What does the yellow stripe on the flag of Nauru represent?

The yellow stripe on the flag of Nauru represents the Equator.

Nauru’s flag has a narrow gold stripe running horizontally across a deep-blue field. The stripe symbolizes the Equator, while the white star sits just below it to show Nauru’s geographic position one degree south of the Equator in the Pacific Ocean.

The flag was adopted on 31 January 1968, the day Nauru became independent. Its design was chosen through a local competition and intentionally turns geography into a simple visual diagram: the blue field represents the Pacific Ocean, the gold line represents the Equator, and the star marks the island nation below that line.

The star has twelve points, representing Nauru’s twelve original tribes. Its white color also recalls phosphate, the resource that once dominated Nauru’s economy. The two equal blue areas above and below the stripe have an additional traditional association: they are linked to the story that Nauru’s first inhabitants arrived on Earth from two boulders. The stripe is therefore not a belt, river, or sun; it is a cartographic symbol.