Tropes of (mis)understanding: imagining shared destinies in New Caledonia, 1853-1998 par Adrian MUCKLE* ABSTRACT RÉSUMÉ The paper critically assesses the preamble to the 1998 Cet article amorce une réflexion critique sur le préam- Nouméa Accord by reading it against a longer history of bule de l’accord de Nouméa en lisant ce dernier texte par official and unofficial attempts to imagine or define rapport à une histoire plus longue de tentatives officielles relationships between Kanaks, settlers and the French et non-officielles pour imaginer ou définir les rapports State. Particular attention is paid to the way in which the entre les Kanaks, les colons et l’État français. Nous destinies of the different ethnic groups have been imagi- examinerons comment les destins des divers groupes ned following periods of conflict and the way that tropes ethniques ont été envisagés après les périodes de conflit of misunderstanding or incomprehension have been used et nous remarquerons l’accent mis sur les tropes de la to account for such conflicts. mésentente ou de l’incompréhension dans l’explication de ces mêmes conflits. K: New Caledonia, Noumea Accord, colonial history, conflict, Kanak identity, M- : Nouvelle-Calédonie, accord de Nouméa, misunderstanding histoire coloniale, identité kanak, incompréhen- sion In 1981, historian Jean Chesneaux asked historical image of the white presence» (the cul- «Can two opposite views of the past be turned ture of the stockman and the deportation of into one in the future?». In New Caledonia, members of the Paris Commune), Chesneaux Kanaks (the indigenous Melanesian inhabi- wondered how many of them would be «prepa- tants) and Caldoches (New Caledonian-born red to make a drastic reappraisal of the [then] people of French extraction) possessed separate 128 years of white power?» He suggested that it traditions, memories and senses of the past. For would «no doubt be at this price that they may Kanaks, the period since 1853 had been «a long remain in this New Caledonian land which is, night» of dispossession suffered in silence. For after all, ‘‘their country’’ too» (Chesneaux, Caldoches, there was the «taboo» of the colony’s 1981). penal heritage. Noting the Caldoche enthusiasm Chesneaux was neither the first nor the last for «Anything judged likely to enhance the person to reflect on historical consciousness in * History Programme, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, [email protected] Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 124, année 2007-1 106 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES New Caledonia. In the early 1960s, a Kanak the Matignon Accords represented an illusion of Catholic priest, Apollinaire Anova-Ataba, had unity, in that it took the form of «one account», written the first Kanak history of the 1878 war in but was in fact composed of «two histories»: which as many as 200 settlers and 1000 Kanaks «Two opposed and complementary visions of the had lost their lives. Ataba identified Kanak ‘‘same country’’ and ‘‘its history’’.» (Dahlem, 1996: shame and European silence surrounding this 125) war as a barrier to future development and urged that it be addressed (Anova-Ataba, 1969: 202)1. Since its signing in 1998 the preamble to the In 1992, a New Caledonian historian, politician Nouméa Accord has come to occupy a central and schoolteacher of convict descent, Louis- place in writing about Kanak-settler relations, José Barbançon, publicly reflected on the possi- reconciliation and the political future of New bility of invoking a shared past. He identified the Caledonia. This political agreement, signed by principal barrier as the non-dit (the unspoken): the French State and representatives of New the idea that the descendants of convicts and the Caledonia’s principal pro- and anti-indepen- descendants of Kanaks who had fought on dence parties, continues the rebalancing project opposing sides in colonial conflicts such as the of the 1988 Matignon Accords by laying out the 1878 war ought to confront their pasts more increasingly autonomous future of New Caledo- openly. Barbançon, like Ataba, suggested that a nia until 20183. From almost the moment the potential site for a discourse of shared history Accord was signed, the preamble was hailed for was to be found in histories of Kanak and its unprecedented acknowledgement by the settler resistance to Metropolitan authority French State and by the non-Kanak signatories (Barbançon,1992: 22-23)2. of a Kanak identity and of the effects of French These appraisals are part of an ongoing criti- colonisation (Naepels, 1999; Chappell, 1999: cal reflection on the ways in which New Caledo- 385-386). Within New Caledonia, the Noumea nia’s past is represented in public discourse and Accord has been widely accepted as a challenge, historical consciousness. There have been other a goal that people must work together to realise, interventions on this theme in the form of histo- notwithstanding the assertion by the League of riographical studies (Aldrich, 1989; Angleviel, Human Rights that the preamble has remained a 2002), analyses of political, media, literary and «dead letter» (Ligue des droits de l’homme de museum representations (Jouve, 1997; Chanter, Nouvelle-Calédonie, 2003)4. 1999 and 2002; Veracini and Muckle, 2002) and political commentary on reconciliation initiati- Not surprisingly given its symbolic and cons- ves (Macllelan, 2005). Earlier appraisals have titutional importance, there has been little com- drawn attention to silences and absences and the mentary on what this public document has to say need to recognise and come to terms with pro- about New Caledonia’s colonial past and the cesses of colonisation and the violent conflicts implications that it has for the community- or associated with this, notably the 1878 war which country-building project that it foreshadows. was the largest conflict of its kind in New Cale- With particular reference to the potential that donia. For Anova-Ataba addressing this silence past moments of contact and conflict have as was a precondition for development. For Bar- sites for the foundation of postcolonial futures, bançon it was necessary to become Caldoche this article critically assesses the preamble to the before becoming Caledonian. More recently, Noumea Accord by reading it against a longer there have been warnings that the surge of inte- history of official and unofficial attempts to ima- rest in the past may lead to «new falsifications» gine or define relationships between Kanak, sett- (Terrier-Douyère, 1994: 208) or even an attempt lers and France. Bearing in mind that the pream- to create a «New CaledoFrance» (Boengkih, ble’s purpose is to clear the way for a new 1994). In 1996, Jacqueline Dahlem observed that relationship between Kanak, non-Kanak sett- the new history manual produced in the wake of lers and the French state and a process of deco- 1. Anova-Ataba was amongst the first generation of Kanak to be admitted to the Catholic priesthood and one of the first Kanak to study in France. «The Insurrection of New Caledonians in 1878 and the Personality of the Great Chief Ataï» (published in 1969) was the preface to a thesis in economics and sociology prepared in Paris between 1963 and 1965 and which was eventually published in 1984. 2. Unless indicated otherwise, all translations from the French are my own. 3. The Noumea Accord was signed by representatives of the French State, the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front () and the Rally for New Caledonia in the Republic (). 4. The League recognises the «historic, philosophical and political» significance of the preamble and in particular makes the point that for the first time the «History of the ‘‘Country″» has been presented from the perspective of both «the colonisers» and «the colonised». IMAGINING SHARED DESTINIES IN NEW CALEDONIA 107 lonisation5, I discuss the ways in which dispos- took hold in the 1870s administrators became session, colonisation, conflict and different less concerned with Kanaks and assumed that categories of immigrants are represented in its they would eventually disappear (Faure-Biquet, overview of New Caledonia’s history and consi- 1876). der the extent to which this constitutes a depar- It was partly because of such assumptions ture from earlier representations of relations that the outbreak of a war involving different between settlers, administrators and Kanaks. groups of Kanaks, settlers and the French mili- tary, and the loss of more than 200 settler lives, Dispossession or conquest: legitimising the colo- including that of the French Colonel Gally- nial presence Passeboc, came as a tremendous shock for sett- lers in 1878-1879. The administration relied hea- In the first of its five sections, the preamble to vily upon Kanak auxiliaries to contain the the Noumea Accord claims that France appro- conflict and participate in the repression which priated New Caledonia in 1853 «in accordance ended with the deaths of more than 1000 with the conditions of international law, as reco- Kanaks, including the chief Ataï, mass deporta- gnised at that time by the nations of Europe and tion and the confiscation of land. The gravity of America». The signatories recognise, however, the threat to the French presence and the process that France «did not establish legally formalised of colonisation required serious consideration relations with the indigenous population», that of both the causes of the conflict and the place this territory was not «empty» and that the land of Kanaks and settlers in the colony.Contrary to was occupied by Kanaks who had their own earlier claims, the presence of Kanaks could not identity, civilisation, languages and culture. In be ignored, nor could their participation in the the third section it is noted that, through a «pro- future development of the colony be taken for cess of dispossession», Kanaks lost their land, granted. resources and identity markers (Noumea In 1879, the commission set up under General Accord, 1998).