New Caledonia seeks decolonisation opposing French system and state

An article has been published on the New Zealand website Te Ao Māori News, focusing on New Caledonia's push for decolonisation, Caliber.Az reprints the article with minor changes.

Kanaks and Maōri see many parallels between their peoples. Kanaks and Māori as colonised peoples, desire to protect lands exploited for resources and the desire to retain the Indigenous identity.   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.  

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 Decolonisation 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.  

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.    

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”.  

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.”  

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 ‘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.  

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.   “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.  

He also recognised the working class people brought from Europe and other parts of the world to build the colony.   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.  

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.  

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.