🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea's Independence Day commemorates September 16, 1975, when the country became a fully sovereign nation after being administered by Australia. The date marks the end of colonial rule that began under Germany and Britain before Australia took over administration in the early twentieth century, and the start of Papua New Guinea's life as an independent state within the Commonwealth.
Each September 16, Papua New Guinea marks Independence Day with flag-raising ceremonies, parades, and speeches in Port Moresby and towns across the country. Communities hold sing-sings, gatherings where groups from the country's many cultural and language groups perform traditional dances, music, and dress, reflecting Papua New Guinea's exceptional ethnic diversity. Schools and government offices close, and the national flag, featuring the Southern Cross and a bird of paradise, is displayed throughout the country as part of the day's public celebrations.
Papua New Guinea's path to nationhood combined territories with separate colonial histories: German New Guinea in the north and British-administered Papua in the south, which Australia took over during and after the First World War and later governed as a single territory under a United Nations trusteeship. Independence on September 16, 1975, ended that administration and united the territory's hundreds of distinct language and cultural groups under one sovereign government for the first time. Michael Somare, who led the independence movement, became the nation's first Prime Minister, and the holiday commemorates building a unified state from one of the world's most diverse populations.
Papua New Guinea's national flag, adopted for independence, was designed by a teenager: 15-year-old student Susan Karike won a national design competition in 1971.
Papua New Guinea's independence came amid a broader wave of Pacific decolonization, with neighbors such as Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu also gaining sovereignty from colonial powers during the 1970s and 1980s. Like several of these nations, Papua New Guinea remains a Commonwealth realm, retaining the British monarch as ceremonial head of state even after independence.
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