« Nous sommes d’ici et de nulle part ailleurs, vous êtes d’ici mais aussi d’ailleurs. » (Kanak independence leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou to New Caledonian pro-France leader Jacques Lafleur, in Fraser, 1990)
When Kanak independence leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou spoke these words to pro-France Caldoche leader, Jacques Lafleur, in 1983, in the midst of turmoil leading to civil war in France’s South Pacific possession, New Caledonia, he was no doubt enunciating a key difference between the local long-term French residents (the Caldoches) and the indigenous people (the Kanaks), but at the same time he was making a generous concession to France, one full of possibilities. To concede that “you”, the French newcomers from the nineteenth century to the present, were “from” or “of” the Pacific (the French word “de” means both), as much as being “from” or “of” another place, was an extraordinarily inclusive idea from a preeminent regional indigenous independent leader. It is a conciliatory construct t...