Kanaks and Maōri see many parallels between their peoples. Kanaks and Māori as colonised peoples - breaches of the Nouméa Accord and Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the spiritual connection to land and desire to protect lands exploited for resources, the over-representation in social statistics, and the desire to retain the Indigenous identity rather than that of the colonial state.
But earlier this year devastating riots in New Caledonia devastated the economy as locals reacted to proposed changes that would reverse part of the Nouméa Accord - the official New Caledonian track to independence.
New Caledonia is a UN-listed non-sovereign territory and its indigenous Kanaks are seeking decolonisation. The Kanaks are now aiming to share their story and gain support amid efforts to hinder this process.
A delegation from New Caledonia has since travelled to New York to attend the United Nations’ Fourth Committee on Decolonization where both pro and anti-independence petitioners are presenting their case
Te Ao Māori News spoke to three of the petitioners: Ludovic Boula, the first vice-president of New Caledonia’s Customary Senate and Hippolyte Htamumu Sinewami, a Kanak grand chief and the president of the National Council of Kanak High Chiefs, and lawyer Jerome Bouquet-Elkaim, who also translated the French.
New Caledonia’s political institutions:
- The High Commissioner of the Republic represents the French government and holds regalian (sovereign) powers (defence, public order, justice, currency, foreign affairs) and has budgetary and legal oversight over local communities.
- The Congress has 54 members from provincial assemblies (three regional councils) and votes on deliberations and country laws.
- The government of New Caledonia is the executive branch elected by the congress and determines which draft deliberations and country laws are submitted to the Congress.
- The Customary Senate has 16 members from the eight traditional customary areas and is consulted (as option or obligation) on all laws and deliberations regarding Kanak identity.
- The South, North and Loyalty Island Provinces each have an assembly whose members are elected for a five-year term and have authority in areas covered by common law.
We want to build the future with other communities as well but we want to build a future with respect for this connection to the land as an indigenous people.”
— Hippolyte Sinewami, Grand Chief and the President of the National Council of Kanak High Chiefs
Intentions for the UN decolonisation committee
Boula said the intention was to explain the situation in New Caledonia, denounce the breaches of the Nouméa Accord by the French government and to seek support from the international community.
A specific request to the committee was the inclusion of traditional indigenous groups, not just Kanak political parties, in the decolonisation process, as there were 62 kingdoms of Kanak people.
Sinewami said they wanted to inform the international community that following the violations of their customary lands by the police and army, the customary authorities on September 24 had decided to recall and proclaim once again their sovereignty over their traditional lands.
He said they wanted to ask the UN (as France is a member) to help the Kanak people to reach sovereignty by supporting the declaration they made on the grounds of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
They also hoped to obtain recognition by the international community.
Before the riots and what caused them
The loyalist petitioners (pro-France) had spoken about the riots, which started on May 13 but Boula said, “you have to understand before May 13 the situation was going really wrong for the Kanak people”.
The 1998 Nouméa Accord included freezing the electoral roll to only include French settlers who arrived before that time.
New plans to unfreeze the roll were seen by the Kanaks has the final straw in a long buildup of issues.
Before the crisis on May 13 there were negotiations over the three main nickel mining sites, given the nickel crisis (the mines had become uneconomic in face of competition from China and Indonesia), but the Kanak customary senate was not included in the negotiations.
“There were a lot of decisions by the French government that accumulated and were very frustrating for the Kanak people and in the background is the continual marginalisation,” Boula said “in the end it was too much.”
We are not against the French people, we are against the system and the state.
— Ludovic Boula the First Vice President of New Caledonia’s Customary Senate
Boula also pointed out it was only those from the customary senate, not the loyalists, who were on the ground trying to calm people and bring peace, and they saw the disproportionate violence of the police and French army but these weren’t acknowledged.
The unfreezing of the electoral roll was part of the ‘Marty Document’ which the UN called for a repeal of and recently it was scrapped.
The ‘Marty Document’
In September 2023 a project first called ‘The Martyr Document’, then referred to thereafter as the ‘Marty Document’ was a bill presented by the French Ministry of Interior and sought to move beyond the Nouméa Accord. The Kanaks had not been consulted in advance.
The bill asserted New Caledonia would remain French and removed a duration or date for the country to achieve self-determination.
In August UN experts said this project threatened to dismantle achievements of the Nouméa Accord which related to the recognition of the Kanak identity, Kanak customary institutions and customary law and rights.
They urged the French to respect the principle of irreversibility where the accord promised the gradual and irreversible transfer of power.
“Agreements made under the accord must be constitutionally guaranteed until New Caledonia achieves full sovereignty in accordance with France’s commitment,” the UN experts said.
Accusations of anti-white racism
The loyalists who pled their case at the UN argued the pro-independence movement was racist toward the settlers.
Sinewami said the conflict was between loyalists wanting the country to remain French and the Indigenous people being Pacific, which had nothing to do with racism.
“We have always been Pacific, with traditions of hospitality, and we hosted these people and the loyalists forgot that,” Sinewami said.
Boula added, “We are not against the French people, we are against the system and the state.”
Sinewami also said the customary authority that represents the 62 Kanak kingdoms had always recognised the descendants of the European settlers were also victims of history.
In the 19th century, Kanaky became a penal colony where prisoners, including political activists, were deported.
He also recognised the working class people brought from Europe and other parts of the world to build the colony.
“As indigenous people, we also recognise the fact that those people are also victims,” Sinewami said.
Bouquet-Elkaim said the reality was the Kanak people wee the ones who had faced racial discrimination for 170 years and still faced it today.
The Kanak people have hope because we have always been able to adapt in spite of colonisation and we are still going.
— Hippolyte Sinewami, Grand Chief and the President of the National Council of Kanak High Chiefs
Boula said one of the petitioners, Sonia Backès, was not only using words to support segregation approaches but also putting it in action.
The words Boula referred to was her call for apartheid methods in July as she wanted to formalise the separation of Kanaks and Europeans on the island.
Boula alleged Backès, the head of the South Province, had cut public medical aid and shut down domestic violence shelters disproportionately impacting Kanaks.
Self-determination means environmental protection
Sinewami pointed out the vested interests loyalists had in remaining French because of the Kanak land stolen during colonisation, which they wouldn’t want to return.
He brought this up because he said many of the loyalists economically benefited from the exploitation of natural resources.
“In the Kanak tradition we always talk about hospitality, humility and sharing, but also protection of the environment,” he said.
“We want to build the future with other communities as well but we want to build a future with respect for this connection to the land as an Indigenous people.”
Sinewami said due to this connection, customary lands were meant to be protected by the Nouméa Accord but, during the riots, the police and army had violated this by invading their lands without Indigenous consent.
This violation led to the declaration of sovereignty on September 24 by the customary authorities on their day of mourning, which marked 171 years since French invaded New Caledonia.
During the crisis there was also a desecration of chief Atai’s tomb. The chief had been executed for resisting colonial forces in 1878 and his head was sent to France, and only returned in 2014, which was a moment of reconciliation but which Kanaks believed had been ruined by the desecration during the riots.
Not alone
Sinewami and Boula said of course they had hope.
“The Kanak people have hope because we have always been able to adapt in spite of colonisation, and we are still going,” Sinewami said.
They said there had been little media coverage from the Kanak perspective, and they said informing people about their truth was part of the hope.
Boula said they had hope because they knew they were not alone. There were others living in New Caledonia who supported Kanak self-determination.
One year they managed to travel to Geneva with help of Māori who helped pay for plane tickets and this time the Pacific Conference of Churches paid for their flights.
Sinewami said in their declaration of sovereignty on September 24, they had support from people from Fiji, Vanuatu, Māori, Aboriginal people from Australia, and other places.
The UN experts had previously voiced support for Kanaks and concerns about the ‘Marty Project,’ the allegedly excessive use of force by French government- deployed military, and the failure to respect rights to participation and consultation, even noting the disregard for cultural mourning in the 2021 referendum for independence.
