Conflict, Colonisation and Reconciliation in New Caledonia
Date
2016
Authors
Nuttall, Carolyn Margot
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Abstract
As New Caledonia moves towards a decision on self-determination,
this thesis traces important moments of conflict in New
Caledonia’s recent history and identifies gestures of
recognition that might have led to reconciliation. It considers,
in particular, cycles of pre and post colonial conflict in order
to understand the role of customary knowledge and practices
amongst the indigenous peoples. Throughout the history of New
Caledonia intertribal rivalry has been a major source of
conflict. Yet customary self regulation practices were challenged
when each new arrival—missionaries, colonisers and
convicts—brought new sources of conflict. Disruption, rapid
change and the threat to Kanak survival kept the cycle of
conflict extant and reconciliation illusory. Throughout the post
annexation history of the country, statutes, decrees and laws
written by French administrators, governors, and politicians have
failed to mediate across cultural difference to resolve conflict
and achieve reconciliation.
Chapters One and Two examine, largely through the eyes of French
Catholic Marists and the missionaries of the London Missionary
Society, the various sources of intertribal conflict which
existed prior to colonisation and the divisions which became more
pronounced with the arrival of missionaries, merchants and
marines. Following French annexation, the Melanesian population
was marginalised as land was expropriated, military reprisals
were exacted, missionary work compromised and priests and pastors
deported. Ongoing clashes—intertribal, interdenominational and
international—set in motion a cycle of conflict which has
persisted until the present day.
Chapter Three analyses the impact of World War II on New
Caledonia and the end of the Indigénat, a period of hope when
Kanak citizenship was recognised and there was an enhanced
possibility of reconciliation. With the guidance of the churches,
the Kanak became more politically aware, yet during this same
period schisms within the Protestant Church caused further
conflict within the Kanak community in the form of intertribal
religious and political divisions. Chapters Four and Five survey
the Kanak awakening of 1968 and the tendency over the following
decades towards the more militant conflict which culminated in
the violent conflict of the 1980s. The events of this period were
followed by French initiated mediation, in which the Churches
again played a prominent role, and led to the signing of the
Matignon Agreements. The reconciliation which accompanied these
developments was shallow. A recognition and acceptance of past
events has facilitated more recent inter island and inter family
reconciliation so that with the support of indigenous Church
leaders, genuine pardon has been achieved in what may be seen as
the maturing of a society.
The study reveals that the conflictual events of the past remain
painful in the indigenous collective memory and will need to be
addressed further if the cycle of conflict is to be broken so
that lasting reconciliation may be achieved and translated into
the destin commun for the country’s inhabitants that is
prefigured in the Noumea Accord.
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Keywords
New Caledonia, conflict, reconciliation, colonisation, indigenous peoples, missionaries, intertribal rivalry, self-determination, Kanak
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Type
Thesis (MPhil)