The former head of the peak Aboriginal body in Australia claims the designer of the Aboriginal flag has already been paid about $200,000 for cultural use of the flag.
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Framlingham's Geoff Clark said when he was chairman of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission during the early 2000s that flag designer Harold Thomas was paid about $200,000 for the rights to use the flag for cultural purposes.
He said there were few bigger cultural purposes than Aboriginals associated with AFL football - one of the true Aboriginal success stories.
Mr Clark claimed that at Alice Springs in the early 1980s Mr Thomas also gave permission for the Federation of Land Councils to use the flag.
"In the early 1980s I was coordinator for that body and Harold Thomas told us 'I am giving you access to the flag'," he said.
"There were a number of high profile witnesses to us being given that permission.
"The land councils were unfunded and Mr Thomas said 'that's how you can make some money'. The offer was made on one occasion and we accepted.
"The flag is community owned. I understand there are some copyright issues, but in terms of its use by Aboriginal people for cultural purposes, that was a right we have paid for and permission was also previously granted."
The use of the Aboriginal flag has become a political football after the designer Mr Thomas sold the clothing rights in 2018 to company WAM for $20,000.
Thomas designed the flag in 1971 as a symbol of the Aboriginal land rights movement.
This year the AFL did not use the Aboriginal flag in any of its marketing or recognition for the indigenous round.
Mr Clark said this week he was in The Grampians.
"The flag is like the rock art up here. It's the rock art of the people, not the individual artist. The person who did the work is representative of the people - our society," he said.
"It's representative of our culture, our spirit. It's something very similar with the flag.
"It's a national symbol, to restrict the use is outrageous. Twice consent to use the flag has been given and accepted.
"The flag represents our struggle. It's a symbol of our spirit, our freedom and of our resistance - how can anyone copyright that?
"Mr Thomas has already been handsomely compensated by the Aboriginal people and there's an argument that it's not his to sell and he certainly can't sell it twice, but that's exactly what he's done."
Mr Clark said the ATSIC deal with Mr Thomas was signed at Lovett Tower in Canberra.
"I signed the paper. That was my role. I was custodian of its use at ATSIC. The Aboriginal people paid for the right to use the flag," he said.
"If the Aboriginal players in the AFL decide to use the flag, if they give permission for the flag to be used for symbolic purposes, then I believe they have that right.
"It's a tool of promotion for all our people. Those rights are held in a communal sense.
"It's a shared resource. That's a principle we live by, it's part of our culture and life and it's highly misunderstood by white Australia."
Mr Clark said Mr Thomas using legal maneuvering through copyright went against everything the flag represented for Aboriginal people.
"A selfish act is now nullifying what the flag stands for and he should reconsider his stance in terms of the cultural use of the flag," he said.
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