Australia buys rights to Aboriginal flag

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The Aboriginal flag

Photo: Fairfax Media/Fairfax Media/Getty Images

The Australian government has bought the rights to the Aboriginal flag for the equivalent of 12.4 million euros.

His government has "liberated the Aboriginal flag for Australians," Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced.

The flag designed by Aboriginal artist Harold Thomas in 1971 has been the subject of repeated disputes over rights of use.

The artist had granted licenses to companies that wanted to use the motif on their products.

One of these companies subsequently sent cease and desist letters to organizations like the Australian Football League that were using the Aboriginal flag on clothing.

Over the past 50 years, the flag has become an important symbol of protest and celebration for Indigenous Australians.

The agreement now reached means the flag can be used on clothing, sports fields, artwork "and in any other medium," Morrison said.

Artist Thomas said "this agreement gives all Aboriginal people and Australians the opportunity to use the flag unaltered, with pride and without restriction".

The Indigenous Aborigines lived on the Australian continent tens of thousands of years before the arrival of the British colonizers 250 years ago.

Today they make up only about three percent of the approximately 25 million inhabitants.

as /AFP