Far North Māori rights campaigners Hone Harawira, and wife Hilda Halkyard-Harawira, with Kanak independence campaigner Billy Werewea, who was visiting Kaitāia.
Far North Māori rights campaigners Hone Harawira, and wife Hilda Halkyard-Harawira, with Kanak independence campaigner Billy Werewea, who was visiting Kaitāia.
New Caledonia has been rocked by violence after the French Government proposed new constitutional rules that would give voting rights to many non-resident French nationals.
France has since sent hundreds of troops to the Pacific Island nation to maintain order, but in the escalating violence 10 people have died, including seven, mainly youth, Kanaks.
Seven hundred businesses have closed, with 7000 losing their jobs - with predictions of up to 25,000 job losses - 25 schools have been damaged, affecting 8000 students, and the economy has tanked.
The Société le froid (Le Froid) - a food manufacturing factory in Noumea - burns during rioting by indigenous Kanaks, one of hundreds of businesses destroyed in the violence.
Kanaky independence campaigner Billy Werewea was in Kaitāia this week where he met with veteran Māori rights campaigners Hone Harawira, and wife Hilda Halkyard-Harawira.
Werewea outlined the deteriorating situation in his homeland and sought support from rights activists here.
Werewea said the situation in New Caledonia - traditionally known as Kanaky - was dire, and he expected things to worsen as the year progressed and more people lost their jobs and livelihoods, due to the violence and French crackdown.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the controversial constitutional amendment that sparked the latest violence - effectively expanding the voting power of European settlers at the expense of the indigenous Kanaks - would be suspended, but that has not stopped the protests.
‘’We Kanaks fear that this will be reintroduced again. We want the (amendment) stopped for good not just suspended.’’
Werewea said the feeling among Kanaks was that France was still committed to the amendment so it could cling on to its colonial base in the Pacific by allowing more foreigners to vote.
‘’And that would really just weaken our rights to run our own country, and to self determination and independence even more,’’ he said.
‘’We don’t accept that from the French Government. It’s a blatant attempt to cling on to their power in the Pacific, and they are doing everything to make sure they will have the numbers (to win an independence referendum). So we have asked the French Government to delay that referendum, but they don’t want to do that.’’
Werewea said October to November could see the rioting and violence escalate as those who have lost their jobs start getting hit with economic pain. He then expected the authorities to crack down harder and more people would be hurt or die.
‘’It’s still tense, there are still the road blocks up and the French have sent about 4000 military people to the country, so in October or November things could get really bad.’’
Werewea said he would return home on Friday with the message that the Kanak’s struggle is the same struggle Māori and all other colonised Pacific nations face.
‘’We know that our fight is also their fight and that we will support each other in our struggles, our brothers and sisters from the Pacific.
“Our fight for liberty and self determination is the same as all Pacific peoples. And that Pacific people will not be happy until we are totally free in our own countries.’’
A building burns in Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia, during rioting by indigenous Kanaks over a proposed change in the constitution.
Harawira said he was disappointed in himself, and others, for not highlighting the Kanak’s struggle during the recent Olympic Games.
“We’ve just had the Olympics in Paris and we missed the opportunity to show what the French are doing in the Pacific, in Kanaky and Tahiti.
“It was great that they allowed awareness about Palestine (at the Olympics) but I think we could have made an issue of this on that global stage,’’ he said.
‘’We stare at the images of French planes landing there and 100s of French troops landing in Kanaky, under the guise of there being unrest, but it’s essentially to prevent independence.’’
Harawira said he fully supported the Kanak people in their plight and it was the same struggle that Māori and other indigenous peoples had.
‘’They want their land and rights back and we want our land and rights back. Kanaky is not a suburb of Paris and we recognise and support the Kanaks.’’
■ The Kanaks (French spelling until 1984: Canaque) are the indigenous Melanesian inhabitants of New Caledonia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southwest Pacific.
According to the 2019 census the Kanaks make up 41.2% of New Caledonia’s total population — corresponding to around 112,000 people.
Kanaky is an ethno-political name for the island or the entire territory.
