Kanak

Donna Winslow

Canaque, Kanaka

The Kanak are the original inhabitants of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France. “Kanak” is derived from the term “Canaque,” which was introduced by Polynesian sailors and had a pejorative meaning in the local context. In the early 1970s the native peoples of New Caledonia changed the spelling to “Kanak,” marking the birth of a Black Power type of consciousness. “Kanak” has deep political meaning for them because, along with the vast majority of the other native peoples in New Caledonia, they are asking for independence from France. If a 2018 independence referendum is successful, the new country will be named “Kanaky”.

New Caledonia is an archipelago with a total land area of 18,576 square kilometers, lying 1210 kilometers east of Australia. The island group includes the main island of New Caledonia (Grande Terre), the Loyalty Islands (Lifou, Maré, and Ouvéa), the Chesterfield Islands, the Belep archipelago, and the Isle of Pines. The capital is Nouméa.

Rainfall distribution reflects the classic contrast between windward and leeward slopes, amplified by the mountainous character of the main island. Average local rainfall may exceed 400 centimeters in the east and may be less than 100 centimeters in the west. Seasonal distribution is marked by maximum rainfall during the first three months of the year; heavy daily rainfall is rare. The average temperature falls between 22° and 24° C, with February being the hottest period and July-August the coolest.

In 1774, Captain Cook estimated that there were 60,000 natives on the main island of New Caledonia; other sources guessed there were another 20,000 in the Loyalty Islands at that time. Regardless of the actual numbers, it is clear that every part of the islands was claimed or occupied by the local population. In 2014 the total population of New Caledonia was 269,767, of which 104,958 were Kanak, making them the largest ethnic group at 39.1 percent, followed by Europeans at 27.2 percent; an additional 8.6 percent identified as mixed.

New Caledonian languages belong to the Eastern Subdivision of the Austronesian languages. There are thirty-two native languages in New Caledonia, of which twenty-eight are still spoken. The four major Kanak languages spoken are Drehu (on Lifou), Nengone (on Maré), Paicî (northern main island) and Ajië (central main island). All the Kanak languages have the same proto-Melanesian root, with the exception of Faga Uvea which is spoken in the north and south of the island of Ouvéa and has Polynesian origins. Most inhabitants of New Caledonia speak and write French.

According to the archaeological record, the earliest ancestors of the Kanaks came to New Caledonia from Southeast Asia between 6,000 and 5,000 years ago. They brought with them slash-and-burn agriculture, irrigation techniques, a polished stone tool complex, pottery, and double-pontoon sailing craft. There was also settlement from within Melanesia, especially from the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. After 1840 there was regular contact with European and American whalers, merchants, and sandalwood traders, in addition to British and French missionaries. After New Caledonia was annexed by France in 1853, tribal lands were expropriated for a penal colony, colonial settlers, and nickel mining. This systematic and radical reduction of Kanak lands meant that the culturally cohesive and contiguous clan territories of the past were reduced to a shattered collection of isolated communities. By the end of the nineteenth century, Kanaks were confined to native reserves and compelled to do corvée (forced labor) for the settlers and on public works. After World War II, colonial policy was liberalized, forced labor was abolished, and Kanaks were accorded the right to vote. In spite of increased political participation, Kanaks continued to be economically marginalized as the financial gap between Kanaks and the rest of the New Caledonian population continued to widen. The early 1970s was a boom period for New Caledonia because of the rise in world nickel prices (the territory has one-fourth of the world's nickel deposits). Urbanization increased as the rural areas were drained of labor. The collapse of the nickel boom in the mid-1970s led to unemployment and economic recession. Kanak youths returned to overcrowded native reserves only to find that there was little place for them and no available land. At this time, Kanak demands for participation in economic and political decision-making increased, and the Kanak independence movement grew. In 1984 the Kanaks boycotted territorial elections, set up a provisional government, and demanded freedom from French rule in favor of “Kanak socialist independence.” By 1987 the territory had erupted into violence. In one incident, pro-independence militants took 27 people hostage and in an effort to free them the government killed 19 militants. A settlement known as the Matignon Accords was negotiated in 1988 between Kanaks, the settlers, and the French government. This agreement heralded a ten-year “peace period” during which the French government would attempt to redress socioeconomic inequalities in the territory, in particular by promoting development and training programs in Kanak communities. At the end of this ten-year period in 1998 another agreement, the Nouméa Accord, was signed, setting a deadline of 2018 for New Caledonians to choose between independence and staying within the French republic; the referendum has been scheduled for November 4.

Traditional settlements were collections of men's and women's round huts, rectangular collective kitchens, oblong meetinghouses, and variously shaped ateliers. Each woman had a hut where she raised her small children. These structures were built alongside a single, large dwelling known as bweamwa, which was the symbol of the clan. This large central dwelling, used by the chief and adult males, was erected on a raised mound with a central alleyway lined with coconut palms and tropical pines leading up to it, and two smaller alleyways flanking it. The central alleyway served as a collective ceremonial ground for activities such as public speeches and yam redistribution, while the smaller alleyways were used for more intimate rituals such as ceremonial exchanges of shell money. Around inland settlements were yam mounds and irrigated taro gardens on hillsides. It was the social space of family residences, agricultural lands, water channels, and hunting and gathering territories that formed the basis for ritual, economic, political, and social action.

Inland settlements cultivated several varieties of bananas, yams, and taro using elaborate irrigation methods. Yams were, and still are, considered “noble” and were used in ceremonial exchanges in the past. It was the yam's annual cycle that established the rhythm of the Kanak year. Fishing was a regular activity for settlements by the sea and on riverbanks. In the forest Kanaks gathered fruit, nuts, and palm-tree buds. Captain Cook introduced pigs and dogs to the islands, and other Europeans introduced a variety of plant and animal species, including deer which the Kanak now hunt in the forest. Colonization affected Kanak agriculture dramatically. Lands were confiscated by settlers, gardens were ravaged by marauding cattle, and irrigation networks were destroyed by miners. The fallow period was shortened, which led to erosion and a diminished productive capacity. Subsistence crops gave way to cash crops such as coffee, which some Kanak began producing as early as 1900 and which remains an important source of income. Yams are the only crop that has demonstrated some resistance to the overall regression of Kanak subsistence agriculture. A powerful mining and metallurgical industry coexists with agriculture in New Caledonia. Tertiary economic activities have expanded quickly in keeping with the territory's highly developed private and public sectors. One of the major nickel and cobalt centers on the east coast was opened in central New Caledonia Island in 1901 and, although agriculture, fishing, and forestry are still the major employers, mining is a close second, followed by public service.

Kanaks manufactured various tools, weapons, and ceremonial objects out of serpentine, which was collected at the base of mountains and in riverbeds by men. Ceremonial axes were the most important, measuring as much as thirty centimeters in diameter. In places such as Houaïlou, these items were produced for ceremonial exchange up until 1908. Women produced fiber skirts, capes, baskets, mats, and shell jewelry. There is evidence to support the idea that the women had their own circuit of exchange.

Traditionally, each local community was integrated into a larger political and geographical system of alliance and exchange. In addition to ceremonial exchanges, trade occurred between villages on the coast and those in the interior mountain chain. Seafood (including fresh, salted, and smoked fish) was traded in a ritualized fashion for tubers (taro and yams) and wild plants from the mountains.

Traditionally, nuclear and extended families were the basic production unit, with neighbors and allies being called in to help according to the size of the task. The division of labor occurred according to gender and age, and work was organized according to a ritual, seasonal calendar overseen by clan elders. Both men and women hunted seafood individually and collectively using spears, fishing lines, and nets. Men hunted what little game there was (birds, bats, and rats) with spears, built huts and boats, and undertook yam production, irrigation works, and heavy agricultural duties. Women collected wood and water, looked after children, and performed repetitive agricultural chores like weeding. Men worked in stone and wood to construct tools and weapons, and women worked in clay and plant fibers to make pots, mats, baskets, and fiber skirts. Families continue to cooperate in agriculture. The French-owned mining syndicate, Société le Nickel (SLN), employs a large male labor force.

In traditional times Kanaks maintained individual rights to land. Rights were of four types: 1. First occupation rights. Land belonged to the family that first cleared and occupied the land. 2. Inheritance rights. A man inherited land from his father and, through his father, the right to cultivate land in any of the successive sites occupied by his paternal ancestors. Succession was usually masculine. However, if a woman was the last in her line she inherited access to her family's land until her son (who then took the name of his maternal grandfather) was old enough to inherit it. 3. Acquired rights. Through marriage, a man established a relationship with his brothers-in-law who could then give him some of their land. A man could also give land to his allies if he was unable to offer a sister or daughter in a marriage exchange. 4. Ceded rights. Even though the first cultivators of the soil always had rights over that land, they could welcome newcomers or harbor refugees on that land and give them the right to settle there on a temporary or permanent basis.

Land claims have been a central issue in the independence struggle, and the French government has set up a series of land development agencies to deal with the problem, even as population pressure in the Kanak reserves continues to mount. For example, although the Ajië are approximately eighty percent of the population in the commune of Houaïlou, native reserves cover only twenty percent of the land.

The nuclear family was the basic unit of Kanak society. The nuclear family was incorporated into an extended family (usually three generations deep), a lineage, and a clan that did not represent a territorial unit, being instead a successively larger patrilineal unit sharing the same rites, symbols, and marriage customs. Extended families were assembled into wider groups of affiliation by reference to a common place (homestead mound) of origin. Genealogy was spatially manifested by routes marked by a succession of occupied sites or mounds, and within each clan the lineages were positioned hierarchically according to the antiquity of their first residence in the genealogical itinerary. During the colonial period, clans were arbitrarily associated with a territory so that what previously were social groupings became geographic groupings on reserves.

On the main island there were at least two distinct kinship systems. In the first system—in the communities of Hienghène, Balade, Pouébo, and Voh—all sisters and female cross and parallel cousins were called by the same term. The unique attribute of this system was its asymmetry, as a father's sister's husband was called maternal uncle even though his wife (father's sister) was called mother. In the second system, a distinction was made between consanguines and affines—that is, between sisters and female cross and parallel cousins.

Each man and woman had a series of obligatory and optional social actions in terms of residence and marriage. Marriage traditionally was exogamous, patrilineal, and between cross cousins. However, the system was flexible. Distant cousins married, and sometimes it was sufficient just to be symbolic cross cousins. Residence was usually virilocal; however, uxorilocal residence was always an option. Marriages were negotiated by families of similar rank through a series of ceremonial exchanges, and although there are “love” marriages occurring today, many young people (particularly those of chiefly rank) still have arranged marriages. Polygamy was sometimes practiced but, because of the influence of Christianity, monogamy is now the rule and divorce is uncommon, although couples sometimes separate and take up common-law relationships with other partners.

The nuclear family is the basic social unit. Children move around frequently among relatives and it is not uncommon for a childless family to receive children to raise as their own. Older parents will live with one of their children.

Reserve land is inalienable and is owned collectively. Therefore, one inherits the right of access to land in the reserve rather than the land itself. Homes and movable property are inherited by the spouse and children.

Children are raised by their parents, siblings, and other relatives. Children are taught to respect clan elders, and it is the elders who will collectively discipline a wayward youth. Boys are brought up through a series of initiation rites, and girls receive instruction during menstrual seclusion. Since 1952, Kanak children have attended public schools.

New Caledonia is an overseas territory of France, ruled through the office of the high commissioner. The territory has some autonomy over regional matters, but France controls all areas of education, defense, law and order, justice, etc. Everyone in New Caledonia is considered a French citizen.

The traditional social structure was closely related to a set of carefully-inventoried spatial reference points—such as homestead mounds, inhabited places, and various natural features—that delimited rights over lands and waters. Those people descended from the first homestead mounds occupied by the clan were considered clan elders, and were consulted on all moral issues (e.g., land disputes) and matrimonial matters. Ceremonial exchanges reinforced families' social and political identity vis-à-vis one another. For example, maternal and paternal kin-group relations were defined by the ceremonial exchanges surrounding birth, marriage, and death.

Heads of lineages were seen as the guardians of the social and symbolic relations that united families into communal and regional political alliances. These “chiefs” were also focal points in a redistribution network. They received a part of the first yam harvest and a certain portion of all the land animals and fish caught. Some have seen these offerings as a type of tribute, but in fact the chief quickly redistributed these offerings and sometimes even supplemented the redistribution with food from his own garden. Under colonial administration, chiefs were reduced to labor-recruitment officers and tax-collection agents, and the territory has been divided into thirty-three districts or “communes” within three provinces that send elected officials to a territorial congress. A large number of traditional chiefs have entered the modern political arena.

The traditional structural model for Kanak society was the family, wherein the junior family members were under the authority of senior members. Similarly, junior lineages traditionally owed “service” to elder ones. Inversely, elder lineages had responsibilities toward cadet lineages, just as adults were responsible for the well-being of the children who owed them obedience.

Prior to French occupation, Kanak men engaged in clan warfare. Kanaks strongly resisted French occupation, killing settlers and missionaries. The largest rebellion against the French presence took place in 1878, when Kanaks almost regained control of their islands. Beginning in the twentieth century, the clash of Kanak nationalism with entrenched colonists has catapulted the territory into world headlines.

In traditional Kanak religion, people worshipped their ancestors and clan totems. Spirits inhabited important geographical features of the landscape—mountain summits, river sources, grottos, etc. Each clan had its own gods that had given birth to clan ancestors, or with whom clan ancestors had formed alliances. These gods gave power to human rituals and symbols. Gods were worshipped on clan altars, and each time a clan changed location the clan gods were moved to the new site. Spirits of the dead also were believed to roam the Kanak landscape, and were considered dangerous to the activities of the living. Foreign missionaries first arrived in New Caledonia in the 1820s, and today most Kanak are Christians.

Each clan had its own peculiar magical knowledge. Within the clan there were specialists who dealt with specific magic and rituals, such as preparing the gardens for planting or the warriors for battle. Sorcery existed but it was not practiced by specialists; rather, it was available to all who cared to use it since it was occult power, not the individual, which was the source of the ill will.

The most elaborate ceremony was the piloupilou, which could take three to four years of preparation and last several weeks. It was the culmination of Kanak social life, expressing the vitality of the host clan and its alliances through orations, collective feasting, dancing, and a distribution of ceremonial objects and food.

Petroglyphs have been found in New Caledonia; however, their origins remain uncertain. Kanak sculpture was primarily part of the architecture of the large central dwelling: carved support posts, ridge posts, and doorways. Elaborate arrowheads were the main art form, and representation of the clan ancestors was the principal theme. The male artists were specialists and recognized as such. The reputation of a well-known artist would continue after his death. Kanaks also possessed a rich oral tradition of historical tales, myths, humorous and moral stories, poetry, and proverbs. Kanak music consisted of songs and percussion music. Dances were often narrative—choreographed versions of traditional activities like fishing or yam production. Men and women both participated in collective dances that accompanied all ceremonial events and were part of the preparations for battle.

Illness was associated with a totem; for example, weight loss with the lizard, hysteria with the caterpillar, swelling with the shark, and anemia with the rat. Each illness could be cured by a specific herb that would be chewed or chopped, and then sucked on. The herb acted on the totem, not directly on the illness. Plants from the forest, fish and vegetable matter from the sea, and some cultivated species of taro were also used for medicinal purposes in poultices, infusions, etc.

The spirits of the dead inhabited an underworld and could surface occasionally. In order to ensure that they did not take up residence in their former bodies, the Kanaks bound corpses in fetal positions. Mothers were buried with a wooden stick so that they would think that they had a child in their arms and would not come looking for their offspring. Geographical features that were traditionally believed to be the gateways to the underworld remain known and respected, and are still the objects of offerings and prayer. This practice is part of the Kanak’s unique bond with the land.

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