Na­tion­al Flag

The na­tion­al flag fea­tures red, white and black colours, sym­bol­is­ing the coun­try’s vi­tal­i­ty and uni­ty.

The na­tion­al flag was de­signed by the In­de­pen­dence Com­mit­tee and se­lect­ed for use as the Na­tion­al Flag in 1962. Its colours are red, white and black.

Red is the colour most ex­pres­sive of our coun­try. It rep­re­sents the vi­tal­i­ty of the land and its peo­ple; it is the warmth and en­er­gy of the sun, the courage and friend­li­ness of the peo­ple.

White is the sea by which these lands are bound: the cra­dle of our her­itage; the pu­ri­ty of our as­pi­ra­tions and the equal­i­ty of all men un­der the sun.

Black rep­re­sents for us the ded­i­ca­tion of the peo­ple joined to­geth­er by one strong bond. It is the colour of strength, of uni­ty, of pur­pose and of the wealth of the land. The colours cho­sen rep­re­sent the el­e­ments Earth, Wa­ter and Fire, which en­com­pass all our past, present and fu­ture and in­spire us as one unit­ed, vi­tal, free and ded­i­cat­ed peo­ple.

The of­fi­cial de­scrip­tion of the Flag reads as fol­lows:

“On a Red Field, a Bend Dex­ter Sable bor­dered Sil­ver; that is to say, there is on the Red Field a di­ag­o­nal from left to right in Black bor­dered with White. The width of the Black and White bands joined side by side at the up­per dex­ter cor­ner of the Flag is one-fifth of the full length of the Flag and the width of each White band is one sixth of the width of the White and Black bands to­geth­er. The width of the Black is there­fore four-sixths of the to­tal width of the White and Black”.

The Black and White di­ag­o­nals must al­ways point to the peak of the staff.

Source: Trinidad & To­ba­go. Min­istry of Home Af­fairs. Our Flag and Oth­er Na­tion­al Em­blems. Trinidad: Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go, 1962.

Coat of Arms

The Coat of Arms is de­pict­ed on all gov­ern­ment doc­u­ments, rep­re­sent­ing the na­tion’s her­itage and iden­ti­ty.

The Coat of Arms was de­signed by a com­mit­tee formed in 1962 to se­lect the sym­bols that would rep­re­sent the peo­ple and her­itage of Trinidad and To­ba­go. The com­mit­tee in­clud­ed not­ed artist Car­lyle Chang and de­sign­er George Bai­ley. The ac­com­pa­ny­ing mo­tifs, which rep­re­sent in­dige­nous as­pects of Trinidad and To­ba­go, were se­lect­ed and for­mal­ly agreed to be used as the Coat of Arms of Trinidad and To­ba­go in 1962, in a de­sign ap­proved by the Col­lege of Arms.

Re­design of the Coat of Arms in 2024

On Au­gust 18, 2024, the then Prime Min­is­ter of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Dr Kei­th Row­ley, an­nounced the fol­low­ing changes to the Coat of Arms dur­ing a spe­cial con­ven­tion:

The re­moval of Christo­pher Colum­bus’ ships, the Pin­ta, Niña and the San­ta Maria, and their re­place­ment with an im­age of the steel­pan, which rep­re­sents our na­tion­al in­stru­ment.

The steel­pan was named the Na­tion­al In­stru­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go through the pas­sage of the Na­tion­al Mu­si­cal In­stru­ment Act 2024.

The birds rep­re­sent­ed on the Coat of Arms of Trinidad and To­ba­go are the Scar­let Ibis (na­tive to Trinidad), the Cocrico (na­tive to To­ba­go) and the Hum­ming­bird.

The fruit­ed co­conut palm dates back to the great seals of British Colo­nial To­ba­go in the days when the is­land was a sep­a­rate ad­min­is­tra­tive unit. The Coat of Arms in­cludes Trinidad and To­ba­go’s mot­to, “To­geth­er We As­pire, To­geth­er We Achieve”, which seeks to pro­mote har­mo­ny in di­ver­si­ty while en­cour­ag­ing na­tion­al achieve­ment.

Cur­rent­ly found on the cur­ren­cy of Trinidad and To­ba­go, gov­ern­ment build­ings and ve­hi­cles, in­clud­ing em­bassies and high com­mis­sions, and of­fi­cial doc­u­ments such as birth cer­tifi­cates, pass­ports and iden­ti­fi­ca­tion cards, the Coat of Arms can on­ly be dis­played in full colour (with all colours con­sis­tent), gold, sil­ver, bronze, or black and white.

It is the seal of the State of the Gov­ern­ment, ar­guably the most im­por­tant of the Na­tion­al Em­blems, and is lo­cat­ed at the top of all gov­ern­ment doc­u­ments. A li­cence must be ac­quired to re­pro­duce and sell the Coat of Arms.

Source: Na­tion­al Sym­bols | The Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Na­tion­al Birds

The Scar­let Ibis and the Cocrico, which are pro­tect­ed by law.

The Scar­let Ibis (Eu­docimus ru­ber) is a neotrop­ic species of ex­ot­ic bird wildlife that is found in the north­ern parts of South Amer­i­ca. The species ranges from the coastal re­gion of Brazil in the south to Colom­bia in the north. The great­est pop­u­la­tion is in Venezuela. Trinidad sits on the con­ti­nen­tal land shelf of South Amer­i­ca, off the coast­line of Venezuela, and, as a re­sult, the birds can be found in the Ca­roni Swamp of cen­tral Trinidad. This beau­ti­ful bird is brown when young, and its colour changes to red when it is ma­ture.

The Cocrico (Ru­fous-vent­ed Chacha­la­ca) is a na­tive of To­ba­go and Venezuela but is not found in Trinidad. It is the on­ly game bird on the is­land and is re­ferred to as the To­ba­go Pheas­ant. It is about the size of a com­mon fowl, brown­ish in colour with a long tail. They go about in flocks of about six, and their quaint calls can be heard es­pe­cial­ly in the ear­ly morn­ing and late evenings. Both birds are pro­tect­ed by law.

Cour­tesy: Gov­ern­ment In­for­ma­tion Ser­vices Ltd.

Na­tion­al Flower

The Dou­ble Cha­co­nia, known for its vi­brant red colour, sym­bol­is­ing the na­tion’s re­silience.

The na­tion­al flower, the Dou­ble Cha­co­nia (Warszewiczia cv ‘David Auy­ong’), is a flam­ing red for­est flower of the fam­i­ly Ru­bi­aceae. The ti­tle is in ho­n­our of the last Span­ish Gov­er­nor of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Don Jose Maria Cha­con. This flower, which is known by its long sprays of mag­nif­i­cent ver­mil­lion, will be in bloom on every an­niver­sary of our In­de­pen­dence. As an in­dige­nous flower, it has wit­nessed our en­tire his­to­ry. It can there­fore be said to rep­re­sent the im­per­isha­bil­i­ty of life and the con­ti­nu­ity of our na­tion. With its colour match­ing the flam­ing red of our Flag and Coat of Arms and bear­ing the same sym­bol­ism, the Cha­co­nia har­monis­es with the oth­er na­tion­al em­blems.

Cour­tesy: Gov­ern­ment In­for­ma­tion Ser­vices Ltd.

Na­tion­al An­them

“To­geth­er We As­pire, To­geth­er We Achieve,” which re­flects the na­tion’s as­pi­ra­tions and uni­ty.

See page ? Patrick S Castagne

The In­de­pen­dence Pledge

By Mar­jorie Pad­more

I solemn­ly pledge

To ded­i­cate my life

To the ser­vice of my God

And my coun­try.

I will ho­n­our

My par­ents, my teach­ers,

My lead­ers and my el­ders

And those in au­thor­i­ty.

I will be Clean and hon­est

In all my thoughts,

My words and my deeds.

I will strive in every­thing I do

To work to­geth­er with my fel­low­men

Of every creed and race

For the greater hap­pi­ness of all

And the ho­n­our and glo­ry

Of my coun­try.

Cour­tesy: The Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion