KANAKY DEVELOPING A NATION IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC

KANAKY:DEVELOPING A NATION

IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC

Donna Winslow

Portraits TOC

Ibegan working in New Caledonia because I was interested incolonialism. I had completed my master’s degree doing field-work in India, where I had become quite fascinated with colo-

nial relations. Studying New Caledonia for my Ph.D. and then inpost-doctoral research gave me the opportunity to examine howthe indigenous Kanak society was engulfed and its developmentsubordinated to the needs of France.

The term “Canaque” was introduced to New Caledonia byPolynesian sailors during the period of early contact withEuropeans, and in the local context it had a pejorative meaningsimilar to that of “nigger” in North America. It was used to refer toall the Melanesian native peoples present in New Caledonia at thetime of contact regardless of their differences; originally there werethirty-two native languages in New Caledonia (twenty-eight arestill spoken today). In the early 1970s the native peoples of NewCaledonia changed the spelling to “Kanak” and this marked thebirth of a Black power-type consciousness.1 The native peopleshave chosen “Kanaky” as the name for their country if it becomesindependent. This represents an inversion and a rejection of colo-nialism.2 I use the spelling “Kanak” to refer to the indigenous peo-ple of New Caledonia from now on.

New Caledonia is located in the Pacific Ocean, 932 miles (1500kilometers) east of Australia and 1,056 miles (1,700 kilometers)north of New Zealand. It comprises one large island—la GrandeTerre—which has a land mass of 10,408 square miles (16,750square kilometers) and several smaller islands—the LoyaltyIslands (Ouvéa, Maré, Lifou, and Tiga), the Bélep Archipelago, theIsle of Pines and Huon Island—which total 1462 square miles (2353square kilometers) for an overall total of 11,870 square miles(19,103 square kilometers).

When New Caledonia was visited by Captain Cook in 1774, hefound the islands occupied by a Melanesian people in small ham-lets scattered along river valleys and the coast. After NewCaledonia was annexed by France in 1853, the development of thecolony became tied to settler colonialism, mineral exploitation,ranching, and the establishment of a penal colony, all necessitatingthe expropriation of large tracts of Kanak land and the subjugationof the Kanak people. The dispossession of the Kanaks permittedthe exploitation of labor, land, and natural resources, all in thename of economic development as conceived by the French state.

New Caledonia was transformed by foreign capital and thegrowth of an imported labor force. Resources were channeled into

3

the production of primary commodities such as nickel for export inexchange for goods and services from France. The local monetaryand banking system was developed with foreign capital to meetthe requirements of the export-import trade. The commercial andfinancial relations between the territory and France stimulated thegrowth of the capitalist sector at the expense of the subsistence sec-tor, with the result that many of the native people became depen-dent on the local European population and on imported goods.

Agriculture and cattle ranching play a minor role in the econo-my of the territory, although an estimated thirty-four percent of thepopulation is still involved in these activities. The domestic pro-duction of maize, wheat, rice sorghum, yams, fruits, and vegeta-bles is insufficient to meet the needs of the population and eachyear the territory imports cereals and other food products.Ranching produces only two percent of the territory’s grossdomestic product yet thirteen percent of La Grande Terre (themain island) is devoted to livestock. This has an important ideolog-ical role in New Caledonia since ranching justified the Europeanoccupation of vast tracks of land claimed by the Kanaks. Ranchinghas been a source of conflict between Europeans and Kanaks sincethe nineteenth century when the Kanaks revolted against settlerencroachment on Kanak land and the devastation of Kanak gardencrops caused by wandering cattle herds.3 But the basis of NewCaledonia’s economy is the nickel industry, which accounts forapproximately eighty percent of the territory’s exports. Untilrecently, the mining sector and most arable land were controlledby European settlers, while the indigenous Kanaks continued to beinvolved in subsistence agriculture. In 1990 the Kanak-controllednorthern province bought a nickel mine and began competing withEuropean dominated mining companies. The profits from nickelproduction have been used to fund other Kanak projects, includingtwo large tourist developments.

The territory continues to rely on subsidies from France to sup-plement local sources of revenue and most of its economic activi-ties have been concentrated in the south, where the capital,Noumea, is located and most inhabitants of European origin live.The production of export commodities (nickel), management ofpublic transfers (aid), and the development of distribution centersfor consumer products are all directed from Noumea.

Because of labor migration from other French-speaking islands(such as Wallis and Futuna, Vanuatu, and French Polynesia) to the

4 PORTRAITS OF CULTURE

territory in the post-World War II era, the Kanaks have nowbecome a minority in their own land. The current demographicprofile of the territory is as follows: on April 4th, 1989, there were164,173 inhabitants. The territory’s population has grown sixty-three percent in twenty years but this evolution has been veryirregular because of the nickel boom in 1976. The Kanaks are thelargest ethnic group with 73,598 people or 44.8 percent of the total.Nearly 34,000 Kanaks are under 18 years old. The Europeans with55,085 (33.6 percent) can be broken down into several groups:Caledonians born in the territory (known as Caldoche), immigrantswho arrived during the 1960s and 1970s, metropolitan French liv-ing in the territory for a limited contract, and retired people. TheCaldoches number about thirty thousand, or eighteen percent ofthe territory’s total population. Seventy-eight out of one hundredinhabitants were born in New Caledonia. The vast majority ofmigrants to the territory are French citizens, which reinforces theterritory’s ties to the metropole.

The territory is divided into three provinces, the South and theNorth (on La Grande Terre) and the Loyalty Islands. Each provincehas an elected Assembly, which is responsible for local economicdevelopment, land reform and cultural affairs. Together, the mem-bers of the Assemblies constitute the territorial Congress, which isresponsible for the territorial budget and fiscal affairs, infrastruc-ture, and primary education. Local government is conducted bythirty-two municipalities.

New Caledonia has been a colony of France since 1853 and,along with French Polynesia, it is a strategic part of France’s SouthPacific empire. Since the 1970s the Kanaks have been engaged in astruggle for independence from French rule. In the 1980s this fightled to losses of life for the Kanak community, the French militaryand police, and the European settlers. In an effort to avoid civilwar, France’s Prime Minister, Michel Rocard, brought togethermembers of the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak Socialiste(FLNKS) a coalition of the Kanak political parties that favors inde-pendence from France and the Rassemblement pour la Calédonie dansla République, the settler-dominated conservative political partythat favors retaining a relationship with France (RPCR) to decidethe future of the territory. The results of these negotiations areknown as the “Matignon Accords” and they herald a ten-year“peace period” during which the French government will attemptto redress the socioeconomic inequalities in the territory, particu-

KANAKY 5

larly by promoting development and training programs in Kanakcommunities. In 1998, at the end of this ten-year period, NewCaledonians will be asked to choose between independence andstaying within the French Republic.

KANAK SOCIETY

AT THE TIME OF CONTACT

Captain Cook was surprised one September morning in 1774 tofind a group of islands that had eluded discovery by Magellan in1520 and Bougainville in 1768. The steep green valleys and cascad-ing waterfalls reminded Cook of the coastline of Scotland and henamed the place New Caledonia. The main island of La GrandeTerre was formed from forces pushing the mineral-laden land tothe surface thirty million years ago. The surrounding LoyaltyIsland atolls were built from layer upon layer of coral deposited onextinct subsurface volcanoes. The potential mineral wealth in theislands did not escape notice. One of Cook’s companions noted:“We are persuaded that there are precious metals in these isles.”4

Captain Cook’s comrades also noticed the large variety ofplant species, of which eighty percent were native to the islandsand twenty percent imported by the first human settlers.According to the archaeological record, the earliest ancestors of theKanaks came to New Caledonia from Southeast Asia between fiveand six thousand years ago. There was also settlement from otherparts of Melanesia—particularly from the Solomon Islands andVanuatu. These early settlers brought with them slash-and-burnagriculture, irrigation techniques, a polished stone tool complex,pottery, and double-pontoon sailing craft in addition to medicinalplants, food crops—yams, taros, sugarcane, breadfruit, coconut—and trees whose bark could be used as fabric.

In 1774, Captain Cook estimated that there were sixty thou-sand natives on La Grande Terre and other sources guess that therewere another twenty thousand in the Loyalty Islands at that time.Regardless of the actual numbers, it is clear that every part of theislands was claimed or occupied by the local population. Theywere settled in inland and coastal communities comprised ofround, separate-sex thatched huts, rectangular collective kitchens,


oblong meetinghouses, and various shaped ateliers. Each womanhad her own hut where she raised her small children. These struc-tures were built alongside one large central dwelling, used as ameeting place by the chief and adult males, erected on a raisedmound with a central alleyway lined with coconut palms and trop-ical pines leading up to it and two smaller alleyways flanking it.The central alleyway served as a collective ceremonial ground foractivities such as public speeches and yam redistribution, while thesmaller alleyways were used for more intimate rituals, such as cer-emonial exchanges of shell money. It was this social space of fami-ly residences, agricultural lands, water channels, and hunting andgathering territories that formed the basis for ritual, economic,political, and social action in traditional times.

Depending on the region, the nuclear or the polygamous fami-ly was the basic production unit with neighbors and allies beingcalled in to help according to the size of the task. The division oflabor occurred according to gender and age, and work was orga-nized according to a ritual, seasonal calendar overseen by clanelders. Yams were considered “noble” and used in ceremonialexchanges; it was the yam’s annual cycle that established therhythm of the Kanak year. Fishing was a regular activity for settle-ments by the sea and on riverbanks. In the forest Kanaks gatheredfruit, nuts, and palm tree buds. Both men and women huntedseafood individually and collectively using spears, lines, and nets.Men hunted what animal life there was—birds, bats and rats—with spears, built huts and boats, and looked after yam production,irrigation works and heavy agricultural duties. It was CaptainCook who introduced pigs and dogs to the islands and otherEuropeans introduced a variety of plant and animal species includ-ing deer and cattle. Kanak women collected wood and water,looked after children, and did the repetitive agricultural choressuch as weeding. Men worked with stone and wood, making toolsand weapons, and women worked with clay and plant fibers, mak-ing pots, mats, baskets, and fiber skirts.

Traditionally, each local community was integrated into a larg-er political and geographical system of alliance and exchange.Ceremonial exchanges reinforced families’ social and politicalidentity vis-à-vis one another. For example, maternal and paternalkin group relations were defined by the ceremonial exchanges sur-rounding birth, marriage and death. In addition to ceremonialexchanges, trade occurred between villages on the coast and thosein the interior mountain chain. Seafood (including salted, smoked

KANAKY 7

and fresh fish) was traded in a ritualized fashion for taros, yams,and wild plants from the mountains. Inland settlements cultivatedseveral varieties of banana, yam, and taro using elaborate irriga-tion methods.

The nuclear family was incorporated into an extended family(usually three generations deep), lineage, and clan that did not rep-resent territorial groups but rather successively larger patrilinealunits sharing the same rites and symbols and the same marriagecustoms based on clan exogamy, patrilocality, and marriage toclassificatory cross-cousins. Elders, the heads of lineages, wereseen as the guardians of the social and symbolic relations that unit-ed families into communal and regional political alliances. Juniorlineages owed “service” to elder ones and conversely the eldershad responsibilities towards the junior lineages just as adults wereresponsible for the well-being of the children.

Each person traced his or her line to the last known livingpaternal male relative (usually ascending through three genera-tions) and collaterally to the descendants of father’s father’s broth-er and his descendants. Beyond that, genealogy was expressed spa-tially. Extended families were parts of wider groups of affiliation(lineages and clans) by reference to a common place (homesteadmound) of origin. These homestead sites referred to the raisedmounds in ancient settlements where the large central dwelling,used by the chief and adult males, was erected.

The clan reference point was the clan homestead moundfounded by the clan ancestor and each clan knew its history overmultiple generations marked by a succession of occupied sites/mounds. The history of each clan described a long series of dis-placements; within each clan, the lineages were ranked hierarchi-cally according to the antiquity of their first residence in the itiner-ary of the clan. The clan history, which is still recited at festivals, isthe song of the march beginning with the homestead mound/siteof origin and describing the journeys of each branch of the clan.This establishes the legitimacy of each lineage in the social orderand their name is that of the first site occupied by the lineageancestor. Social status and land are allotted according to one’sname, but names were not always hereditary. A child couldreceive, from clan elders, the name of an extinct lineage or a lin-eage which had no male inheritors so that its name might continue.

One could also get access to land through marriage. That is, aman could seek a mate and land from his mother’s family, hismother’s mother’s family or his father’s mother’s family. Strangers


were often welcomed by the offering of wives which then allowedthem to establish themselves in the region. In times of conquest,the conquering group would take wives and go on to occupy landin the conquered area.

Land also had the qualities of life and death. Clan myths of ori-gin describe ancestors that were born from rocks, trees, springs, ora raindrop on a leaf. But Kanaks also speak of the land as the fleshof the dead. In ancient burial practices the dead were exposed tothe open air, placed in trees or in grottos and the clan ancestorsthus returned to the land. This unites the clan to the land symboli-cally and in perpetuity so that when a clan leaves a territory, itmaintains a spiritual link to its site of origin.

A chief was responsible for the relations with the ancestors ofthe land and for maintaining good relations between the clan andthe forces of the universe. He was a form of living calendar; theregulator of the agrarian cycle. Ceremonial planting was done inhis fields to mark the beginning of each season and he was a piv-otal point in a complex exchange network and essential to the ritu-al life of the society. Chiefs received a part of the first yam harvest,and a certain portion of all the animals and fish caught. Some haveseen these offerings as a type of tribute but in fact the chief quicklyredistributed these offerings and sometimes even supplementedthe redistribution with food from his own garden. A chief had noindividual power over the land. He was the link to the ancestorsbut on his own he was powerless and could be replaced if he didnot maintain the link effectively. If there were bad harvests andfamines he was seen as being responsible and could be banished orkilled by the clan elders.

In the eighteenth century, contact with traders, although limit-ed and sporadic, did have some effect on Kanak society. Whalerswere among the first to use Kanaks as ships’ crew and shore labor-ers. Charles Pigeard reported in 1846 that every English vessel hesaw in New Caledonian waters had Loyalty Island crew members.5

During the sandalwood boom, ships’ captains were quick to takeadvantage of native labor to cut and carry sandalwood to thebeaches and to provide crews for ships and longboats. As a result,there was the gradual adoption of new techniques of production(metal tools and the organization of labor which accompaniedthem), new weapons (guns, knives etc.), new food habits such asalcohol consumption, and new methods of exchange withEuropeans. But Kanak society did not change much until the mid-nineteenth century, when France made New Caledonia a colony.

KANAKY 9

THE COLONIAL PERIODPolitical Domination

When New Caledonia was annexed by France in 1853, sovereigntyover the land passed from the Kanaks to the French who believedthat “The uncivilized inhabitants of a country have over that coun-try only a limited right of domination, a sort of right of occupa-tion…. A civilized power on establishing a colony in such a coun-try, acquired a decisive power over the soil, or, in other terms, sheacquires the right to extinguish the primitive title.”6

In 1868, a system of native reserves was set up in NewCaledonia based on the concept of communal property. Land wasno longer held individually by families, but collectively by a unitartificially defined by the administration. The French governorcould define tribal territory and regulate native affairs concerningland. Traditional Kanak property rights could now be administra-tively overridden. Reserve boundaries could be easily modified bythe administration. The governor also had the power to apply dis-ciplinary measures such as fines, prison, and confiscation of prop-erty, and could even impose collective sanctions on a tribe if hewished.7

In 1878 an insurrection broke out against the French presence.Although there had been skirmishes before, this was the first con-certed attempt by the Kanaks to rid their islands of the French. Thecentral groups of La Grande Terre formed the core of the rebellionand fought from the beginning to the bitter end. As MauriceLeenhardt, the famous French missionary ethnologist, pointed out,it was the central groups who had suffered the greatest effect ofcolonialism and who had the greatest contact with white society.Following the brutal suppression of the revolt, the Frenchembarked on a cleanup campaign. Any village suspected of havingsupported the revolt was burned to the ground and the landsexpropriated. Captured rebels were executed or deported to neigh-boring islands. The remaining Kanaks were herded into over-crowded, infertile reserves. Although approximately twenty-onehectares per person are required for the traditional Kanak systemof crop rotation, the reserves were calculated at three hectares perperson.8 Whereas only 2105 acres (852 hectares) had been takenfrom the natives by 1859, a total of 65,976 acres (26,700 hectares) ofnative land were expropriated by 1882.9


In a colonial system the colony has certain resources that areuseful to the colonizer. New Caledonia had not only economicinterests for France but strategic ones as well.10 Its remote locationmade it well suited for a penal colony, and convicts and politicaldeportees from Algeria, France, Morocco, and Tunisia began arriv-ing in 1864. The convicts far outnumbered the settlers. For exampleof 15,500 Europeans in New Caledonia in 1875, 10,500 were con-victs.11 They provided an important source of labor for the growingcolony, draining the land for the establishment of the territory’scapital, Noumea, building roads, setting up telegraph lines, andworking for settlers as agricultural laborers.

In the late 1890s the flow of convicts to New Caledonia wasstopped in order to permit French families to settle in the territoryand take up agricultural production. To replace the convicts, con-tract laborers from outside the country were brought in for the set-tlers and the growing nickel industry. Native labor was also usedby the settlers. The French administration played a key role inrecruiting Kanak labor and it enlisted Kanak chiefs’ cooperation byoffering them a tenth of the salaries of the workers they supplied.12

If the chiefs refused to supply laborers, they were imprisoned untilthey complied.13 The French governor also reorganized nativeadministration; the Kanaks were resettled onto reserves underauthorities who worked closely with local chiefs to supply nativelaborers for the colony.14

The Kanak population declined, because of epidemics, theaftermath of the revolt, and a low birth rate, from an estimatedsixty thousand at first contact to twenty-seven thousand. TheFrench colonial governor used the demographic decline as anexcuse to expropriate even more land. Kanak reserves were thusreduced from 790,720 acres (320,000 hectares) to 296,520 acres(120,000 hectares). Some reserves disappeared altogether and thedisplaced clans were grouped together in new areas.15 In 1887, cur-fews were established and the Kanaks were not allowed to leavethe reserves except for work. They were required to do compulsorylabor on roads and other public works, and through the levy of ahead tax, natives were obliged to work for the settlers. The headtax came into effect in 1900 (the decree was passed in 1895) andapplied to all males. To pay off the tax, the Kanaks had little choicebut to work for the settlers. According to Doumenge, the tax wasequivalent to ten days of labor for a settler.16

Refusal to work, or “insubordination,” resulted in sentencingto prison and fines or confiscation of property, or both. Acts

KANAKY 11

against “public security” were punished with up to ten years inprison and confiscation of property. The prisoners worked from5:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. breaking stones for roads. If they were ill, thetime spent in the infirmary was not counted towards their sen-tence, which they continued serving once cured.17 A Kanak couldbe sent to prison and/or fined for refusing to give information togovernment agents or for a disrespectful attitude towards a repre-sentative of French authority.18

The aim of the colonial regime was to supply a regular andcontrolled labor force to the settlers, although the overt ideologywas to “protect” the Kanaks. For example, Kanaks were limited toonly ten hours of work a day. However, building maintenance, car-ing for livestock, and domestic service were not considered work.So the Kanaks had to put in their regular ten hours plus severalhours of “nonwork”.

After World War II, the French government liberalizedFrance’s colonial policy—although it did not relinquish control ofthe territory—and forced labor was abolished. By 1951 someKanaks were enfranchised and universal suffrage was introducedin 1956 when a Socialist government in France began to decentral-ize administrative power in the overseas territories. In other Frenchcolonies, this was a prelude to independence. In New Caledonia, aTerritorial Assembly and a Governing Council were established.France still appointed senior government personnel and retainedpower over the colony’s important resources, such as nickel.

Nevertheless, universal suffrage changed the relations of polit-ical power in the territory, and the Kanaks did not wait long to usetheir new political leverage for land claims. From the beginning,the Kanak entry into the political arena was tied to land claims.Kanak demands to extend their reserves, which were based on areal need for space due to increasing population, soon became away to repossess lands lost earlier. According to Saussol it was arevenge on history and a concrete expression of a Kanak renais-sance.19

The enlargements to the reserves were as imprecise and hap-hazard as the original delimitations. The Administration, whichstill refused to recognize individual family property, gave the landcollectively to the entire reserve community. This heterogeneousaggregate of clans and lineages thrown together by colonial cir-cumstance was supposed to distribute the land among the reservemembers “according to their needs.” Conflicts arose among theKanaks who, because of the lack of recognition of individual fami-


ly property, were unable to activate traditional mechanisms of landcontrol and redistribution. Moreover, the Kanaks were mostlyexcluded from the developing territorial economy; they continuedto work mostly as peasants and as laborers.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, France needed the French set-tlers in New Caledonia to keep control; and the settlers neededFrance to preserve their privileges against the Kanaks. A 1963 revi-sion of the Territorial Statute divided power between the localFrench settlers and France. Effective power lay with the HighCommissioner, his secretary-general, and the army and police.Paris controlled the budget, appointed officials, and supervised allterritorial development.

Things began to change in the 1970s when the first group ofKanak students returned home from French universities. This wasa very significant time in the development of the Kanak indepen-dence movement because the French student movement of 1968influenced the development of Kanak political consciousness. Agroup of young educated Kanaks began to raise questions concern-ing land rights, the place of Kanak language and culture in theeducational system, and the right to publish Kanak language news-papers, which were forbidden as “subversive” by the colonialadministration. (In 1969 a Kanak high chief was arrested and jailedfor “inciting racial hatred” by distributing pamphlets in a vernacu-lar language.) These acts led to the creation of an independencemovement.

In the early 1970s when the Kanak independence movementwas forming, the Kanak demands for autonomy concerned sover-eignty over the land and recognition of Kanak cultural identity.The inequality of land ownership in New Caledonia was blatant.Less than 1000 European settlers owned 914,270 acres (370,000hectares) and half of this land belonged to fewer than 40 families.In comparison, 60,000 Kanaks were on 407,715 acres (165,000hectares) of reserve and 24,710 acres (10,000 hectares) of privateproperty. European holdings had increased by 247,100 acres(100,000 hectares) between 1945 and 1976 while the reserves hadgrown by only 88,956 acres (36,000 hectares).20 The territory wasbecoming polarized into two irreconcilable communities with littleknowledge or contact with each other, “each with a vision for thefuture of New Caledonia, each appealing to a different historicalbasis for the right to political power.”21

In 1975 and 1976 the land problem on the reserves became crit-ical because of the economic crisis in the territory precipitated by

KANAKY 13

falling world nickel prices and an ensuing recession. Young, unem-ployed Kanaks returned to the reserves to find that there was noland for them. In 1976 the Kanaks asked the French government torecognize their land rights and their right to more land. The gov-ernment undertook a land reform project in order to “equilibratethe unbalance between Kanak and European land ownership.” It isimportant to note that the reform did not question European pres-ence on Kanak lands, and therefore European ownership was nottouched. Moreover, the revision of the territorial statute in 1976intensified France’s control of the “democratic” institutions inorder to “protect” them from mounting Kanak nationalism. Francestill appointed the High Commissioner and senior officials of theadministration; and it retained formal responsibility for foreignaffairs, defense, external communications, finance and credit, jus-tice, local government, secondary and tertiary education, and radioand television.

Other matters—primary education, health, transport, agricul-ture, and land—were territorial matters, but the territory lackedthe finance, staff, and authority to provide more than routineadministration. Any major new departure—land reform, for exam-ple—required elaborate coordination with Paris, visits each way bypoliticians, and months of planning in addition to financing fromFrance.22 In 1978 a new secretary of state for Overseas Departmentsand Territories was appointed and he soon developed a land poli-cy embedded in a comprehensive plan “for long term-social andeconomic development.” He tried to steer a course between settlerand Kanak demands while reasserting French authority. He stated,“It is the government of France who will command,” and askedthat people forego independence for ten years and work activelywith France since, “Who could be unaware that only France couldsupport real reforms both by her will and by her means?”23

By the 1980s the Kanaks were still concentrated on the eastcoast while the Europeans controlled the more fertile lands on thewest coast. The Kanak holdings were cramped between miningconcessions, state forests, and European farms and ranches.Demanding the return of ancestral lands was also a way of recov-ering and affirming group identity. Kanak clans wanted a return oftheir ancestral sites—the sacred places where their clans began. Tothese traditional claims a political dimension was added: The totalrecovery of ancestral lands became a prime objective of the inde-pendence movement. Kanak militancy began to mount. InSeptember 1984 the FLNKS was formed out of various groups


seeking independence. The FLNKS formed a provisional govern-ment and mobilized a boycott of the territorial elections inNovember.

In January 1985 the Socialist government in France elaboratedits plan for “Independence—Association,” which offered sover-eignty to the Kanaks and firm economic and political guarantees tothe European settlers. Land contracts, leases and concessionswould be established to guarantee use of the land, and Kanak first-ownership was recognized. In the case of mining, compensationwould be ensured.24 Economic, social and cultural reforms wereproposed in order to alleviate the growing disparities between theunderdeveloped, largely Kanak countryside and the wealthy,European-dominated urban capital of Noumea. Regional councilswere to be elected and given responsibility for economic develop-ment, primary education, land reform, agricultural development,and so on.

But the plan ran into difficulties. There were killings on bothsides. The death of a settler youth led to right-wing riots and theFrench police killed the Independence leader Eloi Machero. A stateof emergency was declared and the Socialist plan for the territorywas modified; for example, plans to build a strategic naval basewere revealed. Nevertheless, the regional elections went ahead andthe FLNKS won control of three out of four regions.25 They began aprogram of “green revolution,” that is, grassroots participation indevelopment.

The Conservative government elected in France in March 1986began eroding the powers of the institutions established under theprevious Socialist government. The regional councils were strippedof their powers which were then centralized in the office of theFrench High Commissioner. By the end of 1987 the territory haderupted into violence—roadblocks, gun battles, and the destructionof property, which culminated in a dramatic hostage-taking on theeve of the Presidential elections in France when proindependencemilitants on the island of Ouvéa killed four policemen and tooktwenty-seven people hostage. The Kanaks wanted a mediator anda timetable for independence. The military response was swift andbrutal. The island was occupied and nineteen Kanaks died in themilitary assault staged to rescue the hostages.

In May 1988, François Mitterand became President of France.In an effort to avoid further bloodshed, France’s new prime minis-ter, Michel Rocard, brought together members of the FLNKS andthe RPCR to decide the future of the territory. The result of these

KANAKY 15

negotiations is known as the “Matignon Accords.” The Territorywas divided into three regions—northern, southern and islands—and the Kanaks now have control of the predominantly rural north-ern and islands regions, where they represent the majority of thepopulation. One of the most interesting aspects of the accords is thedecentralization of bureaucratic structures and government servicesso as to better serve the more remote northern and islands regions,and the gradual removal of more than four thousand French publicservants. Priority will be given to the training of Kanak civil ser-vants, police officers, judges, doctors, teachers, nurses, and so on.

Economic Domination: The Role of Nickel

With the discovery of nickel in the late nineteenth century, themining industry began to dominate the colony, leading to severedistortions in the local economy.26 A colonial society is imbalanced.Certain sectors are exploited and developed by the colonizer whilethe rest of the society remains underdeveloped. Moreover, devel-opment is often based on extractive and environmentally damag-ing activities that impede sustainable development.

The territory’s economy is heavily dependent on nickel pro-duction and the industry’s boom and bust cycle has shaped NewCaledonia’s development. Following the discovery of significantnickel deposits in 1873, a nickel rush occurred between 1874 and1877. Finding few other areas of economic growth, mining began toassume a much more important place in the colonial economy.Some six hundred thousand tons of nickel were mined in NewCaledonia between 1873 and 1900. As the industry continued togrow between 1900 and 1923, New Caledonian nickel productionamounted to over three million tons. In 1920, nickel and chromiteaccounted for forty-seven percent of New Caledonia’s exports byvalue, but the depression of the early 1930s caused a severe crisisin the mining sector as demand and prices dropped sharply. Theadvent of World War II seriously disrupted the New Caledonianeconomy. However, the arrival of American forces during the warled to an abrupt change, producing an unprecedented economicboom. Among those who profited most from the American occu-pation were the mining companies, since export duties were sus-pended and prices for nickel and chromite soared. Demand andthe price of nickel increased sharply in 1952, after the outbreak of


the Korean War, and the nickel market remained relatively healthyfor the next ten years or so. The nickel boom came to an end in1972, with a downturn in the world market in the face of oversup-ply and declining demand.27 When the nickel industry went intorecession, the effects in New Caledonia were devastating: unem-ployment, social unrest, and economic stagnation.

Nickel is certainly “an affair of state” in New Caledonia.During the 1960s, French authorities made constant reference tojust how important they considered New Caledonia’s nickel indus-try to be for France: “…it was a primary reason for France retain-ing control of the territory.”28 Thus, in a 1965 speech, President deGaulle of France stated that the French state should retain controlover the nickel industry “in order to preserve French independencein the world economic system.”29

Such statements were accompanied by direct involvement inthe mining industry by the French government. Government regu-lation of the industry was formalized in January 1969, with enact-ment of laws which gave the French Ministry of Industry power toauthorize mining and to set mineral export quotas for NewCaledonia. By 1974, the French government had acquired a fiftypercent interest in the Société le Nickel (SLN), the territory’s largestnickel company, through the Société Nationale Elf-Aquitaine(SNEA). The other half remained with IMETAL, which was largelyin the hands of the Banque Rothschild and the Banque del’Indochine et de Suez (which held a monopoly on credit incolony). When these banks were nationalized the French govern-ment became the owner of the SLN and thus a major player in theterritory’s nickel industry. Controlling New Caledonia assuresFrance a regular supply of nickel, which is now considered a“strategic mineral” since it is an essential element in the produc-tion of weapons, electronics, aircraft, and nuclear energy, let alonecar bumpers and beer cans. By its continued presence in NewCaledonia, France reduces its dependence on foreign sources andhas control of a large proportion of world nickel reserves.

Nickel extraction destroys the natural vegetation and stripsaway the surface layer of soil, leading to severe erosion on thesteep slopes of the mining areas. In less than one hundred years,110 million tons of ore have been extracted, resulting in a mass ofwaste at least five times greater by weight, between 220 and 280million cubic meters at the very least.30 This mining waste has hada serious impact on New Caledonia’s natural environment. Nickeldeposits are located in the upper portions of mountain masses.

KANAKY 17

These mountains are extremely rugged, with few natural sites fordisposal of tailings. With very steep sides right to the foot of themountains, tracks and roads are difficult to establish and loosematerials cannot stay in place. Roadworks, access tracks hastilybulldozed out to mining or prospecting sites, have also made forintense erosion. The scraping away of the surface earth, which isnecessary to reach the ore, destroys the vegetation, and the surfaceis all the more vulnerable to erosion by seasonal rains andcyclones. When there is a spell of dry weather, heavy dust is pro-duced by mining operations, especially by the haulage trucks. Upin the mine, this dust is detrimental to workers’ health and securi-ty. Down in the plains, it affects dwellings and farms. Pasturelands become less fertile one hundred to two hundred meters oneither side of the road and cattle shun these areas.31

Huge amounts of loose materials have been washed into thevalleys by water, clogging the streams and causing flooding in themajor river beds and the fertile agricultural lands of the valleys.The dumping of waste into the natural drainage system spreadspollution down to the marine baseline. The accumulation of fineearth particles washed into the sea, especially during heavy rains,damages the coastal flora and fauna. According to Dupon, “theexistence, around the main island, of a barrier reef enclosing one ofthe largest lagoons in the world has heightened the risk of environ-mental damage by allowing continental deposits to accumulate ingenerally calm and shallow waters.”32 In the 1980s geographersBird, Dubois, and Iltis noted that compared to other mining areaselsewhere in the world, “the impact of open cast hilltop mining inNew Caledonia has been exceptionally severe and extensive.”33

According to Dupon, New Caledonia offers a “spectacular exampleof environmental damage resulting from intense and uncontrolledmineral exploitation.”34

Apart from the civil service, the nickel industry is one of theterritory’s largest employers, hiring approximately three thousandskilled and semiskilled laborers. The Kanak labor force in themines is predominantly male, thus reinforcing a sexual division oflabor where women stay on the reserves with the children or workas domestics in the homes of the Europeans while the men workoutside for salaries. However, work in the mines does assure ahigher standard of living than work in agriculture.35 As early as1969 the national census bureau had noticed that the revenue of aKanak family living in a mining zone was three times higher thanthat of one living in an agricultural zone.36 In addition to the higher


income, families of wage earners in mining benefit from familyallowances. Through this system, a father of a large family candouble his income. There is an extra financial reward if only oneperson of the couple works. This, too, encourages women to stay inthe domestic sphere in order to qualify for the additional revenue.37

It is often the case that the only real source of family income is theallowance checks, because the men spend their salaries on conspic-uous consumption.

The productivity of labor in agricultural activities, that is, theamount of wealth produced in one hour of labor, does not allowthe agricultural sector to compete with mining. Under these condi-tions young men have little desire to obtain anything other thanmine jobs.38 In addition, because elders and women are responsiblefor the subsistence agriculture, the young men can wait, unem-ployed, on the reserve for jobs to open in the mine. “We practice aform of social welfare with our young people. But what to do? Wecan’t throw them off the reserve and let them join the ranks ofunemployed bums in Noumea.”39

Limited Potential for Development

The economy of New Caledonia is composed of four sectors: nickelmining, smelting and export tied to international capital; commer-cial activities based on importation of goods (particularly con-sumer goods) and services; petty market production based onimport substitution; and public transfers. As noted earlier, NewCaledonia’s dependency on the production of nickel as its singlemost important export product makes the territory particularlyvulnerable to fluctuations in the world market. Let us now exam-ine the import sector and public transfers, which are two majorblocks to development and economic self-sufficiency.

According to Freyss,40 the economic system of New Caledoniarests on the two pillars of imports and public transfers, which actto support each other and create an impasse to any form of viabledevelopment. Massive public transfers from France maintain anartificially inflated economy and a bloated public sector. The highsalaries of the French civil servants41 and military personnel sta-tioned in New Caledonia plus the benefits they receive for beingstationed abroad create a large consumer group centered in theurban area of greater Noumea. This situation is advantageous for

KANAKY 19

the European merchants of Noumea, who specialize in catering tothe tastes of this consumer group; it has become more advanta-geous to import goods from France than to produce them locally.42

Moreover, the groups engaged in commercial activities are notstrongly integrated into the rest of the territory’s economy, particu-larly the subsistence sector, which they often perceive as a burden.This lack of economic integration and the relegation of certain eth-nic groups to specific sectors of employment (e.g., Kanaks to blue-collar jobs, Europeans to management positions) only increases thesense of difference between the social classes.43

Public transfers to New Caledonia have increased dramaticallysince 1960. Of the gross domestic product, public transfers repre-sented 7.4 percent in 1960, 9 percent in 1965, 9.9 percent in 1970,14.4 percent in 1975, 23.7 percent in 1979, and 31 percent in 1981.Freyss estimates that, currently, public transfers are about thirty-five percent of gross domestic product.44 New Caledonia’s economyis becoming more imbalanced, more dependent on public transfers,and more unable to develop a local productive base. France pumpsmillions in aid into the New Caledonian economy every year.According to our calculations, the average aid per capita for theSouth Pacific region in 1988 was 244 U.S. dollars. In comparison,New Caledonia received 1,592 U.S. dollars in aid per capita, over sixtimes the regional average. Imagine the impact of withdrawing1,592 U.S. dollars annual aid per capita from New Caledonia wherethe average annual income is 5,470 U.S. dollars. Compound thiswith the fact that virtually the sole source of aid to New Caledoniais France and we have a serious dependency situation. The highstandard of living to which many New Caledonians are accustomedis thus tied to French aid and continuing French assistance.

Social and Racial Segregation

Contact is limited between natives and colonizers in a colonial sys-tem, often following the “color line.” The division is reproduced inall areas of colonial life—for example, in the city’s white and blackneighborhoods. Social and recreational activities between ethniccommunities are almost nonexistent. The colonizer does not learnnative languages and depends upon local intermediaries to controland organize the natives. This limits communications between thecolonizers and the colonized and increases the social distance


between them. Thus, the colony becomes an atomized society.New divisions emerge between ethnic communities, for example,between Catholics and Protestants or among different Protestantsects. Paradoxically the native is forced to breach the gap, learningthe language and ways of the colonizer in order to survive. It is thisknowledge that often permits the colonized to formulate and artic-ulate concepts of equality, freedom, and respect for human rights.

In New Caledonia this situation has historical origins datingback to the last century when different ethnic groups were import-ed to the territory as contract laborers. While Kanak labor was usedprimarily for public works and in agriculture, the colony usedmainly immigrant contract labor in the nickel mines. It was theNew Caledonian immigration bureau that negotiated on behalf ofthe settlers and miners with the administrations of neighboringcountries for contract laborers. New Caledonia became an ethnicmosaic of contract laborers, French settlers, and Kanaks.45

In 1892 the first group of six hundred Japanese contract labor-ers arrived to work for the French mining company Société leNickel and, according to official records, 6,880 Japanese arrived inNew Caledonia between 1892 and 1919, when the immigrationstopped.46 Indonesian (primarily Javanese) laborers were alsorecruited for the expanding nickel industry and for the large agri-cultural (particularly coffee) plantations. The number of Javaneseworkers in New Caledonia reached a peak of 7,602 in 192947 andaccording to Dornoy there were 7,735 Indonesians in the territoryin 1939.48 The Javanese were the most popular laborers and wereconsidered the most “docile, orderly, and adaptable.”

New Caledonian authorities also recruited under contract alarge number of people from the French colony that is nowVietnam. This flow of laborers soon became a flood, and by 1929the 14,535 Vietnamese in New Caledonia outnumbered theEuropean population.49 The depression of the early 1930s put anend to the labor traffic between Vietnam and New Caledonia.Many Vietnamese were repatriated, and on the eve of World WarII only 3,471 Vietnamese laborers remained; in the postwar period,most remaining Vietnamese were repatriated.50

Colonial policy functioned to keep the different ethnic groupsdistinct. They lived in separate areas, worked in separate jobsunder separate conditions, and lived under different laws. TheKanaks were restricted to the rural reserves and allowed out onlyfor work. In 1936, only 732 Kanaks had been granted permission tolive and work in Noumea.51 The immigrant laborers were working

KANAKY 21

under contract mainly in the mines and urban centers. TheEuropeans were concentrated in Noumea.

The settlers continued to increase their demand for tribal landafter World War I, and at first the administration complied, legaliz-ing settler encroachment on native reserves and recruiting nativelabor for the settlers. But as the Kanak demographic decline cameto a halt and their numbers began to increase, the administrationbegan to encourage the Kanaks to remain on the reservations andincrease agricultural output. Given that most of the infrastructurewas in place and required mainly maintenance work, some Kanaklabor could be released for agriculture. Coffee production wasespecially emphasized, since coffee had not been a success with theEuropean settlers even though the climate was favorable. The agri-cultural economy was thus divided into Kanak producers, whowere primarily involved in subsistence agriculture supplementedwith some coffee and copra production, and non-Kanak producersinvolved primarily in commercial production in large cattle sta-tions and market gardens.52

The heavy dependence on nickel emphasized the growingdualism in the colonial system—the separation between the rich,white, urban export-oriented sector and the poor, Kanak, rural sub-sistence sector. Nowhere is this clearer than in Noumea the capital.Noumea is the third largest city in the Pacific islands (after PortMoresby in Papua New Guinea and Suva in Fiji) and it is the onlycity where most inhabitants are Europeans. The capital containseighty percent of the Europeans, ninety percent of the Polynesiansand eighty-five percent of the Asians living in New Caledonia.Noumea produces two-thirds of the territory’s exports. Tourism,which is New Caledonia’s second most important industry aftermining, also is concentrated in the capital with its international air-port, hotels, shops, casinos, race track, sports facilities, and ClubMed.

In the 1980s, a European Noumean earned an average of 7,870U.S. dollars while the average annual income of a rural Kanak was1,050 U.S. dollars.53 Disparities in income were reflected in dispari-ties in health. Kanak age specific death rates were double those ofEuropeans, and the infant mortality rate was more than twice ashigh.54 In the 1980s ninety-one percent of the top supervisory andprofessional positions and seventy-three percent of the intermedi-ate professional positions were held by Europeans, compared withfour percent and eighteen percent for the Kanaks. Similarly,Europeans comprised 91 percent of the engineers and managers in


the private sector, and the Kanaks 1.6 percent. In the public sector,Europeans occupied eighty-seven percent of the administrativepositions and the Kanaks, eight percent.

As stipulated by the Matignon Accords, these imbalances areto be corrected by 1998. One can expect that most change will occurin the public sector as a result of government programs aimed atintegrating Kanaks into senior positions. Kanaks are also begin-ning to penetrate the mining and tourism sector, owning a nickelmine in the north and several hotels in the north and south of LaGrande Terre.

The employment disparity between the Kanaks and the rest ofNew Caledonians is paralleled by disparities in education. Kanakchildren attended mission schools from early on in colonizationbut were not allowed to attend French public secondary schoolsuntil 1952, and although twice as many Kanak children asEuropean children are in public schools, Kanak children representonly a small percentage of high school graduates. The first Kanakgraduated from high school in 1962 and the first diploma in highereducation was awarded to a Kanak in 1972.

Religion and the Independence Movement

Education in a colonial system is often aimed at creating an elitewho will occupy secretarial and administrative positions in thecolonial government. The Church trains local priests and pastors toact as missionaries, teaching new values and rules of social con-duct. These elites are often perceived as intermediaries between thetwo subsystems in a colony, go-betweens between the colonizersand the colonized, yet they often become the leaders of an anticolo-nial movement.

The first groups to organize the Kanaks politically wereChurch based. The church organizations were set up to direct andcontrol the political aspirations of the newly enfranchised Kanaks.Their policies were paternalistic and assimilationist. According toApollinaire Anova Ataba, a Kanak priest, the objective of thesereligious organizations were “to work towards integrating theBlacks and Whites, a necessary precondition for the continued col-onization of the island.”55 These religious organizations formed thebasis of a multiracial political party in New Caledonia which ruledthe territory for over twenty years. Even though this party’s slogan

KANAKY 23

was “Deux couleurs un seul peuple” (Two colors one nation) itspractice was also assimilationist and aimed at a greater inclusion ofKanaks into white institutions. The Kanaks militated within thisparty for more political autonomy and by 1977 it came out in fullsupport of Kanak independence.

Christianity has not only had an impact on political organiza-tion in the territory but also in the formation of a Kanak elite. Themajority of Kanak political leadership in the 1980s came from mis-sion schools. Jean-Marie Tjibaou, head of the FLNKS, was a formerCatholic priest. He was part of the first generation of Kanak intellec-tuals to be educated in France. He studied sociology, anthropology,and theology and was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1965 at theage of twenty-nine.56 He quickly came into conflict with Catholicauthorities over the contradictions in New Caledonian society andgave up the priesthood for a career in community work and eventu-ally politics. Tjibaou’s vision of Kanak society was the guiding forceof the independence movement until the signing of the MatignonAccords in 1988 and Tjibaou’s assassination the following year.

Independence leaders emerge from a group that the colonizermay refer to as “evolved”—the intellectuals, politicians, and com-munity leaders who have been educated and shaped by the colo-nial system. These leaders express and represent the aspirations oftheir people and orient their peoples’ actions towards the goal ofindependence. Decolonization has produced many of these lead-ers—Ghandi in India, Castro in Cuba, N’Krumah in Ghana, etc. InNew Caledonia, Jean-Marie Tjibaou was the leader of the decolo-nization movement until his death in 1989.

As a political leader Tjibaou’s task was to forge a national iden-tity out of a very diverse, politically fragmented Melanesian popu-lation in New Caledonia. This unification, paradoxically, wasalready underway because of colonialism which had given the ter-ritory’s inhabitants a common language of communication(French) and a common colonial experience of land expropriation,reservations, forced labor, and Christianity. Tjibaou did this byappealing to a modified form of tradition. For example, he referredto “la coutume” (custom) as being “cloth, shirts, clothing, sugar,rice, tobacco, and money,” but not one of these things could befound in traditional Kanak society.57 As Keesing has noted, Pacificpeoples are creating myths of ancestral ways of life that serve aspowerful political symbols.58 These ways of life may bear little rela-tion to those historically documented and archaeologically recon-structed. Yet their symbolic power and political force are undeni-


able. As Keesing writes, “Political symbols radically condense andsimplify reality and are to some extent devoid of content, that ishow and why they work.”59

CONCLUSIONS

The Kanaky of the future is currently an administrative unit of theFrench state. It has been given existence by colonial dominationthat aggregated peoples into a larger polity than existed before.The growth of ethnic national consciousness amongst the nativepeoples of New Caledonia can be traced to the post-World War IIperiod. There was a liberalization of French colonial policy, forcedlabor was abolished, and the native people were accorded civicrights and democratic power. According to one Kanak politicalleader, “The new Melanesian identity was first established whenwe gained the vote.”60 Civil liberties and the institution of represen-tative government conferred upon the Kanaks a massive dose ofrights and the opportunity for involvement in the political processto a degree not previously experienced.

This period was also accompanied by unprecedented economicexpansion (particularly nickel production) and increased immigra-tion. The economic prosperity of the island, its high salaries, andthe absence of direct taxation made New Caledonia a magnet forall kinds of immigrants from within the French-speaking world.61

In spite of increased political participation, the Kanaks continuedto be marginalized economically as the financial gap between theKanaks and the rest of the New Caledonian population continuedto widen. Competition for land and resources in the territory led toethnic and political conflict when the economy began to declinefollowing the 1974 collapse of the nickel boom.

From the beginning, the Kanak entry into the political arenawas tied to land claims. Kanaks’ demands to extend their reserves,which were based on a real need for space due to increasing demo-graphic pressure, soon became a way to repossess lands lost in theprevious century. The native-based political parties began todemand the return of ancestral lands. The keyword of policytowards the Kanaks became integration. The aim was to train theformer “natives” who had been admitted to the “colonial club”into “citizens like everyone else.”

KANAKY 25

But the natives of New Caledonia demanded the right to bedifferent and to have identity as “Kanak.” Like many of its Pacificneighbors, Kanaky seeks its future in the combination of tradition-al and modern—guaranteed Kanak rights to land and agriculturealong with tourism and mining. The standardizing and homoge-nizing process of colonial economic policies, transport, communi-cation media, education, and literacy have all had their role informing Kanaky and making possible large-scale political action.Yet Kanak demands for independence have as much to do withcultural recognition and respect as they have to do with politicaland economic autonomy. Tjibaou’s social project meant a Kanaksociety of tomorrow that would take Kanaks to a traditional worldadjusted to new constraints and new situations: “We want some-thing else: Not to return to the past to dwell there, but to drawfrom the past the force and the references that will support ourwords in the present and in the future.”62

NOTES

1. See Jean Chesneaux, “Kanak Political Culture and French PoliticalPractice: Some Background Reflections on the New CaledonianCrisis,” in M. Spencer, A. Ward, and J. Connell, eds., NewCaledonia: Essays in Nationalism and Dependency (Australia:University of Queensland Press, 1988).

2. Roger Keesing, “Creating the Past: Custom and Identity in theContemporary Pacific” (unpublished paper, McGill University,1988).

3. For details see Roselene Dousset-Leenhardt, Colonialisme et contra-dictions: étude sur les causes socio-historique de l’insurrection de 1878en Nouvelle-Calédonie (Paris: Mouton & Co., 1970), and Terre natale,terre d’exile (Paris: G.P. Maisonneuve et Larose, 1976).

4. George Foster, 1774, quoted in Alban Bensa, La Nouvelle-Calédonie,un paradis dans la tourmente (Paris: Gallimard, 1990), p. 17.

5. Quoted in Kerry Howe, “Tourists, Sailors, and Labourers: ASurvey of Early Labour Recruiting in Southern Melanesia,” Journalof Pacific History 13 (1978): 25.

6. French minister of the navy and colonies to the Foreign Ministry,1854.


7. Maurice Lenormand, “L’Evolution politique des autochtones de laNouvelle-Calédonie,” Journal de la Société des Océanistes 9 (1953): 267.

8. V. Thompson and R. Adloff, The French Pacific Islands: FrenchPolynesia and New Caledonia (Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress, 1971), p. 262.

9. Alain Saussol, “Les grandes ruptures économiques et sociales dela Calédonie coloniale (1843–1984),” Kanaky: Bulletin d’Informationet Soutien aux Droits de Peuple Kanak 3/4 (1986): 16.

10. New Caledonia continued to be an important part of the FrenchEmpire and when France began her nuclear testing program in thethe 1960s in Muroroa, French Polynesia. Continued French pres-ence in New Caledonia then became more important, since it wasfeared that a withdrawal from New Caledonia would create adomino effect leading to decolonization in French Polynesia andan end to the tests in the Pacific just as decolonization had put astop to them in Algeria.

11. M. Dornoy, Politics in New Caledonia (Sydney: Sydney UniversityPress, 1984), p. 38.

12. J-P. Doumenge, Du terroir à la ville. Les Mélanésiens et leurs espacesen Nouvelle Calédonie (Paris: Travaux et documents de géographietropicale, no. 46, Centre nationale de la recherche scientifique,1982), p. 113.

13. P. Gasher, “Les problems de main d’oeuvre en Nouvelle-Calédonie,” Cahiers d’Histoire du Pacifique 1 (1975): p. 9.

14. Lenormand, p. 263.

15. Alain Saussol, “La terre et la confrontation des hommes enNouvelle-Calédonie,” Les Temps Modernes 464 (1985): 1618.

16. Doumenge, pp. 113–114.

17. Maurice Leenhardt, “Notes sur le Régime de l’Engagement desIndigènes en Nouvelle-Calédonie,” Journal de la Société desOcéanistes 61 (1978): 16.

18. Lenormand, p. 273.

19. Alain Saussol, “La terre et la confrontation des hommes enNouvelle-Calédonie,” Les Temps Modernes 464 (1985): 1619.

20. Alain Saussol, “Nouvelle-Calédonie: le choc d’une colonisationsingulière,” in A. Bensa et al., Comprendre l’identité kanak (Paris:Centre Thomas Moore, 1990), p. 48.

21. Helen Fraser, New Caledonia: Anti-Colonialism in a Pacific Territory(Canberra: Australian National University, Research School ofPacific Studies, 1988), p. 9.

KANAKY 27

22. Alan Ward, Land and Politics in New Caledonia (Canberra:Australian National University, 1982), p. 20.

23. Ibid., pp. 37–38.

24. Fraser, pp. 28–30.

25. On a territory-wide basis the proindependence parties won 35.2percent of the vote and the anti-independence parties 60.8 percent.In the Territorial Congress, where all regional councils wouldmeet in combined session, the anti-independence parties tooktwenty-nine seats and the proindependence parties took seven-teen. Fraser, p. 34.

26. New Caledonia is a rich source of nickel. It contains twenty-eightpercent of the world’s oxidized nickel deposits and it is the thirdlargest producer of nickel in the world.

27. Michael Howard, Mining, Politics, and Development in the SouthPacific (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1991), p. 141.

28. Ibid., pp. 132–147.

29. Ibid., p. 141.

30. M. Benezit, Report on Mining Pollution in New Caledonia (SouthPacific Regional Environment Programme, Topic Review 01,Nouméa, New Caledonia: South Pacific Commission, 1981), p. 1;J. F. Dupon, The Effects of Mining on the Environment of High Islands:A Case Study of Nickel Mining in New Caledonia (Noumea: SouthPacific Commission, 1986), pp. 2, 4.

31. Benezit, pp. 1, 4, 6.

32. Dupon, p. 4.

33. E. Bird, J-P.Dubois, and J. Iltis, The Impacts of Opencast Mining onthe Rivers and Coasts of New Caledonia (Tokyo: United NationsUniversity Press, 1984), p. 49.

34. Dupon, p. 1.

35. J-P. Doumenge, Paysans Mélanésiens en Pays Canala (Travaux etdocuments de géographie tropicale no 17. Paris: Centre nationalede la recherche scientifique, 1975), p. 110; Doumenge, Du terroir àla ville. Les Mélanésiens et leurs espaces en Nouvelle Calédonie, p. 374.

36. J-P. Doumenge, Paysans Mélanésiens en Pays Canala (Travaux etdocuments de géographie tropicale no 17. Paris: Centre nationalede la recherche scientifique, 1975), p. 189.

37. Ibid., p. 171.

38. Ibid., p. 168; J. Tissier, Les bases du développement économique dans lacommune de Thio (Paris: Institut de Recherches et d’Applicationsdes Méthodes de Développement, 1989), pp. 24, 43.


39. Tissier, p. 24.

40. Jean Freyss, “Socio-économie du monde mélanesien” (unpub-lished manuscript, Paris,1988), p. 3.

41. There are approximately 10,500 French civil servants stationed inNew Caledonia, who represent 30 percent of the Territory’s wageearners.

42. For local merchants, their capital investment is minimal and limit-ed to rent, storage, and transportation costs; their profit is realizedquickly—approximately three months turnover; and they do nothave the labor problems of industry and manufacturing. Until1982 merchants in New Caledonia had another advantage sincethere was no personal income tax in the territory. The growth ofthis parasitic sector has led to a hypertrophy of commercial activi-ties and related businesses such as shipping, and insurance, com-pletely out of proportion with the territory’s population andindigenous resources. The predominance of the import economyweakens local production considerably. For example, local busi-nesses prefer to import and sell bottled water, cheese, etc., fromFrance than to encourage local production.

43. See Sitiveni Halapua, “Self-Determination and RegionalIntegration of Small Islands” (Paper presented at the regional sem-inar in observance of the thirtieth anniversary of the declarationon the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples,Port Vila, Vanuatu, June 9 to June12, 1990).

44. Freyss, p. 5.

45. For more information see Donna Winslow, “Workers in ColonialNew Caledonia to 1945,” in J. Leckie and C. Moore, eds., Labourin the South Pacific (Townsville : James Cook University Press,1990).

46. M. Kobayashi, “Les Japonais en Nouvelle-Calédonie,” Bulletin dela Société d’Etudes Historiques de la Nouvelle-Calédonie 43 (1980): 64.

47. Thompson and Adloff, p. 447.

48. Dornoy, p. 78.

49. Ibid., p. 45.

50. Thompson and Adloff, p. 451.

51. John Connell et al., Migration, Employment, and Development in theSouth Pacific, Country Report no. 10: New Caledonia (Noumea, NewCaledonia: South Pacific Commission and International LabourOrganization, 1985), p. 3.

52. Connell et al., pp. 5–6.

KANAKY 29

53. L. Wacquant, “Nouméa: une place forte et son désert,” Le MondeDiplomatique (October 1985).

54. Ibid., p. 14.

55. Quoted in C. Gabriel and V. Kermel, Nouvelle-Calédonie: la révoltekanake (Paris: LaBreche, 1985), p. 24.

56. For details on Tjibaou’s life, see Alain Rollat, Tjibaou le Kanak(Lyon: La Manufacture, 1989).

57. J-M Tjibaou, “Etre Mélanésien aujourd’hui,” Esprit 57 (1981): 87.

58. Keesing, p. 1.

59. Ibid., p. 1.

60. Dick Ukeiwe, 1982, cited in M. Spencer, A. Ward, and J. Connell,eds., New Caledonia: Essays in Nationalism and Dependency(Australia: University of Queensland Press, 1988), p. 238.

61. Connell et al.

62. Tjibaou, p. 82.

SUGGESTED READINGS

Aldrich, R. The French Presence in the South Pacific 1842–1940. Honolulu,Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.

Chesneaux, Jean. “Kanak Political Culture and French PoliticalPractice: Some Background Reflections on the New CaledonianCrisis,” in M. Spencer, A. Ward, and J. Connell, eds. NewCaledonia: Essays in Nationalism and Dependency. Brisbane:University of Queensland Press, 1988.

Dornoy, M. Politics in New Caledonia. Sydney: Sydney University Press,1984.

Hennigham, S. France and the South Pacific. A Contemporary History.Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1992.

Winslow, D. “Mining and the Environment in New Caledonia,” in M.Howard, ed. Asia’s Environmental Crisis. Boulder, CO: WestviewPress, 1993.


Portraits TOC

Documents

KANAKY DEVELOPING A NATION IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC