It is exactly 171 years since France colonised New Caledonia but the indigenous Kanaks there says colonialism isn’t finished and it felt as if the French have gone back to the 1800s.
Civil unrest broke out in Kanaky (New Caledonia) in May when France proposed it would give voting rights in local elections to French residents who have lived there for 10 years.
Pro-independence Kanak leaders believe this will dilute the Indigenous voters who make up 40% of the population. In addition, from 1952 until 2018 retiring French military and other civil servants were financially incentivised to move to Kanaky. It’s believed, if given the right, they would vote against the self-determination of the Indigenous people.
Since May 13 people have died, 11 Kanak and two French gendarmes.
For updates from the community in Kanaky, Te Ao Māori News spoke with Reverend Billy Wetewea and a Kanak community leader who requested anonymity and who we will refer to as Daniel.
Collective punishment of Saint-Louis tribe
The Saint-Louis tribe lives in the commune of Mont-Dore in the South Province of New Caledonia.
The tribe is known as a staunchly pro-independence stronghold and, because of this, some media have alleged the tribe is being subjected to collective punishment.
The President of the South Province is Sonia Backès, who is also the leader of the anti-independence group called the Loyalists.
In July, Backès called for apartheid methods, saying she wanted to formalise the separation of Kanaks and Europeans on the island.
A few days before this speech, Backès announced free medical aid in the southern province was suspended because of the riots. This decision gravely impacted Kanaks, who disproportionately suffer from unemployment and poverty.
French forces have roadblocked all vehicles other than emergency services and ambulances from crossing Saint-Louis.
This roadblock has meant for two months 1500 Kanaks from the Saint-Louis tribe in Mont-Dore have been cut off from the only road access from Mont-Dore to Noumea, the capital city.
Kanaks must travel by foot and provide identity documents to pass through police checkpoints. People have been unable to get to the capital city for work, or to buy food and medical supplies.
Daniel said it reminded him of the Indigenous Code of 1887, which was a set of laws that subjected Kanak to strict rules, denied them civil rights, and confined them to reserves of land that were largely infertile.
Saint-Louis tribe ‘assassinations’
The most recent deaths in New Caledonia were Kanaks from the Saint-Louis tribe who were killed in an operation by the elite police tactical unit of the National Gendarmerie last week.
Police claim the operation was to arrest and question suspects for attempted murder and armed robberies. They used tear gas, said there were gunfire exchanges and they responded with two gunshots that killed Samuel Moeika (30) and Johan Kaidine (29) .
Le Monde reported that, when the forces fired tear gas during the operation, a mother shouted ”We are not terrorists, we are not in a state of war,“ and a young resident called Brigitte asked, “Why are you killing our children? We don’t have any weapons.”
FLNKS (The Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front is a pro-independence alliance of political parties) has called for the de-escalation of military interventions.
It denounced the French force’s methods as “barbaric and humiliating” and called for an independent and impartial investigation into the “assassinations”.
Disproportionate violence
Daniel said it was difficult to understand why the police entered Saint-Louis in that way because politicians, the chief and customary council, civil society leaders and youth activists sought peace
Wetewea pointed out the disproportionate level and the extent of violence, with a Kanak woman who came forward in the past two weeks, saying she had been raped by French police.
Earlier this year Te Ao Māori News reported on a solidarity event, which invited Kanaks who talked about their people as defending themselves from French forces and anti-independent militia with their bare hands, due to not having access to weapons.
Daniel said with the independence leaders having few weapons, he didn’t understand the presence of 7000 personnel, with militarisation increasing.
It reminded him of the civil war in the 1980s. “We see that after 40 years we are still in the same mentality from the French. Why do they fight like this? Why are they applying these kind of methods?”
Breach of human rights
Wetewea said they were trying to highlight this was a crisis where the people were still having to fight for their rights and the decolonisation process they were promised in the Nouméa Accord.
The French government had dishonoured the accord and then, when Kanaks protested this as a breach of their right to self-determination, the French army met them with brute force, Wetewea said.
He said it was a continuation of the colonial system. Even in the 21st century the abuse of human rights could be seen coming from the French who were supposed to be human rights advocates.
“The fact is that colonialism is not finished,” Daniel said.
“The anti-colonial insurrection is a war against the neocolonialism in the 21st century.”
Daniel said Kanaky was in a strategic position in the Indo-Pacific, with interests in extracting its natural resources as well as the French wanting to install nuclear power stations.
Daniel and Wetewea want to bring Kanak representatives to the UN in the future but there are financial obstacles due to the economy being on the bridge of collapse, and the absence of UN offices and NGOs in New Caledonia.
The Pacific Islands Leaders Forum in Tonga had planned to send a Forum troika-led mission to New Caledonia as requested by President Louis Mapou.
But these Kanak leaders said they didn’t know the purpose of the mission because they didn’t have any information yet.
Fight for independence goes on
“They don’t respect our customs, they don’t respect our rights as Indigenous. We are not French, we are indigenous people, we have a right to exist,” Daniel said.
“We can’t negotiate our identity because we are our ancestors.”
He said indigenous people had to band together because the colonial forces were trying to destroy the indigenous identity. He said all Pacific people from Aboriginal people, Vanuatuans, Māori, Kānaka Maoli, Rapanui, Māohi Nui, West Papua, and Chamorro people in Guam, were all the same.
“Our roots are the same - all of us we are brothers and sisters,” he said.
“We are linked by the moana beause the moana is our spirit, it’s the end and the beginning of our culture.”