Has “White Nouméa” Become More Kanak?

Abstract

AbstractDuring the entire period of the “Code de l’Indigénat” (Indigenous Code applied between 1887 and 1946), the Indigenous Kanak people were excluded from the capital city of the New Caledonian archipelago. With this city ban, the colonial administration contributed to the long-term marginalisation of the Kanak presence in Nouméa. In the aftermath of World War II and after the departure of American troops from the territory (1946), Nouméa resembled a small French regional town, without any real Pacific identity, and was thus nicknamed “White Nouméa” (in French “Nouméa la Blanche”). There was no sign at that time of the extraordinary demographic shift that would be underway in New Caledonia, and more specifically in the city of Nouméa, throughout the second half of the twentieth century.This urban expansion was accompanied by ethnic redistribution in the city. After the institutional process of decolonisation that lasted for almost 20 years, the Kanak presence in the city (one inhabitant in four) became indisputable from a demographic point of view. Yet, the continuing urban marginalisation of Kanak people shows the limits of the framework that was extolled on signing the Nouméa Accord (1998) for living together and sharing a “common destiny”. The persistence of acute spatial, social and political inequalities raises the question of the place of the Indigenous people in Nouméa today.