New Caledonian development and the Kanak voice

American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Volumn 32, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 29-49

  D'Hauteserre, Anne Marie ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO   (New Zealand)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 57249108609     PISSN: 01616463     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.17953/aicr.32.3.n222720885h18108     Document Type: Article

References (66)

1. Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984), xi.
2. Evelyn Stokes, "Maori Geography or Geography of Maori," New Zealand Geographer 43 (1987): 129.
3. New Caledonia was the first French territory to be called pays in deference to the increased autonomy it had acquired. French Polynesia demanded a similar status tiiough it did not manage to obtain as much autonomy under the same label. Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies (London: Zed Books, 1999).
4. Kevin Meethan, "To Stand in the Shoes of My Ancestors: Tourism and Genealogy," in Tourism, Diasporas and Space, ed. Tim Coles and Dallen Timothy (London: Roudedge, 2004), 82-95.
5. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000).
6. See also Susan Najita, Decolonizing Cultures in the Pacific (London: Roudedge, 2006).
7. Evelyn Stokes, "Ko Waikato Te Awa: The Waikato River," in Te Hononga Ki Te Whenua: Belonging to the Land, ed. E. Stokes and M. Begg (Hamilton: New Zealand Geographical Society, Waikato Branch, 1997), 37-51. Differences matter to people, as indicated by Stokes. In New Zealand, different Polynesian groups peopled the land: for the Moriori their early arrival places them ahead of everybody else, as first settlers among Maori.
8. F. Wilmer, The Indigenous Voice in World Politics (London: Zed Books, 1993), 5.
9. These issues are described in Anne-Marie d'Hauteserre, "Planification économique et migration en Polynésie française," Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales 20-21 (2004): 119-40;
10. Anne-Marie d'Hauteserre, "Développement touristique et dynamiques migratoires dans les archipels éloignés de Polynésie française," Espace, populations, sociétés 2 (2003): 291-302.
11. A. McClintock, "The Angel of Progress: Pitfalls of the Term 'Postcolonialism,'" Social Text 31, no. 2 (1992): 82-88.
12. The quote is from E. Said, Reflexions on Exile (London: Granta, 2000), 295. The phenomenon is also illustrated by the images used on the envelope of Air Calédonie plane tickets in 2007: on one side, two Kanak dance as if trying to catch up widi an Air-Calédonie plane flying high in the sky, above a clear, turquoise lagoon to be crossed with a "traditional" sailing canoe, ready on the right-hand side of the picture. On the left-hand side, two smiling Kanak children, decorated with green wreaths, run toward the onlooker against a typical background of transparent lagoon, white sand, and coconut trees.
13. Evelyn Stokes, A History of Tauranga County (Palmerston North, NZ: Dunmore Press, 1980), 12-13.
14. The term (neo)colonial as used in this text refers to both colonial practices of today and yesteryear as well as to contemporary practices of economic exploitation. See also P. Mongia, ed., introduction to Contemporary Postcolonial Theory: A Reader (New Dehli: Oxford University Press, 2000), 1-18.
15. Narwal El Saadawi, "Why Keep Asking about My Identity?" in Post-colonialism, ed. D. Brydon (New York: Roudedge, 2000), 1335.
16. B. Parry, "Current Problems in the Study of Colonial Discourse," Oxford Literary Review 91, no. 2 (1987): 34-40.
17. H. Khaira, "Postcolonial Theory: A Discussion of Directions and Tensions widi Special Reference to the Work of Frida Kahlo," Kunapipi 20, no. 2 (1998): 41-51.
18. The preamble to the Nouméa Accord, signed in 1998, recognizes France's colonial domination and its evils, in particular against the dignity of the Kanak as a people and uieir culture; the French state apologizes for its faults and the necessity to return the Kanak people their identity. It asks to admit that "colonial times were not without positive elements," so that all residents of New Caledonia can cooperate for a better future for all for the next twenty years, when their political future will be put to a vote. For more details, see Jean Yves Faberon and Jean Raymond Postic, L'Accord de Nouméa, la Loi Organique et autres documents juridiques et politiques de la Nouvelle-Calédonie (Nouméa, New Caledonia: Ile de Lumière, 2004).
19. Philip Temple, The Last True Explorer (London: Godwit, 2002).
20. Said, Culture and Imperialism.
21. Anne-Marie d'Hauteserre, "Representing New Caledonia: Images of Kanak in Tourism Promotion," submitted to Tourism Geographies.
22. Kadir H. Din, "Indigenization of Tourism Development: Some Constraints and Possibilities," in Pacific Tourism, ed. M. Opperman (London: CAB, 1997), 76-81.
23. M. Al Nowaihi, "The 'Middle East?' Or... Arabic Literature and the Postcolonial Predicament," in A Companion to Postcolonial Studies, ed. H. Schwartz and S. Ray (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000), 282-301.
24. For a critical analysis of the successful growth of Foxwoods Casino Resort, which is continuously criticized by surrounding white residents, see Anne-Marie d'Hauteserre, "Foxwoods Casino Resort: An Unusual Experiment in Economic Development," Economic Geography March (1998): 112-21, Special Issue for the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, MA, March 1998;
25. Anne-Marie d'Hauteserre, "Lesson in Managed Destination Competitiveness: The Case of Foxwoods Casino Resort," Tourism Management 21, no. 1 (2000): 23-32.
26. Couze Venn, Occidentalism: Modernity and Subjectivity (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2000).
27. Michel de Certeau, Cultures in the Plural with a preface by Luce Giard (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), 10.
28. Anne Pitoiset, Nouvelle Calédonie (Paris: Editions Autrement, 1999).
29. This quote was taken from Alban Bensa, Nouvelle Calédonie, un paradis dans la tourmente (Paris: Gallimard, 1990), 103.
30. Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic (London: Verso, 1993).
31. Dani Nabudere as cited on page 238 in David Simon, "Rethinking (Post) Modernism, Postcolonialism, and Posttraditionalism," Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 16 (1998): 219-45.
32. B. W. Dippie, The Vanishing American (Kansas City: The University Press of Kansas, 1982).
33. Stokes, A History of Tauranga County, 312.
34. Bernard, 1894, in Bensa, Nouvelle Calédonie, 297.
35. J. Garnier, Voyage autour du monde: Oceánie, les Iles des Pins, Loyauté et Tahiti (Paris: Pion, 1871), 214.
36. Jean-François Lyotard, Just Gaming (Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 1985).
37. In 1984, the Kanak erected barricades, burnt houses and property, killed caule, and attacked Europeans. Europeans organized an ambush in Hienghène in which ten Kanak were killed. The last event on Ouvéa saw two soldiers and nineteen Kanak killed.
38. In her research, Jacqueline Dahlem, Nouvelle Calédonie, Pays Kanak, un récit, deux histoires (Paris: l'Harmattan, 1996), shows how difficult it is to erase stereotypes diat have been used to describe people since colonial times (over several generations).
39. David Chappell, "New Caledonia in Political Reviews - Melanesia," Contemporary Pacific 18, no. 2 (2006): 399-413, offers more recent views of both sides regarding their futures. What often falls between the cracks are the uhoughts and the realities of several minorities (e.g., Javanese, Japanese, Wallisians, and Tahitians) who live in New Caledonia and were brought there to work in the chrome and nickel mines because it was a French colonial territory.
40. Margaret Rodman, "Empowering Place: Multilocality and Multivocality," in The Anthropology of Space and Place, ed. Setha Low and Denise Lawrence Zuniga (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003), 212.
41. Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990), 102.
42. The Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre was built at the behest of President Mitterrand to demonstrate the will of the French state to support Kanak identity, Kanak dignity, and Kanaky (Kanak culture) as a continuing project (as inspired by Jean-Marie Tjibaou) rather than relegating the culture and hence Kanak identity and dignity to some museum, away from politics. A museum does exist to preserve artifacts of the past. Alban Bensa, an anthropologist, has written several texts on Kanak culture, including Chroniques Kanak: L'ethnologie en marche, vol. 10 (Paris: Ethnies-Documents, 1995)
43. and with Isabelle Leblic, En Pays Kanak (Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 2000).
44. Gérard Vladyslav, "L'identité fondée sur le lien à la terre," in Identité, nationalité, citoyenneté outre-mer, ed. Jean-Yves Faberon and Yves Gautier (Paris: la Documentation Française, 1999), 57-72.
45. Sandra Jovchelovitch, Knowledge in Context: Representations, Community and Culture (London: Roudedge, 2007), 165.
46. Institut de la Statistique de Nouvelle Calédonie, Tableaux de l'économie calé donienne (Nouméa, New Caledonia: Institut de la Statistique de Nouvelle Calédonie, 2006).
47. Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (London: Chatto and Windus, 1993), 152.
48. See Jean Guiart, Les Mélanésiens devant l'économie de marché (Nouméa, New Caledonia: Le Rocher-à-la-Voile, 2004)
49. and Cécile Perret, ed., Perspectives de développement pour la Nouvelle Calédonie (Grenoble, France: Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 2002).
50. Grant Farred, "Untitied Contribution to Race and Racism: A Symposium," Social Text, 42 (1995): 21-26.
51. See Bensa, Chroniques Kanak, Gayatri Chakravortry Spivak, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a Critique of the Vanishing Present (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999).
52. Ilan Kapoor, "Hyper-self-reflexive Development? Spivak on Representing the Third World 'Other,'" Third World Quarterly 25, no. 4 (2004): 634.
53. Institut d'Emission d'Outremer, La Nouvelle Calédonie en 2006 (Paris: Institut d'Emission d'Outremer, 2007), 15.
54. Jacques Lafleur, L'assiégé: 25 ans de vie politique. Une histoire partagée avec la Nouvelle Calédonie (Paris: Pion, 2000), 125.
55. Alain Descombels, Quelle économie pour la Nouvelle Calédonie? (Nouméa, New Caledonia: private publication, 2007)
56. Institut d'Emission, La Nouvelle Calédonie en 2006 (Noumea, New Caledonia: Institut d'Emission, 2007).
57. David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (Oxford: Blackwell, 1989).
58. Claudio Minea, "Reinventing the 'Square,'" in Travels in Paradox, ed. Claudio Minea and Tim Oakes (New York: Rowan and Litdefield, 2006), 155-84.
59. Tim Oakes, "Get Real! On Being Yourself and Being a Tourist," in Travels in Paradox, ed. Minea and Oakes, 241.
60. Guiart, Les Mélanésiens.
61. Personal observation of guides when participating in short guided treks, October 2007.
62. "Transcalédonienne 2007: de la poule au cœur," Le Pays Magazine 21 (2007): 18-24.
63. Margaret Jolly, "Imagining Oceania: Indigenous and Foreign Representations of a Sea of Islands," The Contemporary Pacific 19, no. 2 (2007): 508-45.
64. "Danses traditionnelles à Bonde," Le Pays Magazine 22 (2007): 28-30.
65. Faberon and Postic, Preamble to L'Accord de Mouméa.
66. Yann Arthus-Bertrand, La terre vue du ciel, 3rd ed. (Paris: Editions de la Martinière, 2005). The original photograph was taken in 1990 in defense of nature, including mangroves. Mangrove then spread over only half of the original area in New Caledonia; this fragile environment continues to recede as its resources are exploited. Agricultural and urban demands together with pollution also take their toll. However, mangrove remains a crucial habitat for much marine fauna as well as for the health of coastal areas and of the local economy.