$20m copyright deal frees Aboriginal flag for all

Australians can use Aboriginal flag for sport events, clothing, art after the federal government bought its copyright.

The designer of the Aboriginal flag, Harold Thomas, signs over copyright to the Commonwealth of Australia. Picture: David Hancock

Australians can freely use the Aboriginal flag design at sporting events, on clothing and for art after the federal government bought its copyright from Luritja artist Harold Thomas.

Mr Thomas, who designed the flag more than 50 years ago and launched it at the National Aborigines Day march in Adelaide in 1971, has vowed to use $2m of the proceeds to help establish a charity for Indigenous Australians.

“I am grateful that my art is appreciated by so many, and that it has come to represent something so powerful to so many,” he said.

“The Aboriginal flag design is my Dreaming, intertwined with my wife’s family and mine, our ancestral belonging.

“The land, and the landscape, is indelible in my make-up; it courses through my consciousness and subconsciousness.

“The flag represents the timeless history of our land and our people’s time on it.

“It is an introspection and appreciation of who we are. It draws from the history of our ancestors, our land, and our identity and will honour these well into the future.”

The flag was raised at Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 and given formal national status by the Keating government in 1995. Mr Thomas was legally recognised as its designer two years later, with the flag protected by copyright law.

Under the $20m deal struck with licensees of the flag design, all commonwealth royalties from sales will be put towards the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.

The government will also provide $100,000 a year worth of scholarships for Indigenous students in Mr Thomas’s honour.

A painting of Mr Thomas recognising the history and copyright transfer of the flag will be displayed in a “prominent location” by the government.

While the design is owned by the Commonwealth, Carroll and Richardson Flagworld will remain the exclusive licensed manufacturer of the flag.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government had “freed the Aboriginal flag for Australians”.

“The Aboriginal flag will now be managed in a similar manner to the Australian national flag, where its use is free, but must be presented in a respectful and dignified way,” he said.

“All Australians can now put the Aboriginal flag on apparel such as sports jerseys and shirts, it can be painted on sports grounds, included on websites, in paintings and other artworks, used digitally and in any other medium without having to ask for permission or pay a fee.”

Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt said the Aboriginal flag was “profoundly important for all Australians”.

“The Aboriginal flag is an enduring symbol close to the heart of Aboriginal people,” he said. “Over the last 50 years we made Harold Thomas’s artwork our own – we marched under the Aboriginal flag, stood behind it, and flew it high as a point of pride.”

A Senate inquiry into the ownership of the flag’s design was called in 2020 after the AFL and the NRL were forced to stop using the ensign on Indigenous-round jerseys.

The major football codes and other companies that used the design were issued with “cease and desist” notices by WAM Clothing, which bought the right to the design for clothing in 2018. WAM also sent the letters to Aboriginal charities that were using the design.

Liberal senator Andrew Bragg, who was on the Senate Select Committee on the Aboriginal Flag, welcomed the deal, saying: “The legal status and treatment of this flag has been a wretched part of our history. Mr Thomas was forced to secure his copyright in court. This should never have happened.”