Flag History and Redesign: Cook Islands
Red and white stripes are traditional in Polynesia, appearing on the modern-day flags of French Polynesian islands including Tahiti, Tuamotu, the Austral Islands, and most of the Leeward Islands. The flag of the 19th-Century Kingdom of Rarotonga was a red and white triband with three blue stars.
Renamed the Cook Islands, Rarotonga became a British protectorate in the late 19th Century. Variations of the Rarotongan flag with a Union Jack in the canton were used briefly, then they went a while without a distinct flag, opting to fly the Union Jack alone. Later, the islands became an associated state of New Zealand and used that nation’s flag. In 1973, the country adopted a green flag featuring a ring of fifteen gold stars.
Just six years later in 1979, the green of this flag was traded for blue and a Union Jack was added to the canton. This has been the flag of the territory ever since.
My redesign superimposes the ring of stars on a red and white flag, removing the Union Jack and British colours in favour of uniquely Cook Islander symbolism.