Brian Diettrich, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
After an eight-year hiatus due to COVID, ‘FestPAC’ is back. With its unique combination of song, dance, history and politics, this year’s festival in Hawai'i is more relevant than ever.
Even New Caledonia’s independence leaders have been unable to stop this latest spontaneous eruption of popular rage. France will have to compromise if there is to be a lasting solution.
The author of a major new essay collection reflects on the shifting cultural and political realities in the Pacific, and why it remains an ‘unequal ocean’.
It’s important to understand that a First Nations consultative body such as the Customary Senate doesn’t pose a ‘threat’ to democracy or the rule of law.
Officially, sovereignty has been put to bed with three straight independence referendum defeats. But France is continuing to devolve powers to its territory in an ambitious power-sharing experiment.
Pro-independence parties had sought a delay for the third and final referendum due to the impact of the pandemic on the Indigenous Kanak population. It was denied.
‘Wives’, volunteers, assistants: the vital contribution of women archaeologists has long been underplayed, if not erased. A new project uncovers trailblazers in the Pacific.
During mating season, a male turtle-headed sea snake will often lose sight of the female before mating can happen. The female may be metres away, but the male won’t ever find her again.
With unrest deepening between pro-independence and loyalist groups, the instability in the French province should be of concern to its near neighbours, including Australia.
A similar 2018 referendum failed, but was much closer than anticipated. Some believe independence might pass this time around, particularly with the issue not high on France’s list of priorities.
Thirty years after deadly protests erupted in Australia’s close neighbour, New Caledonians head to the polls again to vote on whether to remain a part of France.
Indigenous New Caledonians, who will vote in an independence referendum next week, have been struggling since French colonisation in 1853. Through songs, they have chronicled past traumas and resistance heroes.
The theory that New Caledonia was a piece of land that separated from the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana was a seductive one. But then a cockroach rose up to challenge it.
Directeur de recherche CNRS, systématicien, directeur de l’Institut de systématique, évolution, biodiversité (ISYEB), Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)