Current Issue of Crux Australis: Issue No. 139

The most recent issue of Crux Australis is No. 139 [Volume 34/3] issued for the period July - September 2021.

The contents are:

SUMMARY 

With around 100 flags, this edition touches a number of intersecting themes - defence, resistance, survival, war – and its atrocities but also noting that we also have the ability once motivated to overcome the firestorms, natural and self-inflicted, and rise again from the ashes like the legendary phoenix. 

Marking the centenary of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is a comprehensive outline of the evolution of its flag and shows how the RAAF's operations in various theatres of the Second World War has been part of the gradual process of adoption of the Australian National Flag in preference to the Union Jack. There is also an explanation of the rank flags and ceremonial associated with the Colours of the Service.

Catastrophic bushfires have led to changes in the coordination of separate services in Victoria, with a new Fire Rescue organisation integrating urban and regional firefighters, with a new flag and insignia.  The Country Fire Authority continues with its community volunteers.   

Fire and flags are usually associated with demonstrations, the flags burned as proxies for the perceived adversary.  The quiz Flags of Fire goes beyond that association, testing knowledge of flags that incorporate in their design the historic, philosophical, religious or positive associations of fire and creative energy – that of the Salvation Army an instance.

From the flag locker are two new UK county flags including one with a boat, which prompts a look at other flags with boats on them (as distinct from the usual association of boats flying flags).  On the same theme of graphic design, a logo in the form of a flag is commended - its message of mutual cooperation cleverly conveyed in the emblems of two flags inspiring another. 

Armenia's simple flag of three colours is testimony to a people’s will to survive through a long and complex history of nation formation from antiquity with periods of subjugation by powerful neighbouring states.  That a sliver of its former heartland survived to finally recover independence in 1991 was an unforseen consequence of Russia's two wars of the 19th Century. Lenin returning Ottoman territory seized in 1878 but not those retained from 1828.  Unwittingly both Tsarist and Soviet Empires provided the "Russian Ark" that Armenians did not seek, but did need.

Jamaican politicians have long considered a transition to a republic, but there is no timeline.  A letter to the editor advocates a republic to fully implement independence from colonialism.  A striking flag was unfurled in 1962, and the story of how the design was arrived at is recounted.

The edition closes with a warning about the kind of flag follies launched (in this case in the UK) for their own sake by politicians resorting to flags as partisan window dressing to create the impression that real progress is happening. 

Commentary by Tony Burton

© 2021

Material Copyright to the Flag Society of Australia Inc and Pennant Advisory Services Pty Limited. Text and illustrations by Ralph Kelly. Web Design by Elizabeth Kelly of ELK Prints.