How the Labrador flag came to be: An interview with the designer who helped create it 50 years ago

The Labrador flag is officially 50 years old, and the man who designed it says it was a flag kiosk in Maxville, Ont., and annoyance with former premier Joey Smallwood that inspired the creation. 

“Joey had said, ‘We’re going to have a flag. Newfoundland’s going to have a flag,'” said Mike Martin, a former peacekeeper, first native-born Labrador MHA and designer of the flag.

He asked a vendor selling provincial and district flags at the Maxville Games in the 1970s if he had a flag for Labrador. He didn’t, said Martin, and that gave him the inspiration to design one for himself, which he did, in 1974. And for the past five decades, the flag has become a symbol that resonates with many Labradorians.

He spoke with Krissy Holmes, host of CBC Radio’s On The Go, about the anniversary. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What comes to mind for you when you think about the Labrador flag you designed turning 50 years old this weekend?

A: That’s a long time, 50 years. And who would have thought when I put that thing together? I didn’t have any expectations that it would last so long.

Take us back 50 years ago. Tell us a little bit about what was going on and why you created the Labrador-specific flag.

The concept arose in of all places, eastern Ontario. Annually, there is a big festival in Maxville called Maxville Games. The last time I went, there was all kinds of different things designed by people around the area. One kiosk had all the provincial flags and flags representing districts of the provinces. I asked the vendor, “Do you have a Labrador flag?” And he said “no, never heard of it.” 

I said “OK, that’s what I thought.” So that gave me the green light to go ahead and do it. 

I went home to Cartwright for the Christmas holidays and of course the flag came up so I toyed with various concepts. A couple of guys came in to see what I was doing, and they added their own suggestions, and after I had that basic design finished a couple of other people added. So I put the concepts together but I can’t say I designed the flag. It was done by half a dozen people.

Some people get mixed up with the origins of the flag. They think the flag was made when you drew on the paper or when it got sewn together. I think the making of the flag comes with the design and everything else comes slightly shortly thereafter.

Tell us a little bit more about the meaning of the flag’s elements you selected: the white, the green, the blue, the twig. What did it mean?

It got to represent land and people, the land being the bigger portion. I sat down to draw the background of the flag itself. I had the green for our green land and snow for the white and blue for the water. We wouldn’t survive if we didn’t have the oceans and the lakes and rivers, so that finished the colour on it. 

The black spruce is emblematic of all of Labrador because it grows all over the place. I thought I’ll try to get something that’s not going to be argued about. The black spruce was the best thing I could come up with. I drew in various things to represent the black spruce because it couldn’t just have a skinny old tree up in the corner. I came with the twigs, the annual growth on the branch and they formed a three leaf cluster on every branch and more than one on every branch.

Now here’s where I get the people involved. In no particular order, the leaves will represent the Inuit, the Innu and the white settlers who came in after. So there I have three peoples to represent on the land of our flag.

How did you get people on board with the Labrador flag?

It wasn’t difficult at all, much to my surprise. I had to find a distributor and have it in stock and then be able to sell it. We sponsored the first 50 flags. With the distributor in place and a couple of good advertisements on the radio and the newspapers, we had to get a bunch of flags in stock.

I called a flag maker in Montreal, asked him if he would do it, and he said, “Sure, send me the design,” which I already had prepared to go, and got it out to him. He sent back a sample and I said, “This is it exactly.” 

He sent me in the 50 and we went on from there.

The flag still has not officially been adopted. It’s not an official symbol, but for the people of Labrador it is. How does that sit with you?

It doesn’t bother me at all. It would have to be recognized and made official by the Newfoundland government. And I say “Newfoundland government” because that’s what they are or were in those days.

We did go looking for approval, and I said, “When the flag goes up on enough flagpoles, that’s the approval we want.” It didn’t take long to happen.

It was the people themselves who made the approval for the flag and it will probably never be recognized as official because in official terms, it’s just a district flag. You don’t have to get permission for a district flag, and I’m happy with that.

I’ve heard several people make a relationship with the flag, the design and people. People wonder whether there was anything to do with vexing premier Joey Smallwood. Was that ever a part of the story?

That was the main driver. Joey had said, “We’re going to have a flag. Newfoundland’s going to have a flag.” So the next thing we know, Joey announced that we have a flag and it’s the Union Jack.

I mean, you can’t go and get another country’s flag and say it’s yours. That really got on my nerves and I said, “You want a flag, I’ll give your flag.” 

It didn’t take long.

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