Return to Ouvea, New Caledonia
by: David Stanley
"Ouvea is everything you'd expect in a South Pacific island. Twenty
kilometers of unbroken white sands border the lagoon on the west side
of the island and extend far out from shore to give the water a turquoise
hue. The wide western lagoon, protected by a string of coral islands
and a barrier reef, is the only of its kind in the Loyalties. On the
ocean side are rocky cliffs, pounded by surf, but fine beaches may be
found even here. At one point on this narrow atoll only 450 meters separates
the two coasts. Traditional circular houses with pointed thatched roofs
are still common in the villages."
Those words appeared in the 1985 edition of my South Pacific Handbook
after a visit in 1983. Just over 20 years later I returned to Ouvea
to discover that little had changed in this French colony east of Australia.
Most Ouveans still live in traditional thatched case (houses) and the
beach is as dazzling as ever. On my first evening there, as I watched
the red fireball set slowly across the lagoon, I felt a strong affinity
with my previous visit.
Yet something terrible had happened in my absence. On May 5, 1988,
300 French elite troops stormed a cave near Gossanah in northern Ouvea
to rescue 16 gendarmes captured two weeks earlier by Melanesian freedom
fighters.
Nineteen Kanaks (the collective name used by the indigenous peoples
of New Caledonia) died in the assault, including several who suffered
extrajudicial execution at the hands of the French police after being
wounded and taken prisoner.
None of the hostages had been harmed. Thus began one of the final chapters
of what is now known as the evenements (events) of the 1980s. Three
years earlier independence leader Eloi Machoro had been murdered in
cold blood by police snipers as he stood outside a rural farmhouse near
La Foa, on New Caledonia's main island, Grand Terre.
By 1987 France had 14,000 troops stationed in its mineral-rich Melanesian
colony, one for every five Kanaks. The independence movement was to
be crushed one way or another.
When I tried to visit the cave at Gossanah on my recent trip, I was
told that the area was taboo to allow the spirits time to rest.
Instead I was permitted to visit the grave of Djoubelly Wea in Gossanah
and allowed to take pictures of his home. My host on Ouvea told me the
story. Evidently, the hostages had been taken by young Kanak activists
from other parts of the island, and the captive gendarmes were brought
to Gossanah only because the cave was considered remote.
Residents of the area weren't involved. Yet when the French police
arrived in search of their comrades, they rounded up the people of Gossanah
and assembled them on a football field in front of the village church.
There they were tortured for information, and Wea's father was among
those who died of shock. Later 33 Ouveans were sent to prison in France,
Djoubelly Wea among them.
These events chastened Kanaks and French alike, and the heads of the
main political parties, the Kanak leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou and the
representative of the French settlers Jacques Lafleur, were called to
Paris by Prime Minister Michel Rocard to negotiate and eventually sign
a peace treaty known as the Matignon Accords.
A referendum on independence was promised in 1998, and massive economic
aid was to be channeled into the Kanak regions. An amnesty was granted
to all those arrested during the troubles, and no investigation into
the Ouvea massacre or the murders of several dozen other Kanaks by French
settlers or troops would be required.
Fast forward to May 1989, as the top Kanak leaders Jean-Marie Tjibaou
and Yeiwene Yeiwene arrive on Ouvea for a commemorative ceremony exactly
one year after the massacre.
As the leaders are being received at the chefferie (chiefly house)
of Wadrilla near the center of the island, Djoubelly Wea steps forward
and shoots the pair dead at point blank range. Wea was reflecting a
feeling still palpable in New Caledonia that Tjibaou had sold out to
the French and derailed the struggle of independence.
Tjibaou's bodyguard killed Wea, the final shot of the evenements. Today
the chefferie of Wadrilla is much the same as it was in 1989, a large
thatched case surrounded by a palisade of driftwood logs.
Across the coastal highway, a large monument has been erected to the
19 Kanak martyrs of 1988. Designed with two curving white walls to resemble
a cave, the monument bears the photo, name, and date of birth of each
victim.
Their traditional war clubs have been placed on the back side of the
monument and their remains are interred below.
No memorial to Jean-Marie Tjibaou exists on Ouvea but the French have
constructed a massive cultural center to his memory in their stronghold
Noumea.
In fairness, it must be said that Tjibaou only considered the Matignon
Accords a temporary stop on the road to independence. His assassination
froze the agreement into a sort of permanent solution which the French
have used to justify continuing colonial rule ever since.
The promised 1998 referendum was never held. Instead an updated treaty
called the Noumea Accord was signed. This postponed the referendum for
another 15 or 20 years and promised many things the French government
has yet to deliver.
For example, a key provision creating a special New Caledonian citizenship
status intended to control immigration from France was declared unconstitutional
by a French court in 1999.
Metros (metropolitan French) continue to flood into the territory (in
violation of United nations resolutions on the norms of conduct for
colonial powers in non-self-governing areas) and Europeans may soon
from a clear majority of the population.
Toward the end of my stay I visited the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural
Center in the Tina Peninsula, 12 kilometers northeast of New Caledonia's
capital Noumea. Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, it was built
by French contractors between 1994 and 1998 at a cost of over US$50
million. The center opened on May 4, 1998, 10th anniversary of the assassination
of Jean-Marie Tjibaou.
No visitor can help but be impressed by the spectacular botanical garden
interwoven with references to Kanak legends which encircles the center's
three villages.
A contemporary art gallery, temporary and permanent exhibitions of
Kanak and other Pacific art, a library, an audiovisual room, indoor
and outdoor theaters, and a large ceremonial area are only some of the
center's outstanding features.
Yet the Tjibaou Cultural Center presents Kanak culture as a regional
folklore rather than a national tradition.
Events such as the Ouvea Massacre and the other murders of the 1980s
are barely mentioned. A room in Village Three provides photos and texts
on the life of Jean-Marie Tjibaou, but there's no explanation as to
why he was assassinated or the background of his assassin.
The 19th century land seizures and the muscle flexing and maneuvering
that have prevented independence are carefully avoided. The highlight
for me was an amazing three-meter-high bronze statue of Tjibaou himself,
clad in a Roman toga, on a hill overlooking the center.
Tjibaou was the last real Kanak leader, and in a land where the spirits
of the dead have an important role in the lives of the living, his soul
must be suffering.
About The Author - David Stanley is the author of Moon
Handbooks South Pacific http://www.southpacific.org/pacific.html
which has a chapter on New Caledonia. His online guide to New Caledonia
may be perused at http://www.southpacific.org/text/new_caledonia.html
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