61 - Defining the Contours of the Lagoon

Summary

If, for most of the states of the Pacific region, the question of political sovereignty is now an old subject, it remains the keystone of all struggles in New Caledonia. Since the end of the sixties, with the return of young Kanak¹ and non-Kanak people who had gone to train in French universities, and particularly later at the University of the South Pacific, the idea of restoring the archipelago’s lost sovereignty has been a constant source of debate. The ‘Pacific Way’ so much advocated by Fiji’s first post-independence leader, Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, has found attentive ears on these South Pacific islands and the Kanak have not ceased since then to overturn the stigmas of the past, assert themselves, and influence the future of their ancestral space.² The question of these islands’ accession to the rank of state is an ongoing process which still prompts frequent, lively public debate. This makes it a special territory in a geographical area where the sovereignty of the Indigenous inhabitants of most of the neighbouring countries has been recovered.