Carlton’s Eddie Betts shows his “Free The Flag” t-shirt to the crowd after the Blues’ win over Gold Coast. Photo: GETTY IMAGES
People power is a beautiful thing to watch. And last week, we saw it in action again, the AFL community literally rallying around the flag with the “Free The Flag”’ campaign.
It began with an article written by Daniel Cherny in “The Age” about how the Aboriginal flag had disappeared from the Sir Doug Nicholls Round this year.
It was a controversy which immediately captured media attention, the AFL unable to reach an agreement with WAM clothing, which held the licensing agreement on clothing, digital and physical media using the Aboriginal flag.
If you missed the story, and wondered why most of the teams last weekend were wearing “Free The Flag” t-shirts as warm up tops, allow me to give you a quick history lesson about the Aboriginal flag.
Harold Thomas designed the flag in 1971 as a symbol for Aboriginal people during the land rights movement. Aboriginal people quickly became connected to the flag as a symbol which unified them. In 1997, the High Court officially recognised Thomas as the creator of the flag. That’s the short of it.
There have been many claims about from where the design came. One is that Thomas, who studied fine art in South Australia, may have seen such a design in a 1967 European artwork, “The Night That Hides”, which has what looks like the flag within the painting.
Another claimant is George Brown, who insists that he was the designer of the flag. Ultimately, such claims are moot, with Thomas awarded complete copyright over the flag.
Thomas has chosen three companies with whom to have licensing agreements with – Carroll & Richardson Flagworld, (for flag, bunting etc), Gifts Mate (souvenirs) and WAM clothing (clothes, digital and physical media).
The agreement for the souvenirs was initially with Birubi Arts, a company owned by Ben Wooster, but liquidated a month after receiving a $2.3 million penalty for selling fake art in 2018. Now the agreement is with Gift Mates, which is also owned by Wooster.
The latest agreement with WAM clothing, signed in November 2018, has been the one which has caused the most distress to the Aboriginal community.
When WAM owners Wooster and Semele Moore signed the agreement, they wrote in their social media posts that they had lawyers who would be sending cease and desist letters to anyone who hadn’t entered an agreement of use with them.
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They weren’t kidding. People began receiving these letters almost immediately.
An example? If you have the Aboriginal flag at the bottom of your email to show respect for the traditional owners, they will send you a cease and desist letter. You must either remove the flag or enter into an agreement with WAM.
Not everyone is in agreement with the principles of the “Free The Flag” campaign. Some people believe it is Thomas’s legal right, and that he has a right to make money from selling the flag licenses to these companies. Self-determination.
Others think we should abandon the flag all together and make a new one, free for all to unite under with a new sense of pride.
Personally, I’m very grateful for the AFL supporting the Aboriginal community, as it has helped to shine a light on an issue that has affected us for while.
This encouraged the AFL to support the grass roots “Free The Flag” campaign driven by Clothing the Gap owner Laura Thompson and her team. “Thanks to Collingwood for leading the way and all the other clubs uniting on this important issue #FreeTheFlag – we are overwhelmed and proud,” she said.
To see the players wearing the #FreeTheFlag t-shirts during the Sir Doug Nicholls round was overwhelming. One of my personal highlights was to see Sydney superstar Lance Franklin wearing one.
Only recently, he was selling t-shirts with the Aboriginal flag on his website, thinking he was supporting his people. After he was made aware of the licensing agreements and where people stood, he chose to remove the tops from his website.
We’re all living and learning, and it was wonderful to see him standing proud in his “Free The Flag” t-shirt last weekend.
Eddie Betts and his brilliant efforts for his people on Friday night put a smile on my face, too. He spoke from the heart about what the flag means to him. Watching him walk off the ground wearing the “Free The Flag” t-shirt and grabbing it for all to see, was very special.
My hope is that this national conversation which has been started by people of all walks of life, coming together to make a stand about the Aboriginal flag, will continue.
We need to know where we stand. Hopefully, the powers that be can sit down to work out an agreement, one which suits self-determination and our people’s freedom to use the flag. But even as it stands, once again we have at least been shown what sport and people uniting can do in this country.
