The Greenlandic flag - Erfalasorput ("Our flag")

A few months ago I was involved in an assignment concerning the Greenlandic flag. The assignment itself was of little interest but the information I gained while slowing the assignment was rather amusing. Without breaching any duty of confidence I will now try to pass on the story I discovered. None of the information I pass on is secretive but neither do I think it is considered common knowledge here in Greenland.

The Greenlandic flag was hoisted for the first time on June the 21st 1985 which is the national day of Greenland. However, the idea of a Greenlandic flag was first introduced back in 1973 when a group of people suggested a flag consisting of the colors green, white and blue. The year afterwards the Greenlandic newspaper Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten (a.k.a. AG) published 11 proposals for a Greenlandic flag. Ten of these proposals suggested a flag similar to the existing Scandinavian flags with a cross as a main part. In 1980 the Greenland home rule organized a competition of designing a Greenlandic flag. 555 proposals came in whereof 293 of these came from Greenland. However the home rule government was incapable of reaching a joint agreement on what a flag should look like. Therefore a group of artists were invited to come up with their suggestions for a flag. The Landsting (the Greenlandic parliament) gave its final decision voting 14 pro the flag we see today and 11 voting for a cross flag similar to the other Scandinavian flags consisting of the colors green and white. Many people were very upset about this decision because they felt they ought to have a flag with greater similarities to the Danish flag. However, today this dissatisfaction seems long forgotten. The Greenlanders love their flag and I doubt they would ever change it if they were given the opportunity.

However, it is in fact not quite safe to say that the Greenlandic flag is in fact Greenlandic and who knows one day the Greenlanders might just be given the opportunity for a new flag…
The man who designed the flag we see today was Thue Christiansen, a previous member of the home rule government and today a painter and graphic designer. He explained his design of the red and white colors and the circle in the middle by saying that the white color symbolized the inland ice while the red part of the circle symbolized the many bays and fjords in Greenland. The red color symbolized the ocean and the white part of the circle symbolized the many icebergs and pack ice. The two colors also suggested a connection with Denmark and circle was also to be seen and the rising and setting sun in Greenland. All in all, the flag seems to fit very well to the country of Greenland, however there’s just one small thing that seems a bit odd.

The design of the flag already existed at the time Thue Christiansen delivered his idea to the home rule government. If one was to take a look at the Hei-rosport’s homepage (a sport club for rowing in Jutland) http://www.hei-rosport.dk/%C3%85REFEDT one would see that their pennant bears the exact same design as Erfalasorput and they flag is from 1969 making their flag older than the Greenlandic one. This information has on some occasions been challenged in Greenland but today it seems to have been forgotten. This might be because the sport club in question has allowed Greenland to use the current design for their flag as long as it’s not in the shape as a pennant. Thus one only sees pennant of the Danish flag in Greenland, never pennants of the Greenlandic flag. As long as the sport club accepts the use of the Greenlandic flag but if they were once to withdraw this accept Greenland might just have to come up with a new design. One can also wonder from where Thule Christensen originally got his idea when it seems so similar to a pre-existing one…

Few knows this little story and that is probably for the best because it’s the Greenlanders love their flag and to them it would surely seem impossible to imagine another flag at the top of their flagpoles.