ANU Pacific Institute Talanga Dialogue: with Mr Jimmy Naouna

Talanoa on the self-determination process in Kanaky-New Caledonia

Kanaky-New Caledonia hit the headlines a year ago when protests and riots brought the country to a halt for many weeks. Roadblocks and barricades, violent clashes with French police forces on the streets of the Capital city of Noumea and Europeans settlers locked in their neighbourhood became common scenes in the media during the civil unrest that led to a dozen deaths, hundreds of businesses burnt down and looted and thousands of jobs losses that prompted many peoples to leave the country and millions of dollars of damages to the economy.

Unfortunately, such events have become part of the colonial history Kanaky-New Caledonia over the last century, from the first Kanak uprising in 1878, followed by the 1917 revolt and the most recent civil war of the 1980’s otherwise known as the “Events” that definitely set the French-occupied territory on the path to decolonisation under the Matignon Accords (1988) and the Noumea Accord ten years later.

Fast forward to 2025. Kanaky-New Caledonia has attained greater autonomy over the past 40 years reaching a state of quasi-independence and the capacity to make local laws and conduct its regional and international affairs among many powers transferred from Paris under the successive agreements between France as the administering power and New Caledonia as a Non-Self Governing Territory on the United Nations list of territories to be decolonised.

The path to full sovereignty and independence may look straight forward now but tensions remain given the deteriorating socio-economic situation and the lack of a clear political commitment from both France and local parties towards a lasting solution for the future of Kanaky-New Caledonia as a Blue Pacific nation.

Speaker

Mr Jimmy Naouna is of Kanak origin, the indigenous Melanesian people of Kanaky-New Caledonia. He is also a member of PALIKA Political Bureau. PALIKA - Kanak Liberation Party - is one of the major political parties within the pro-independence coalition the FLNKS (Kanak National and Socialist Liberation Front) of New Caledonia.

Mr Naouna graduated with Bachelor of Arts from La Trobe University Melbourne in 1994 and has since worked around the Pacific, formerly at the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Secretariat (Pacific Concerns Resources Centre) in Suva, Fiji in the early 2000 before joining the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Secretariat in Port Vila, Vanuatu in 2010 after a stint in the Nickel mining industry in New Caledonia.

He is now a senior advisor on regional and multilateral affairs.

Light refreshments will be provided after the event.

*Talanga: the Tongan term of interactive conversation with a purpose

Image by Carl F. K. Pao (1971- ) Oʻahu, Hawaii Pasifika, 2012

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