Decolonizing Kanaky in our Sea of Islands

As we write these lines, Kanaky still lives under a daily curfew as part of counterrevolutionary measures imposed on Kanak people following the May 13, 2024 uprising in the country. The powerful indigenous revolt and the murderous violence of the settler and colonial authorities’ reaction has brought a solidarity movement in Oceania, in particular among Melanesians. We asked Roselyne Makalu and Anaïs Duong-Pedica to reflect on this movement, its promises, and some of its blindspots.

Our region has always been preyed upon by imperialist powers, but our history has shown us countless times that it is within the relations we weave through our dear Ocean that we get all our strength to face adversity. As we write this text, we are burying the seventh Kanak victim of the violent repression to the great revolt that broke out on May 13, 2024. Victorin Rock Wamytan was killed by a sniper of the French gendarmerie in the morning of Wednesday, July 10 at the Saint-Louis tribe, near the city of Nouméa. While French high commissioner Louis Le Franc speaks of self-defense, others deny this version and denounce an execution on customary land, “an act of war” even, as some pro-independence leaders have called it. Alongside Wamytan (38 years old), the names of the Kanak who have been martyred for Kanaky in 2024 are Jybril Salo (19 years old), Nassaié Daouka (17 years old), Dany Tidjite (48 years old), Josh Poulawa (34 years old), Chrétien Neregote (36 years old) and Lionel Paita (26 years old), all killed either by militiamen or by the forces of colonial order.