Quest for a new Boise Basque Flag

By A Basque in Boise November 1, 2016 Art, Basque, Basque Community, Diaspora, History, Idaho No Comments

The current initiative is to explore the viability of creating a new Boise Basque flag that would:

1) serve as a unifying symbol for Boise-area Basques,

2) connect us to the region of Bizkaia from where many of our Basque dances originated,

3) relate to the long history of the Basque Country, and

4) also serve as a banner that our non-Basque family and friends can also rally around.

A common ritual in some Basque Country towns during festival time is to bring out the town’s flag for a procession and presentation. Most of these flags date back to medieval times. In particular, a half-dozen towns around Durango in Bizkaia annually perform the Dantzari Dantza with their flags, and these are the dances that were transplanted here that include the Zortziko (kicking dance with eight guys), Txankarrekua (where the solo dancer is lifted up by two other dancers), etc. The idea is to potentially design our own distinctive Boise flag that would serve to connect us with this dance tradition, and the centuries of history behind them in the Basque Country.

An initial idea was to see about potentially incorporating blue and/or green since these are the colors of the Idaho flag and Boise as the City of Trees. This would of course not replace the Ikurrina or Basque flag, but only supplement it. We believe we have some very creative people in our club and beyond, and we were hoping to get some good ideas to develop some proposals.

If you have an idea for a design–or know someone who might–please send that to president@basquecenter.com.