North America

The flag of Sint Maarten is the national flag of Sint Maarten. The flag, designed by 17 year old Roselle Richardson, was officially adopted on 13 June 1985.

The design features a horizontal bi-colour of red and blue with the coat of arms of Sint Maarten on a white chevron, thus incorporating the colors of the Dutch flag. The red symbolizes solidarity and courage, the blue peace and assurance of pardon, and the white purity and faith.

The flag of Sint Eustatius is rectangular with the colors blue, red, white, gold and green, and divided in four five-sided blue polygons, each fimbriated red. In its center is a diamond-form white field; in the diamond is the silhouette of the island in green. In the center in the top of the diamond is a five-pointed golden star.

The flag of Saba was adopted on December 6, 1985 (national day of the island). 130 different designs were presented to the Commission. The chosen flag was designed by an 18-year-old Saban named Edmond Daniel Johnson.

Saba accepted Dutch sovereignty after 1816 and used the Dutch flag. However, since some islanders considered Saba a “republic”, they added a special symbol – a green cabbage — to emphasize their independence, and this symbol was used probably until about the 1920s.

The flag of Bonaire has a large dark blue triangle in the lower right corner and a smaller yellow triangle in the upper left corner. It was adopted on 11 December 1981.

The triangles are separated by a white strip, inside of which is a black compass and a red six-pointed star. The dark blue and yellow triangles represent the sea and sun respectively while the dividing white strip represents the sky. The colors red, white, and blue also show Bonaire’s loyalty to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The black compass represents the population of Bonaire who comes from the four corners of the world.

The red six-pointed star represents the original six villages of Bonaire – Antriol, Nikiboko, Nort Saliña, Playa, Rincon and Tera Korá.

Aruba’s national flag was adopted on March 18, 1976. The design consists of a field of light blue (called “Larkspur”), two narrow parallel horizontal yellow (“Bunting Yellow”) stripes in the bottom half, and a four-pointed white-fimbriated red (“Union Flag red”) star in the canton. The flag was designed in part by vexillologist Whitney Smith.

The four colors and symbols each have significance:

Light Blue signifies the sea that’s surrounding the island of Aruba.