Flying the flag

should not be a matter of controversy - but it seems it is.

One of the local councillors is stirring up controversy by saying that we need more flagpoles at the site of a war memorial. He says we need them because the indigenous flag should be flown at all times.

This is not how returned men see the issue. It has also divided the community.

Our flag is loved by some and hated by others. There are people who feel it is a representation of who and what we are. For others it is a symbol of our colonial past and they say we should be rid of it. 

When I was a mere kitten in primary school we had a weekly "saluting the flag" ceremony. We all stood there in rows and recited words which were supposed to impress on us that we all belonged under one flag. We knew what the history of the flag was. We could draw the Union Jack and then add the stars. I can remember being told how it brought us all together even if some people had been here much longer than most of our ancestors and some people had not even been born here.  We sang the national anthem of the day which was "God Save the Queen" and one or the other of our national songs. 

I don't know how much good all this did but it seems to me it was preferable to being faced with more than one flag and being told that one of them represents some of us and not others. That is divisive. It is not doing anything to prevent racism. It simply encourages it.

An indigenous friend of mine grew up knowing that two of his family fought in WWII. They risked their lives for their country. At the funeral of one there was a national flag on the coffin and the leader of the local RSL spoke very warmly about his friend. He regretted the way he had been treated immediately after the war but he went on to say that L.... had still been very proud to serve his country under the flag on the coffin. 

I may be wrong but I suspect that a good many other returned men who have indigenous heritage would feel the same way. They were not fighting under an "indigenous" flag. They were fighting under the national flag.  

My late friend R... would be appalled by this move. She saw the movement to expand the use of the indigenous flag as divisive. "That's not going to help us all rub along together", she once told me.  I think she is right. There's nothing wrong with the indigenous flag being flown at indigenous events but it is not our national flag. 

Our flag should represent our past and our present - and it does. As far as we can foresee the future it should also represent the future - and it does.  It's an interesting flag. It tells people something about us. That's the way it ought to be.