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