinea)

Formerly West Sepik Province

image by Jens Pattke, 25 December 2012

Description
Earlier version

See also:

Papua New Guinea

Description

Black and red triangles form the background, with the gold bird of paradise symbol from the national flag set over the red. Six stars (representing the 6 districts) are set above a light blue setting sun with yellow rays (the provincial symbol).
David Cohen, 3 August 1999

Earlier version

image by Jens Pattke, 25 December 2012

[...] For various reasons the design of some of the provincial flag have changed over time. The main reasons to be that when new supplies of flags were ordered, the designs were interpreted differently by the makers. One example is the flag of Sandaun province, officially West Sepik Province, which began as depicted here. The flag’s appearance now is depicted at the top of this page. [...]

The original model (approximately 1975 to 1983) had a real yellow setting sun with long and short rays on a white semi-circular background, The star constellation was arranged also changed somewhat. The flag ratio of height to length was 1:2.

[...] The Sandaun provincial flag’s appearance now is similar to the national flag but it has yellow stripes on a blue background to represent the setting sun, or sandaun in Tok Pisin, which the province is named after. The six stars represent the six original districts (Aitape, Lumi, Nuku, Telefomin, Vanimo, and Green River), rather than the Southern Cross. [...]
The setting sun represented the Western of Papua New Guinea. Ratio is now 3:4

The shape has adjusted to the 3:4 ratio of the national flag. This standardisation has come about because the national parliament has required provincial flags to be flown on official occasions and they have ensured that a standard was applied.

Sources: [mra04] Neil Murray: "Emblems of Our Nation" Melbourne, 2004
Jens Pattke, 25 December 2012