#dhari

YOU'RE MY FAVORITE HUMAN BEING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD NOW AND I CAN'T IMAGINE MY LIFE WITHOUT YOU ARGHHHHHHHHH😭🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷

You're literally my moon, Dhari

I've been wanting to write a proper introduction for my tes OCS for awhile, but writing for me is a monumental task so I drew some quick lil portraits of them instead!

Dhoeri / Dhari necklace by Brosiscus

Gold-plated sterling silver and Swarovski crystals. $170 AUS

Depicting the traditional dance and ceremonial headdress of the Torres Strait, the central motif on the region's flag.

you guys might have noticed my header but you might not have realised that it’s the aboriginal flag or that we also have a flag for the torres strait islander peoples.

[Image ID: The Aboriginal flag. Its top half is black and the bottom half is red. A yellow circle representing the sun is in the middle. End ID]

[Image ID: The Torres Strait Islander flag. There is a broad sea-green band on the top and bottom of the flag. A large blue band is between the green bands. Separating the blue and green sections are a single narrow black band on the top and the bottom. A stylised white Dhari (traditional headdress) is in the centre of the flag. A white five-pointed star is in the centre of the Dhari. End ID]

both of these flags were designed to represent our people uniquely. 

the aboriginal flag has a red bottom half to represent the land (yes we do have red soil, that’s beside the point though), red ochre used in ceremonies and our connection to the land, a black top half to represent the people who walk the land and a yellow circle for the sun who is protector and life-giver of our people.

the torres strait islander flag is green for the land, blue for the ocean, black for the people and white to represent peace. the dhari (more on those later) represents the islander peoples and the five pointed star represents the five main island groups of the torres strait. the star also exists as a symbol for navigation as the islanders are a seafaring people.

the aboriginal flag was designed by artist Harold Thomas, you can find more about him and his works here , the flag itself was first flown in Adelaide on National Aborigines Day in July 1971 (I don’t know if we still celebrate this day but that’s for another post). the aboriginal flag was commonly recognised as such until 1995 when the government named it an official australian flag and is flown alongside the australian and torres strait islander flags to this day.

the aboriginal flag is protected by copyright laws. 

Harold Thomas wasn’t recognised as the official author of the flag until 1997.

the torres strait islander flag was designed by the late Bernard Namok Sr. you can learn more about him here and here. his design was selected from a competition open only to torres strait islanders (TSI) in 1992 and was officially recognised as an australian flag in 1995.