A Kanak war club is a traditional weapon (mace) of the Kanak tribes of New Caledonia.
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A Kanak war club is a traditional weapon (mace) of the Kanak tribes of New Caledonia.
Usually cut from a hardwood type of iron wood, gaiac or kohu [1] they were used for war. Like all the Pacific clubs, their forms were of a very wide variety and specific to each country and each purpose. [2] They were found in phallic form, but also in the form of a fungus or a bird’s beak. [3] Their striking head consisted of a root knot. [4] These weapons were originally decorated with plants, human hair, or cloths, and were wielded with one or two hands. [5]
Oceanian art specialist Roger Boulay makes a distinction between a mace, that is "an object whose percussion point is in the axis of the handle" and a club, that is "an object whose percussion point is shifted in relation to this axis".
The Kanak called the "bird beak" club a "turtle beak". [6]
New Caledonia is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, south of Vanuatu, about 1,210 km (750 mi) east of Australia. Technically, it is classified as a sui generis collectivity of overseas France, and is located 17,000 km (11,000 mi) from Metropolitan France.
Nouméa is the capital and largest city of the French special collectivity of New Caledonia and is also the largest francophone city in Oceania. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main island, Grande Terre, and is home to the majority of the island's European, Polynesian, Indonesian, and Vietnamese populations, as well as many Melanesians, Ni-Vanuatu and Kanaks who work in one of the South Pacific's most industrialised cities. The city lies on a protected deepwater harbour that serves as the chief port for New Caledonia.
The Ouvéa cave hostage taking occurred from 22 April 1988 to 5 May 1988 on the island of Ouvéa, New Caledonia, a south Pacific island under control of France. During the stand-off and seizure of a brigade of gendarmerie, members of an independence movement, the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front, killed four gendarmes and took 27 unarmed gendarmes hostages, later also taking hostage a public prosecutor who had been sent to negotiate, seven members of the French GIGN military unit and a regular army lieutenant. They demanded talks with the French government about independence for New Caledonia from France. In previous years, about ten gendarmes had been killed in New Caledonia in connection with the independence movement, also some Kanaks had been killed by policiers and gendarmes as well like Richard Kamuda in 1975, Théodore Daye in 1980, Eloi Machoro and Marcel Nonaro in 1985 and a young Kanak of the Saint-Louis tribe in 1987.
The Isle of Pines is an island in the Pacific Ocean, in the archipelago of New Caledonia, an overseas collectivity of France. The island is part of the commune (municipality) of L'Île-des-Pins, in the South Province of New Caledonia. The Isle of Pines is nicknamed l'île la plus proche du paradis.
Ouvéa or Uvea is a commune in the Loyalty Islands Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The settlement of Fayaoué, on Ouvéa Island, is the administrative centre of the commune.
Voh is a commune in the North Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean.
Maurice Leenhardt, was a French pastor and ethnologist specialising in the Kanak people of New Caledonia.
Two flags are in use in New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France. Up to 2010, the only flag used to represent New Caledonia was the flag of France, a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured blue, white, and red known to English speakers as the French Tricolour or simply the Tricolour. However, in July 2010, the Congress of New Caledonia voted in favour of a wish to fly the Kanak flag of the independence movement FLNKS alongside the French Tricolour. The wish, legally non-binding, proved controversial. A majority of New Caledonian communes, but not all, now fly both flags, the rest flying only the French Tricolour.
The Kanaks are the indigenous Melanesian inhabitants of New Caledonia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southwest Pacific. Kanak peoples traditionally speak diverse Austronesian languages that belong to the New Caledonian branch of Oceanic. According to the 2019 census, the Kanaks make up 41.2% of New Caledonia's total population — corresponding to around 112,000 people. The other populations are the Caldoche, who are European born in New Caledonia; the Zoreille, who were born in metropolitan France and live in New Caledonia, in addition to about 10% that are non-Kanak Polynesians and 10% that are mixed race.
Thierry Lataste is a senior French civil servant, who served as High Commissioner of New Caledonia from July to August 1994, 1999 to 2002, and again from 2016 to 2019.
An independence referendum was held in New Caledonia on 4 October 2020. The poll was the second to be held under the terms of the Nouméa Accord, following a similar referendum in 2018.
Emmanuel Kasarhérou is the curator of Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, located in Paris, France. He is the first Kanak person to head a major museum in mainland France. He is the former head of the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre in New Caledonia. He specializes in the art of New Caledonia and Oceanic cultures.
An independence referendum was held in New Caledonia, a French territory in the South Pacific, on 12 December 2021. The vote was the third and final one to be held under the terms of the Nouméa Accord, following votes in 2018 and 2020.
Alban Bensa was a French anthropologist. He was director of studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and specialized in the study of New Caledonia and Kanak people.
The Maritime Museum of New Caledonia is a maritime museum in New Caledonia. It is largely dedicated to the history of French colonial exploration in the Pacific and the collection includes objects retrieved from the frigates Astrolabe and Boussole, which were wrecked under the captaincy of Jean-François de Galaup de Lapérouse.
Rebecca Kulimoetoke is an artist and teacher from Wallis, in the French overseas territory of Wallis and Futuna. An expert in tapa cloth, she is also a visual artist, with her painting featured in exhibitions and on stamps. She donated several of her works to the Musée du Vivant-AgroParisTech, where they are displayed with objects loaned by Uvea Museum Association. In 2015 her work was displayed as part of Dordogne's Histoire de passages festival. She studied at Jean Monnet University before returning to Wallis.
Caroline Machoro-Reignier is a Kanak politician in New Caledonia. A member of the pro-independence Caledonian Union, she led the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front alliance in the Congress of New Caledonia from 2011 to 2014. In 1988, she was one of the signatories of the Matignon Agreements between New Caledonian loyalists and separatists.
Gil Brial is a politician from New Caledonia who is the leader of the Caledonian People's Movement.
Jean Guiart was a French anthropologist and ethnologist specializing in Melanesia. From 1972 to 1982 he was president of the Société des Océanistes.
In May 2024, protests and riots broke out in New Caledonia, a sui generis collectivity of overseas France in the Pacific Ocean. The violent protests have led to ten deaths, the declaration of a state of emergency on 16 May, deployment of the French army, and the block of the social network TikTok.
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