NEW Caledonia at the Heart of Oceania

NEW CalEdoNia aT ThE hEarT oF OceaNia N NEW S CalEdoNia aT ThE HearT Of OceaNia New Caledonia is an archipelago in Oceania, formed from a piece of land that detached from Australia millions of years ago. The ancestors of the Kanak, distant descendants of the great Austronesian Equator migrations, settled here 2 500 years ago, when the Lapita civilisation spread throughout Melanesia. Over the years, New Caledonia formed enduring bonds with its Melanesian and Polynesian neighbours. The archipelago became French in 1853, adopted the status of a TOM (French overseas territory) in 1957 and played its role as a geo-strategic location for France. In an Anglo-Saxon ocean, New Caledonia stands out. Cooperation, training and research agreements, as well as political ties now link the island to the other countries of the zone. With the signing of the Matignon Agreements (1988), followed by the Noumea Accord, New Caledonia is in the process of acquiring a very powerful autonomy, particularly with respect to regional cooperation: bilateral agreements can now be signed and New Caledonian delegations will be established in neighbouring embassies. New Caledonia is home to the headquarters of the Pacific Community, the only international organisation uniting the 26 Pacific States. It lies at the heart of a populated ocean where traditional gestures and founding myths FRONT COvER go hand in hand with the modernity of a new Oceania. Reefs, New Caledonia. Joël viratelle OCEANIA IN THE WORLD © Pierre-Alain Pantz Director of the Maison de la Nouvelle-Calédonie 3 Japan United States China Mexico Hawaii Tropic of Cancer Taiwan Northern Mariana Islands Wake MICRONESIA Johnston Philippines Guam Marshall Islands Federated States Palmyra Palau of Micronesia Atoll Howland Line Islands Papua Nauru Gilbert Islands Island Equator New Guinea Kiribati (1) Jarvis Indonesia Phoenix Islands Kiribati (2) Solomon Tuvalu Marquesas Tokelau Kiribati (3) Islands Islands Wallis and Samoa Tuamotus MELANESIA Fiji Futuna Samoa US Vanuatu Cook French Niue Islands Society New Tonga Islands Polynesia Caledonia Tropic of Capricorn Gambier Islands Australia Austral Islands Pitcairn Easter Norfolk Kermadec POLYNESIA Island Islands New Zealand Chatham Islands THE PACIFIC ZONE Maritime Boundaries International Date Line oCEaNIA : a ZoNE Of MiGRATIONS text by SARAh MohAMeD-GAillARD Despite its specificity, the history of New Caledonia – a populated colony, a land of plantations and mines – is emblematic of that of the Oceanic islands since the arrival of Westerners in the Pacific Ocean. Far from being isolated within the immensity of the South Pacific, the archipelago maintains ancient ties with its regional environment. AN OCEAN CONTINENT the oceanic continent contains more than 10 000 islands and stretches from hawaii in the north, to easter island in the east and to New Zealand and Australia in the southwest. based on the observations of explorers, 19th century geographers differentiated between three cultural areas : Melanesia (black islands), Polynesia (many islands) and Micronesia (small islands). this ocean-continent is united by a common culture and constitutes a geopolitical space and a zone of regional cooperation. it is inhabited by some 32 million people, of whom approximately seven million live in island states and territories. Ship represented on carved bamboo. © From “bambous kanak, une passion de Marguerite lobsiger-Delenbach” ed. infolio, ethnography Museum of Geneva Whaling. Drawing by John William huggins, circa 1825 © Alexander turnbull library OPPOSITE Chief Samuel’s pirogues from the isle of Pines (New Caledonia). © Archives de la Nouvelle-Calédonie 7 EARLY OCEANIC PEOPLES The first Europeans, who had come to exploit the Austronesian populations originating from Southeast islands’ natural resources, introduced paid work and Asia populated the Melanesian islands from 1500 BC. new products such as iron, alcohol, firearms and Using the outrigger canoes they had developed, the fabrics – elements that were to radically change the navigators confronted the high seas and arrived in traditional way of life of Oceanic peoples. They also New Caledonia in around 1100 BC. Settling on the brought diseases to these islands that were previously coasts, they developed a specific culture, characterised unknown to the native peoples. From their first by ceramics decorated with geometric patterns. periods of interaction, Oceanic societies experienced This civilisation, known as Lapita, flourished between a sharp decline in population. 1400 and 600 BC in a vast zone ranging from the Bismarck archipelago as far as Tonga. BEACHCOmBERS The traditional Kanak society was established after these “pirates of the shore” may have been shipwrecked europeans the disappearance of the Lapita culture. Like other – the first among them were reported in Palau in 1684 – former sailors Oceanic communities, the Kanak were profoundly who had sometimes deserted their crew, or fugitive convicts, who sought attached to the land of their ancestors and were refuge on an island and were submitted to the authority of a chief. integrated within vast networks of exchange. these men, well integrated into the local populations, often played an “Customary paths” thus enabled connections intermediary role between the oceanic peoples and european merchants. between clans from Grande Terre, but also those from the Loyalty Islands or the southern islands of Vanuatu, such as Tanna or Anatom. Over the course of the Oceanic migrations, Polynesian populations later settled in the islands of Melanesia and Micronesia. West Uvean, of Polynesian origin, is therefore one of the two languages spoken on the Island of Ouvéa. It attests to the settlement of populations originating from Wallis and Futuna, most probably in about the 18th century. ADvENTuRERS AND PIONEERS the riches of the FROm ALL walkS OF LIFE Melanesian islands Although New Caledonia became a French colony on James Cook had set foot on the island in 1774, but attracted a number 24 September 1853, the pioneers of colonisation were of european adventurers New Caledonia was barely frequented by Westerners and merchants. predominantly foreigners, often of Anglo-Saxon prior to the 1830 -1840s. The Melanesian islands were © New Caledonia Archives origin. At that time, the archipelago maintained close seldom visited at that time, owing to the bad ties with the neighbouring Australian colonies and reputation of their inhabitants, propagated by the the first birth recorded was that of a child born to navigators. English parents. The Englishman James Paddon, who This was the advent of adventurers and beachcombers, bought Nou Island from Chief Kuindo in 1845, is thus who were attracted by the islands’ natural riches, considered to be the first settler of the archipelago. but it was also the time of missionaries. The He established sandalwood trading posts on the Loyalty evangelisation project began in 1797, in Tahiti, Islands, in Anatom (Vanuatu), the Isle of Pines, then on at the initiative of the protestant pastors of the Grande Terre and he initiated regular exchanges between London Missionary Society (LMS) and from there, these islands, Australia and China. He also developed it spread to the rest of Oceania. the postal service between Noumea and Sydney. 8 9 The colonisation of the Pacific Islands was accompanied AN INDISPENSABLE by the development of speculative agriculture, FOREIgN WORkFORCE stimulated by the Western markets’ need for tropical The owners of large plantations in Oceania were products, which firmly established the Pacific Islands faced with a lack of local workers and therefore had in a globalised economy. The development of recourse to a foreign workforce. They thus employed plantations required land and was often associated Oceanic peoples, whose recruitment, known as with land deprivation. Thus, in New Caledonia, “blackbirding”, was accompanied by kidnappings or measures for the spoliation of Kanak land were underhand registration methods. From 1860 to 1906, engaged as of 1855 on Grande Terre, then extended the plantations of Queensland employed some by the establishment of the reserves system and the 62 000 Melanesians, of whom approximately 40 000 application of the Régime de l’Indigénat (Indigenousness came from Vanuatu, 18 000 from the Solomon Code) from 1887 to 1946. Islands, 2 800 from New Guinea and 1 100 from the Loyalty Islands. New Caledonia, which also had a need for plantation workers and miners in the 1890s, opened up in its turn to Asian workers : mainly Javanese, Tonkinese and Japanese. The establishment of white settlers and that of a (temporary or permanent) foreign Messageries Maritimes played an important workforce therefore laid the foundations for role in connecting a multiethnic society. the islands with the rest of the world. © J.C. estival Collection In 1919, New Caledonia had 4 055 foreign workers, consisting of : • 1 902 hired under Javanese contract young Papua New Guineans fishing • 1 549 hired under oceanian contract at low tide. • 431 hired under tonkinese contract © SPC • 173 indians Advertisement to In 1929, there were 13 572 : promote the arrival • 5 876 hired under Javanese contract of servants • 5 102 hired under tonkinese contract in New Zealand, 1912. • 2 110 oceanians © Alexander turnbull library • plus 484 free residents surveyed, including: 384 Javanese, 19 tonkinese, 81 oceanians • 5 575 Japanese hired, who arrived between 1892 and 1919 sources: Archives Nationales d’Outre-mer, Fonds ministériel, 1 Affpol

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