Flag of Easter Island

The flag of Easter Island (Rapa Nui: Te Reva Reimiro or Te Reva Rapa Nui, Spanish: Isla de Pascua) consists of a white banner with a red reimiro. It was first flown in public alongside the national flag on 9 May 2006.^[2]

Easter Island

Use	Civil and state flag
Proportion	5:8
Adopted	9 May 2006
Design	A white flag with a red reimiro in the centre
Use	Former flag
Proportion	2:3
Adopted	1899
Relinquished	1902
Design	A horizontal bicolor of red and white with the blue square ended on the upper hoist-side corner of the red band bearing the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a cross, a miter and vertical red reimiros surrounding.[1]

Description

Easter Island flag at the Hanga Roa cemetery.

The flag of Rapa Nui is white and features in its center a reimiro (a wooden pectoral ornament once worn by the people of Rapa Nui) painted in red (mana), a symbol of power, with two anthropomorphic figures at its edges, representing the ariki (chiefs, nobles).^[3]

History

The flag was created by the local population in 1880 for the island to adopt the apparatus of a modern state and hold a state-to-state dialogue with Chile, which eventually annexed the island in 1888.^[3]

For many years, the flag was unofficially used by the island's Polynesian population to represent their island, however the official flag was the white and gold flag of the Municipality of Easter Island. In 2006, it was upgraded to a Special Territory and optional use of the Rapa Nui name was allowed in government documents for the first time, with the reimiro flag adopted as the entity's flag.^[2]

Previously, a horizontal bicolor of red and white with a blue canton bearing the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a cross, a miter and a pair of vertical red reimiros was used at the turn of the 19th century.^[4]

A separate flag is used to represent the Isla de Páscua commune, the administrative body for Easter Island.^[5]

Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier had a flag made during his despotic reign on Easter Island.^[6] He first visited the island in 1866 and stayed there from 1869 until his death in 1876. The flag depicted the outline of a man-bird on an orange background.^[7]