Are Kanak Languages to Be Taught? Social Demands and Linguistic Dilemmas in Contemporary New Caledonia

Home , Kanak people, Loyalty Islands Province

Journal de la Société des Océanistes 125 | Année 2007-2

Spécial ESfO Marseille – 2005

Are Kanak languages to be taught? Social demands and linguistic dilemmas in contemporary New Caledonia

Marie Salaun

Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/jso/1003 DOI: 10.4000/jso.1003 ISSN: 1760-7256

Publisher Société des océanistes

Printed version Date of publication: 1 December 2007 Number of pages: 261-269 ISBN: 978-2-85430-010-9 ISSN: 0300-953x

Electronic reference Marie Salaun, « Are Kanak languages to be taught? », Journal de la Société des Océanistes [Online], 125 | Année 2007-2, Online since 01 December 2010, connection on 02 May 2019. URL : http:// journals.openedition.org/jso/1003 ; DOI : 10.4000/jso.1003

Marie SALAUN*

ABSTRACT RÉSUMÉ

The 1996 census in New Caledonia reveals that there Le recensement de 1996 en Nouvelle-Calédonie révèle are more than 53 000 speakers of the 28 Kanak langua- l’existence de plus de 53 000 locuteurs des vingt-huit ges spoken there. Of these 28 languages, only 6 are langues kanak qui y sont parlées. Sur ces vingt-huit taught at school today, although the Noumea Accord langues, six sont enseignées à l’école aujourd’hui, alors (1998) officially states that Kanak languages are tea- que l’accord de Nouméa (1998) stipule officiellement ching and culture languages, together with French. This que les langues kanak sont des langues d’enseignement paper discusses the complex institutionalization of ver- et de culture, à côté de la langue française. Cet article nacular languages in formal education, after decades of traite de la difficile institutionnalisation de la présence repression in the name of assimilation, and the French des langues vernaculaires dans l’éducation formelle, republican egalitarism (and Jacobinism). On the basis après des décennies de répression au nom de l’assimila- of ﬁeld data, it explores how even these days the reco- tion, de l’égalitarisme républicain (et du jacobinisme). gnition of Kanak languages has to overcome a multitude À partir de données de terrain, il interroge la multitude of obstacles. It addresses the subtle shift from the condi- d’obstacles que la reconnaissance des langues kanak tions under the former colonial domination to the new doit surmonter aujourd’hui encore. Il aborde le subtil requirements of the postcolonial «common destiny’. glissement qui s’est opéré, des exigences de l’ancienne domination coloniale à celles du futur « destin com- K: Kanak, school reform, vernacular educa- mun » postcolonial. tion, indigenous education, New Caledonia. M- : Kanak, réforme scolaire, éducation ver- naculaire, éducation autochtone.

On the utility of the ecological metaphor: New Caledonia as a «hotspot» plethora of rather vague characterizations, many qualitative uncertainties, as the only Qualifying the contemporary linguistic situa- French is spoken, read or written by 97 % of the tion in New Caledonia is a real challenge. Are we total population, while approximately 75,000 witnessing a «multilingual», «plurilingual», Melanesians (Kanak) are active or passive spea- «diglossic context», or a «linguistic conﬂict»? A kers of one of the 28 remaining vernaculars,

* Université Paris  et  2835 Nouvelle-Calédonie. Enjeux sociaux contemporains, [email protected].

Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 125, année 2007-2 262 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES according to linguists’ estimations whereas the The colonial experience in New Caledonia: an 1996 census mentions 53 000. Of those 28, ele- uncompleted frenchification ven are spoken by more than 1000 people, and five are spoken by more than 5000 people. The conditions under which French has been An ecological metaphor appears to be notably imposed create a contemporary situation that is accurate here: New Caledonia is famous for more diglossic than bilingual, and some recent being what is nowadays called a «biodiversity linguistic surveys (Barnèche, 2004; Fillol and ff hotspot», and, as are most of the «hotspots»,is Vernaudon, 2004) underline the e ects of these seriously threatened by the gravest aspect of the unilingual and glottocentric politics in a plurilin- biodiversity crisis: the extinction of endemic spe- gual context: linguistic insecurity, rejection of cies. New Caledonia is thus an ideal area for the dominant culture, symbolic overestimation «conservation» projects. of an indigenous language which is no longer Applied to the linguistic field, the general opi- fully mastered, construction of a local French nion is that unification is under way, considering vernacular in reaction to standard French, etc. how fast linguistic skills seem to vanish, from The unequal status of languages has favoured a one generation to the next one: in 2000, while situation in which each language is invested with 33 % of their parents declared a vernacular to be distinct communicative functions and social their «primary language», 70 % of sixth grade roles; it is therefore common to hear Noumeans children affirmed not knowing any vernacular refer to vernacular languages as «the languages (Veyret and Gobber, 2000). of the heart» while French is considered «the Even if the «biological» metaphor is useful, it language of reason». keeps the debate within the constricting confines It is important to make a detour through the of a framework which revolves around terms process which has led to the minimization of such as «endangerment», «extinction», «conser- indigenous languages, for this really is an issue of vation», «revitalization», etc. without providing minimization and not eradication. guidance as to how conservation politics should What happened in New Caledonia during the be focused on the ground. This requires a more colonial era (1853-1946 strictly speaking) is quite contextualized perspective: if identifying conser- unique in the history of the French Empire. vation priorities is crucial, what is at stake in Using a psychoanalytical metaphor, I will argue New Caledonia today? that the suppression of the native population To address the various dilemmas that conser- paradoxically offered a valuable protection to vation policies face, this paper will focus on a their languages. particular aspect of the politics of revitalization Officially, France took possession of New of Kanak tongues: their implementation as ins- Caledonia in 1853. The military had been prece- truction subjects in formal education. ded by missionaries from the London Missio- This needs to be contextualized by mentioning nary Society and the Marist Catholics, together the various «threats» to those languages, which with Franco-British rivalry for the domination brings us back to a paradoxical colonial process of the South Sea Islands. Initially founded as a which both marginalized and contributed to the penal colony, New Caledonia became a pionee- protection of Kanak languages. I will first argue ring frontier for «free» settlement at the begin- that the denial of indigenous cultural realities ning of the twentieth century (Merle, 1995). The was compensated by the absence of an effective mainland French never emigrated en masse to assimilation policy. Identifying these dangers this distant land, which had the bad reputation also brings us back to a more recent postcolonial of being settled by former convicts and so-called context. The second section will demonstrate «cannibals». Unlike other parts of the French how francophonie, seen here as a belief in the colonial Empire, the Melanesians were systema- superiority of French language, has constituted tically pushed out of the way into reserves as a serious obstacle to the revitalization policies, early as the 1890s (Saussol, 1978). Locking up and moreover, how the «francophile» reactions the natives made it necessary to recruit indentu- towards Kanak cultural claims in the last 30 red workers from Java, Indochina and the New years have contributed to highly «politicized» Hebrides, to cultivate the fields and work in the (and therefore obscure) linguistic issues. I will mines. The multiplicity of native languages (rou- lastly examine local perceptions about indige- ghly 30), and the many languages of the impor- nous languages, bringing to light the set of ques- ted populations, «naturally» made it mandatory tions that have arisen after the implementation to use the coloniser’s language as the common of vernacular teaching at the pre-elementary vehicle. From 1863 and up until the end of the and elementary school levels. colonial period, in 1946, French was imposed by ARE KANAK LANGUAGES TO BE TAUGHT? 263 law, and was the only language authorized in From colonial banning to postcolonial native schools and publishing. It is an example of the claims: a highly politicized issue ideological substratum that Louis-Jean Calvet (1974) has called glottophagie in French (linguis- The first decree banning indigenous languages tic cannibalism), which involves replacing all the in the public sphere (schools and publications) vernacular languages with French. Yet, remar- dates back to 1863. The position of the New kably ¢ given the violence of the colonial process Caledonian authorities had the advantage of in New Caledonia ¢ French did not eliminate the being relatively easy to grasp throughout the indigenous languages, rather, it was added on colonial period: French was the sole authorized top; the extraordinary vitality of the Kanak lan- language (Rivierre, 1985). But, as previously sta- guages bears witness to this, since only one out ted, one must not over-estimate French linguistic of approximately 30 has been swept away by imperialism in New Caledonia during that colonisation. period of time, given the form it has taken. Of The colonial government of New Caledonia course, there as elsewhere, official rhetoric decla- never went to the trouble of «frenchifying» the red it was necessary for the colonised peoples to Kanaks. Assimilation, which implies mastering learn the language which would enable them to the language of the Mother-country, was never a enter the «modern» and «civilized» world. Of serious proposition for people who, to use colo- course, there as elsewhere, one could tell that the nial phraseology, were supposed «to bow down native languages were looked down upon and in front of the superior peoples». Alban Bensa never acknowledged as real «languages». But qualifies this colonial relationship as a «racism there was no obsession with «gallicizing». The of annihilation» and as an «ideology of Melane- shift towards the affirmation of the necessity of sian extinction» (Bensa, 1995: 114). But suppres- an «all-French» system would come later, when sing the native element had a direct consequence: «assimilation» became the official goal, after the absence of an indigenous policy, or the mere World War II. implementation of a stand-by policy, until after A continuity between the colonial and the World War One. post-colonial periods is nonetheless observable: In fact, the Administration left it largely to the «linguistic» issues have always been highly poli- representatives of the two religions present in the ticized. Yet,while essentially being «White man’s field to civilize the natives. But Catholics and business» during the colonial era, these issues Protestants were more concerned with christia- have clearly crystallised the controversy between nising than «civilizing», in the sense that France, pro and anti-independence camps ever since the which had separated the Church from the State 1970s. in the early twentieth century, understood the During the colonial era, the defence of French term to mean. It would be closer to the truth to was above all used by Whites among themselves say that Christian preachers viewed the native in order to stigmatize their political opponents. languages as a means of spreading the Word of It thus might be said that the utilisation of the the Lord, rather than as an obstacle. De facto,as language issue turned it into «White man’s busi- the alumni of the native schools whom I met ness». testified, Kanak languages have always been Within the New Caledonian white society the tolerated in schools, and mastering the coloni- first cleavage opposes the representatives of the ser’s language was always felt to be a last resort, secular State to those of the Missions, particu- albeit vital to soften the daily hardships and larly the Protestants. The language of instruc- injustices inherent in the legal regime governing tion has always been a means of denouncing the the native population (Salaün, 2005). anti-establishment forces the two missionswould Finally, the last important landmark of colo- represent. Civil servants and colonisers generally nial times, francophonie (as the use of the French joined forces against them to deplore their «per- language) was not upheld by any of New Cale- nicious» influence on Kanak people. Catholic donia’s native elites, unlike in other African or missionaries were not at the heart of such pole- Asian possessions, where a caste of French- mics: their personal origins (Mainland France) speaking nationalist leaders grew up between the and the official stand taken by their hierarchy two World Wars and took over the new States would free them from the suspicion of «anti- when decolonization began. This did not occur French» manœuvres. The anticlerical party until the 1970s in New Caledonia. focused much more on the exploitation of children in the Mission fields than on the use of mother tongues in schools. Protestants were much more directly attacked. To take but one 264 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES example, the pretext for annexing the Loyalty two years, and, giving ourselves some time, we could Islands in 1864 was the fact that the schools of achieve some very satisfying results [...]. the London Missionary Society founded by Reve- [The president of the elected assembly:] I suggest rend Mc Farlane didn’t respect the terms of the that the Administration do something so that native 1863 decree, which stated that French was the schools will no longer be a real joke, and, notably, pay only language permitted in education. Some attention to the fact that instruction must be given in twenty years later, the replacement of the British French [...]. London Missionary Society by the French Mis- [The Administration representative:] What we have sion de Paris is a non-event in the sense that already achieved is not that bad, and many natives can read, write and count [...]. detractors seem to have kept in mind a close link [The president of the elected assembly:] Unfortuna- between Protestantism and British influence. tely, they learn in Lifou or Mare, but not in French. I’ll Both evangelizing strategies and teaching never protest enough against a system which results in methods were considered seditious. The role 9/10 of the letters that are sent [from the battlefield in played by Polynesian natas in the nineteenth Europe] by Kanak native infantry being written in century, and later on by Loyaltians and Kanaks Kanak dialect instead of French [...].» (Conseil géné- from the Main Island (Grande-Terre in French) ral, 14 Nov. 1916) in the propagation of the Gospel message would If the linguistic polemics is somehow internal obviously not disseminate the ideal French to the white society (the Kanak themselves being influence missionaries were expected to spread totally deprived from any say in the matter) throughout the colony. The use of the vernacu- during the colonial era, the 1970s put a radical lars was closely associated with the support of an new face on the relationship between French and indigenous «rebellion» against French authori- vernacular languages. At that time, after three ties. The arrival of Maurice Leenhardt (see Clif- decades of French citizenry which did not bear ford 1992) at the very beginning of the twentieth witness to any significant improvement in their century somehow calmed the situation down, condition, the Melanesians started to make though his personal interest in learning and nationalist demands. Their number had dwin- transcribing Ajië (Houaïlou language) gave rise dled due to a century-old immigration policy, so to mistrustful reactions among the white settlers. they only represented 43 % of the population in The second cleavage opposed the French this territoire d’Outre-Mer, and a minority in the Administration to the French colonisers. The electoral roll. The question of how the twenty- settlers were accused of wanting to keep the eight remaining vernacular languages should be Kanak from learning French, «the language of considered clearly became something that crys- the Human Rights», in order to better exploit tallized the conflict between «Independentists» them. The civil servants were accused of serious and «Loyalists» (pro-French). carelessness regarding the control of native Preceding the nationalists’ political claims schools. were land claims (the Independentists demanded In that respect, the following excerpt from the restitution of the land of their ancestors that a discussion which took place at the Gene- the colonisers had confiscated), and cultural ral Council in 1914 is representative of these claims (demands that the culture of the first accusations: inhabitants be legally recognized). Re-enhancing «Who is in charge of controlling native schools? the vernacular languages, especially by including Anyone who travelled [out of Noumea] has been sur- them in the school curricula, was at the heart of prised to notice that almost everywhere, these schools these «cultural» demands. The first official are abandoned: in several of them, not only do pupils request to recognize Melanesian specificities in not understand French, but I even saw teachers who could hardly speak our language.» (Conseil général, schools goes back to 1971, when the locally elec- 16 Dec. 1914) ted representatives asked that the Deixonne Law, which governs the teaching of Regional Langua- The linguistic polemic was very instrumental: ges in Metropolitan France since 1951, should be it allowed the settlers that were elected represen- applied in the Territory. The Administration’s tatives to refuse to fund native education. The response deserves to be quoted at length, so following debate took place in 1916, just after a revealing it is concerning the foundations of the majority of the settlers’ representatives rejected ideology of francophonie, henceforward defini- the Administration’s budget proposal and spoke tely assimilationist, and because of its explicit out for the suppression of all credits: depreciation of Kanak culture. Here is what the «[The Administration representative:] Native scho- Vice-Rector appointed in Noumea responded in ols have not always been satisfying, this could be said, 1975 when consulted on the validity of the but we have witnessed serious improvements in the last request: ARE KANAK LANGUAGES TO BE TAUGHT? 265

«[In elementary school] we seem to agree that two less a refusal of the French language per se than main reasons explain the relatively feeble mobility of a rejection of the symbolic significance of defen- Melanesians at the school and university level; on the ding an «all-French» system. one hand, the insufficient mastery of the French language by a great number of natives, and, on the other hand, and correlatively, a certain awkwardness when Toward a «multilingual» school system? applying European concepts [...]. The role of elementary school is to give the children the means for com- In a postcolonial context, vernacular langua- municating, orally and in writing, which are indispen- ges as subject matters in formal education seem sable if one wants to integrate in a changing society. In to face both «political» and «pedagogical» diffi- light of the foregoing, one can only stress the need for culties. As in other linguistic contexts with oral a place where the French language can be used unin- tradition and limited numbers of speakers, peda- terruptedly. gogical difficulties are not lacking in New Cale- [In secondary school] it does not seem justified to compare [the Kanak tongues] with some of the large donia. From the works of missionaries to those regional languages of Metropolitan France, which of «professional» researchers, the written des- support a literature and in many cases have served as a criptions of Kanak vernaculars are rare and in means of communication for hundreds of thousands any case concern only a small number of them. of people. The presence of Melanesian vernaculars in As a consequence, there is an absence of readily the final exams for the baccalauréat is thus not a valid usable pedagogical materials in classrooms and proposition, either now or in the near future.» (Vice- an absence of adequate teacher training. The Rectorat de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, 1975: 3) linguistic heterogeneity of students, especially in When faced with such a put-down, the ques- Noumea, does not facilitate the implementation tion of which place the French language should of vernacular instruction. occupy quickly took on a truly political dimen- Nevertheless, these technical difficulties do sion ¢ and in both the Independentists’ and loya- not explain either the slowness or the parsimony list camps. with which the Kanak languages have been reco- In the Independentist camp, in 1984, one of gnized in the school system so far. From the the first decisions made by the newly elected ideology of francophonie to the obsession with majority led by Jean-Marie Tjibaou was to abo- defusing the nationalist bomb, political obsta- lish the entire set of legal dispositions inherited cles have always been more decisive than peda- from the colonial period that prohibited the use gogical issues. of Kanak languages in schools and publishing These political obstacles no longer existed (Sam, 1996). One year later, when school started after 1988, at least officially, as the signature of again in March 1985, the independentists took the Matignon-Oudinot Accord in 1988 between advantage of the «events» that had started in the French State, the Loyalists and the Indepen- November 1984 and launched a boycott of the dentists brought about the return to civil law and «colonial» schools. This gave birth to short-lived order in the Territory. In 1998, the Noumea community schools, called Écoles populaires Accord engaged New Caledonia in a process of kanak, where teaching was done in the vernacu- decolonization relatively unheard of in the his- lar, and the contents thought out in ways consi- tory of the French empire, as its preamble stipu- dered to be more compatible with Kanak cultu- lates: ral realities (Gauthier, 1995). «Decolonisation is the way to rebuild a lasting social As to the «Loyalist» camp, Jean-Claude bond between the communities living in New Caledo- Rivierre wrote in 1985: nia today, by enabling the Kanak people to establish «the attachment to the mainland and its language new relations with France, reflecting the realities of was the New Caledonian White society’s credo for a our time. [...]. It is now necessary to start making long time.» (Rivierre, 1985:1683) provisions for a New Caledonian citizenship, enabling the original peoples to form a single human commu- As the conflict became increasingly violent, all nity, asserting their common destiny with the other opposition to the monopoly of French in the men and women living there [...]. Ten years on, a new public sphere was taken as a protest against the process will need to commence, entailing the full reco- presence of France and French nationals, and gnition of Kanak identity, as a pre-requisite for rebuil- ding a social contract between all the communities even seen as a threat to the integrity of the living in New Caledonia, and entailing shared soverei- French Republic. gnty with France, in preparation for full sovereignty During that period of near-civil war, prudis- [...]. The past was the time of colonisation. The present hly known in French as «the events», francopho- is a time of sharing, by achieving a new balance. The nie was definitely of a «sovereign» sort, and its future must be the time of identity, by partaking in a opposition by the Kanak Independentists was common destiny [...]. France stands ready to accom- 266 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES pany New Caledonia on that path.» (Journal officiel actually attended mother tongue classes is de la République française, 1999: 4197-4233. Infor- low. mal translation done by the Pacific Community More substantial progress was made in secon- translation services for the Embassy of France in Aus- dary education, with the recognition of four tralia) Kanak languages to be taken as one of the bac- The 1998 Accord also defines a framework calauréat1 subjects. At the 1996 baccalauréat ses- through which the new relations were to be put in sion, more than 130 candidates (roughly a third place between French and the other languages, of all Kanak candidates) took their mother ton- at least the Kanak languages. It stipulates that: gue as a compulsory or optional subject. «[t]he Kanak languages, together with French, are Under the Noumea Accord (1998), which ser- the languages of education and culture in New Cale- ves as a roadmap for the gradual transfer of donia. Their place in school curricula and in the media powers from metropolitan France to local should therefore be increased and extensive thought authorities over a twenty-year period, primary should be given as to how to achieve this goal.» education has been placed under the responsibility of New Caledonia’s local government since From 1988, the successive Accords, relying on 2000. Curricula definition, teacher training, a relative political consensus, have allowed for recruitment and supervision are no longer new directions in educational policies. A new sharing of responsibilities has emerged from the controlled by Paris. In a certain sense, the imple- renewed legislative frame and institutions. mentation of Kanak languages has become a ff Under the Matignon Accord, France retained strictly local issue, and the di iculties it faces are responsibility for all general matters: curricula, no longer to be sought in any «Republican» pedagogical methods, and teacher supervision. French glottocentric attitude or Jacobinism. New Caledonia was divided into three Provinces Keeping this in mind, I will argue that beyond (Southern, Northern, Loyalty Islands), each the new political (and «multicultural») consen- with enlarged powers. Each Province is free to sus, one must not overestimate the depth of decide «the kind of adaptation required by the change in attitudes on the part of New Caledo- local cultural and linguistic realities» in primary nians. It has become politically incorrect to ques- education. In 1990, a letter from the French tion the orientations of the Noumea Accord, Minister of National Education provided the and even if one is reticent about the end of the basis for local adjustments: monopoly of French, one no longer says so in public but, in practice, vernacular languages still «In primary education, vernacular languages must prove that there are certain difficulties involved take their place where and when provincial authorities in institutionalizing and generalizing them as have decided it. It is essential that the practice of such languages of instruction. I will illustrate this languages not be marginalised, separated from other learning. A strong coherence must be sought, for the statement using the conclusions drawn from a benefit of the children, between their cultural identity research project I conducted in 2004 on families and the subjects that are taught.» (Jospin, 1990) involved in an experiment in teaching Kanak languages in kindergarten and the first year of This learning could not exceed five hours a elementary school. As an anthropologist of edu- week. In practice, two of the three Provinces cation, I was asked by the New Caledonian launched experimental (and rather small-scale) government to participate in the evaluation of plans:  (Enseignement intégré dans la langue this experiment and to determine if what was maternelle ¢ Mother Tongue Integrated Lear- proposed would satisfy the demands of the fami- ning) for the Loyalty Islands Province,  lies, communities, and the decentralized admi- (Paicî, Hoot ma Whaap, Ajië,Xârâcùù ¢ the nistrations. A psycholinguist, Isabelle Nocus, names of four vernaculars) for the Northern was in charge of quantitatively evaluating the Province. As no evaluation of the impact of measurable effects of this project on the children these provincial plans has been made, it is impos- (principally along three axes: self esteem, com- sible to give any assessment, though one can petency in the vernacular, improvement in assume that the proportion of children who French)2.

1. Baccalauréat is a national exam taken at the end of secondary schooling which determines eligibility for higher education. 2. This applied anthropological research was part of a larger project of mine on linguistic representations. I have worked on two very diﬀerent levels in the course of my work in New Caledonia: a «macro» level which deals with global linguistic policies from a historical perspective, and a «micro» level which deals with family interactions and linguistic socialization. The question of representations appears to be crucial to provide the missing link between those two levels, and notably account for some contemporary paradoxes. At a «macro» level, the loyalist encouragement of the instruction of Kanak languages seems to ARE KANAK LANGUAGES TO BE TAUGHT? 267

The experimentation was based on three ori- New curricula were finally adopted by the ginal principles: local assembly in September 2005, stating: Ê It concerned State kindergarten and elemen- «The teaching of Kanak culture and languages is tary schools. (The enrolment rate is close to under a progressive generalization [in primary educa- 100 % in pre-elementary schooling, which tion], on the Provinces’ initiative regarding their lin- begins at the age of three.) Previously, in the guistic and cultural realities, linguistic knowledge, State school system only secondary and higher pedagogical tools and available resources [...]. The education were concerned with the teaching of teaching of Kanak culture and languages is the matter Kanak languages. of an organization to be specified in the school project. It is taught to pupils whose parents have expressed Ê It was dedicated to testing a training program their consent, by qualified teachers, seven hours a for Kanak teachers recruited with a bachelor’s week in kindergarten and five hours a week at the degree from the University of Noumea and its elementary level. To manifest their being languages of new department «Regional languages and cul- instruction, Kanak languages are to be taught through tures» (and, eventually, it would provide the various subjects.» (Congress of New Caledonia, Déliberation no118, 26 Sept. 2005: art. 6) employment opportunities for the prospective students of this department...) It has to be mentioned that these new curri- Ê Every child, from the age of three, attended a cula were not adopted with the support of inde- mother tongue class for an hour every day, pendentists parties’ representatives (forming the givenbya«monolingual» teacher specialized  ¢ Front de libération nationale kanak et in this teaching, in a separate classroom. socialiste), who voted against them, judging them too «conditional» on the teaching of indi- At its inception at the beginning of school genous languages. The following day, on 28 Sep- year in 2002, there were three trainee teachers tember 2005, the (single) local daily newspaper (two Drehu speakers and one Ajië speaker). Two ran the headline: years later, eight trainee teachers taught five different languages. More than 200 children were «Primary school curriculum: Congress mumbles about Kanak languages.» (Les Nouvelles calédonien- concerned. nes, 2005) The program ended with the close of the school year in 2004, and was not extended for In fact, the debates that surrounded this recent 2005. That decision was taken even before the reform of the educational system reveal the results of the evaluation of its impact were extent to which the «denial of the didactic func- published in December 2004 (Salaün, 2004; tion of Kanak languages» (see Fillol & Vernau- Nocus et al., 2004). Succinctly put, what the don, 2004) subsists to this day. Significantly, the evaluation would show was that all goals had text was voted with the support of the been achieved, with the exception of the expec- Rassemblement- party (ex  ¢ major ted positive influences on the acquisition of loyalist party), who obtained a generalization to French language. This is not, in itself, a surprise second to fifth form only after an adequate eva- considering the age of the children involved luation of its pedagogical value will have been (from three to six) and the length of the experi- made. The Rassemblement- brief on the ment (no more than two years). At the beginning objectives of the amendment published on 21 of 2005, a potential generalization came up September 2005 states: against an obstacle: the lack of agreement on the «[an evaluation] was done exclusively in kindergar- definition of objectives assigned to this teaching. ten. Its conclusions were, of course, that the disposal Three main goals, potentially contradictory, had been efficient for the Kanak language (Drehu) and could be identified: that it had not interfered with the learning of French. Ê facilitate the acquisition of French («additive As far as elementary school is concerned, no experiment has been conducted so far, a fortiori no evalua- bilinguism» theory); tion in order to determine whether continuing to teach Ê comfort the Kanak cultural patrimony; the Kanak languages is in the best interests of chil- Ê prevent school failure by avoiding the cultural dren. Yetthe important question to raise is precisely to discontinuitiesayoungKanakchildisconfron- determine if this teaching will cause delays for the tedwithduringthefirstyearsof schooling. involved children, particularly in fundamental subjects such as French and Maths: what part of these No consensus about the hierarchy of these subjects will not be given in French: conjugation of goals was found at that time. verbs? Plural of adjectives? Fractions? Percentages ? condemn it to death... At a «micro» level, parents are very ambivalent, proclaiming their attachment for the mother tongue and increasingly using French in their daily interactions with their children... 268 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES

[...] As a consequence, you are being proposed an New Caledonian citizenship, aimed at beco- amendment, stipulating that the continuation of ming a «common destiny», tends to hide the fact Kanak languages teaching from grade two to grade that the communities in New Caledonia are not ff five will be in e ect only after a scientific experiment only different «culturally», but also very une- has shown its real interest for the children»s success.» qually blessed with economic, social, and cultu- (Amendment no1, presented by Rassemblement-, ral capital, in the sense coined by Pierre Bour- 21 September 2005) dieu. In fact, defining the potential «new Thus, the supporters of bilingual education relationship» between the vernacular languages are constantly called upon to guarantee that the and French is rather perilous, as the following «interests of the child» will not be crucified on excerpt from an interview with Marie-Noëlle the altar of political concessions. The consensus Thémereau, presently the President of the New that finally emerged in New Caledonia rests in Caledonian Government, demonstrates: reality on accepting some sort of «transitional «Working on our commonly held values [in school] bilingualism», meaning that the only objective is indispensable to prepare the child to recognize the ff that can validly justify the presence of minority ‘‘other’’ in their di erence, that is in their identity; that recognition depends, for example, on reconciling the languages in school is facilitating the acquisition Kanak languages and French, which will no longer be of French, which seems to remain the exclusive opposed in school but will cooperate in aiming at our legitimate teaching medium. «Francophonie» children’s success, by taking into account the funda- thus still seems to have a brilliant future in New mental role of the mother tongue in the young child’s Caledonia: 90 % of the people living there harmonious development and personality building. declare they speak, read or write French. In the Kanak language, the language of the heart, the lan- past 20 years we have even seen the development guage of the ancestors, the language of the elders and of the roots, must also become, for the children whose of a Kanak literature in French, such as the work mother tongue it is, the language of learning [...]. In of Dewé Gorodey, a poet and the Independentist exchange, French, the vehicular language, the lan- Vice President in the local government. At the guage of sharing, of getting to know the others, the apex of nationalist protest, Jean-Claude Rivierre language of Caledonian citizenship and of achieve- wrote: ment in school, will gain renewed legitimacy.» (Sen- tiers, 2004: 9) «Beyond its properly symbolic aspect, the French language was never seriously threatened in New Cale- The permanence of the commonplace that donia?» (Rivierre, 1985:1716) opposes the language «of reason» (French) to the language «of the heart» (the mother tongue) This remark is all the more true today since shows how difficult it is to find a new legitimacy there is no alternative to French as the language in a post-colonial context. Of course, the linguis- of the future multicultural citizenship. tic issue has been modernised and updated... but beyond its cosmetic «new look», we can reaso- Conclusion nably say that the project of assimilation it had backed in the past remains latently present. 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