Abstract
Some 350 000 people live in the French territoires d’outre-mer of New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia. Except for foreigners who reside there temporarily or permanently, all are fully-fledged French citizens. Unlike many other overseas territories of ‘colonial’ powers, there exists no second-class citizenship for inhabitants of the French DOM-TOMs. The French of the Pacific enjoy all the rights of their compatriots born in Paris or Lyon, including the right of migration and abode in France. They also share many of the obligations, even if in some cases they are exempt from income tax or national service. In principle, the French of the outre-mer are equal before the law, regardless of skin colour, ethnic origin, place of residence or beliefs.
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Notes and References
Michel Panoff, Tahiti métisse (Paris, 1989).
See also the reports prepared by John Connell for the South Pacific Commission on Migration, Employment and Development in the South Pacific: Country Report No. 5: French Polynesia (Nouméa, 1985)
and No. 21: Wallis and Futuna Islands (Nouméa, 1983)
Further information is contained in the annual reports of the Institut d’Emission d’Outre-Mer, as well as three useful atlases: Robert Brousse, et al., Atlas de Tahiti et de la Polynésie Française (Singapore, 1988)
Frédéric Angleviel, et al., Atlas de Nouvelle-Calédonie (Nouméa, 1989)
and Benoît Antheaume and Joël Bonnemaison, Atlas des îles et états du Pacifique-Sud (Montpellier, 1988)
On the Chinese in Tahiti, see Gérald Coppenrath, Les Chinois de Tahiti: De l’aversion à l’assimilation, 1865–1966 (Paris, 1967)
and Richard U. Moench, ‘Economic Relations of the Chinese in the Society Islands’ (Unpublished PhD thesis, Harvard University, n.d.)
See Isabelle Merle, ‘The Trials and Tribulations of the Emancipists: The Consequences of Penal Colonisation in New Caledonia, 1864–1920’, in Robert Aldrich (ed.), France, Australia and Oceania: Past and Present (Sydney, 1991), pp. 39–55
See also Alan Ward, ‘Labour Policy and Immigration, 1945–1955’, in Michael Spencer, Alan Ward and John Connell (eds), New Caledonia: Essays in Nationalism and Dependency (St. Lucia, Qld, 1988), pp. 81–105
See John Connell, ‘Wallis and Futuna: Stability and Change at the Ends of Empire’, in Aldrich (ed.) France, Australia and Oceania, pp. 91–116.
Alain Saussol, ‘Peut-on parler de créolité en Nouvelle-Calédonie?’ in J.P. Doumenge, et al. (eds), Iles tropicales, insularité, ‘insularisme’ (Talence, 1987), pp. 157–164.
The most comprehensive recent study is Douglas Oliver, Oceania: The Native Cultures of Australia and the Pacific Islands (2 vols, Honolulu, 1989).
The notion of a full-scale destruction of islander culture was promoted in Alan Moorehead, The Fatal Impact (Harmondsworth, 1968), but this hypothesis has generally been rejected.
Michel Panoff, La Terre et l’organisation sociale en Polynésie (Paris, 1970);
François Ravault, ‘Land Problems in French Polynesia’, Pacific Perspective, 9 (1981), pp. 31–65
See Alain Saussol, L’Héritage: Essai sur le problème foncier mélanésien en Nouvelle-Calédonie (Paris, 1979)
and Alan W. Ward, Land and Politics in New Caledonia (Canberra, 1982)
P. Dareste, Traité de droit colonial (Paris, 1931), vol. 2, pp. 333 ff.
Pierre-Yves Toullelan, ‘Church and State in Eastern Polynesia: Tumultuous Relations (1830–1880)’, in Aldrich (ed.), France, Oceania and Australia, pp. 1–18.
See Alain Barbadzan, Naissance d’une tradition: Changement culturel et syncrétisme religieux aux îles Australes (Paris, 1982).
J.M. Kohler, ‘L’Islam en Nouvelle-Calédonie’, L’Afrique et l’Asie modernes, 135 (1982), pp. 3–11
Jean-Claude Roux, ‘Pouvoir religieux et pouvoir politique à Wallis et Futuna’, in Paul De Deckker and Pierre Lagayette, États et pouvoirs dans les territoires français du Pacifique (Paris, 1987), pp. 54–80.
M.R. Charbonnier, ‘Aventures et mésaventures à Wallis et Futuna’, Manuscript MNS 90, Académie des Sciences d’Outre-Mer, Paris.
Jean-Marie Kohler, Profil sociologique de l’église catholique de Wallis et Futuna (Nouméa, 1985)
Paul Hodée, Tahiti 1834–1984:150 ans de vie chrétienne en Eglise (Papeete, 1983) on the Catholics
and Charles Vernier, Au Vent des cyclones (Paris, 1985) on the Protestants;
see also Virginia Thompson and Richard Adloff, The French Pacific Islands (Berkeley, 1971), Ch. 15
Jean-Marie Kohler, Christianity in New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands (Nouméa, 1981).
See James Clifford, Person and Myth: Maurice Leenhardt in the Melanesian World (Berkeley, 1982)
See Apollinaire Anova-Ataba, D’Ataï à l’indépendance (Nouméa, 1984).
In general, see Charles W. Forman, ‘The Impact of Colonial Policy on the Churches of Tahiti and New Caledonia’, International Review of Missions, 305 (1977), pp. 12–21.
See the Commission Justice et Paix report, L’Avenir de l’outre-mer français (Paris, 1988).
Jean-Marie Kohler, ‘The Churches and the Colonial Order’, in Spencer, Ward and Connell (eds), New Caledonia, pp. 145–174
Brigitte Vassort-Rousset, L’Engagement socio-politique des organisations chrétiennes dans le Pacifique (Paris, 1985), pp. 7–10.
Daniel Mauer, Tahiti: De la parole à l’écriture (Paris, n.d.);
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Guy Viêt Levilain, ‘L’Académie tahitienne et la renaissance culturelle en Polynésie française’, Contemporary French Civilization, 2/3 (1978), pp. 440–447
François Ravault, ‘Le Français dans une société pluri-culturelle: l’exemple de Tahiti’, Anthropologie et Société, 6 (1982), pp. 89–105.
Stephen J. Schooling, ‘A Sociolinguistic Survey of New Caledonia’, unpublished paper, Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1982.
See Robert Aldrich and John Connell, ‘Francophonie: Language, Culture or Politics’, in Robert Aldrich and John Connell (eds), France in World Politics (London, 1989), pp. 170–193
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J.M. Kohler and P. Pillon, Adapter l’école ou réorienter le projet social (Nouméa, 1982), p. 9
J.M. Kohler and Loïc J.D. Wacquant, L’Ecole inégale (Nouméa, 1985), p. 52, n. 2.
In addition to the two studies cited in note 41, see J.M. Kohler and Loïc J.D. Wacquant, ‘La Question scolaire en Nouvelle-Calédonie: Idéologies et sociologie’ (Nouméa, 1984), reprinted in Les Temps modernes, No. 464 (1985), pp. 1654–87
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Marie-Adèle Néchéro-Jorédié, ‘A Kanak People’s School’, in Spencer, Ward and Connell (eds), pp. 198–218.
Antoine Périni, ‘L’Introduction du vernaculaire de l’enseignement du 1er degré de l’aire géographique tahitianophone: Contribution d’une reflexion’ (Unpublished thesis, Université de Grenoble, 1985).
Quel Avenir pour les enfants et les jeunes en Nouvelle-Calédonie? Actes d’un colloque au Lycée Jules-Garnier, 25 Juin 1988 (Nouméa, 1988).
See Patrick Pillon, ‘L’Economie domestique en transition. Trois essais’, ORSTOM Rapports scientifiques et techniques, Sociologie, No. 2 (Paris, 1987).
See J.M. Kohler, Colonie ou démocratie. Elements de sociologie politique sur la Nouvelle-Calédonie (Nouméa, 1987)
There are a number of studies on French Polynesia, including: Bengt Danielsson, Work and Life on Raroia (London, 1955) on the Tuamotus;
Ben R. Finney, Polynesian Peasants and Proletarians (Cambridge, Mass., 1973) on two villages of Mai’ao and Tahiti;
Robert I. Levy, Tahitians: Mind and Experience in the Society Islands (Chicago, 1973);
Douglas Oliver, Two Tahitian Villages: A Study in Comparison (Honolulu, 1981);
and Ron Crocombe and Pat Hereniko, Tahiti: The Other Side (Suva, 1985)
On Melanesian attitudes, see, in particular, Jean-Marie Tjibaou, ‘Recherche d’identité mélanesienne et société traditionnelle’, JSO, 32 (1976), pp. 281–292, and
‘Etre Mélanésien aujourd’hui’, Esprit, No. 57 (1981), pp. 81–93
and Jean-Marie Tjibaou and Philippe Missotte, Kanaké (Papeete, 1978)
and Adrien Hnangan, ‘Kanak Aspirations’ in Spencer, Ward and Connell (eds), New Caledonia, pp. 219–229
For a brief summary, Alban Bensa, ‘L’Identité kanak et la colonisation’, Kanaky, No. 16 (1988), pp. 16–18 and No. 17 (1989), pp. 11–12
Déwé Gorodey, Sous les Cendres des conques (Nouméa, 1985).
See Agence de Développement de la Culture Kanak, Do I Neva: Sculpteurs et peintres kanak d’aujourd’hui (Nouméa, 1990).
The Réunion des Musées Nationaux published a major exhibition catalogue, De Jade et de nacre: Patrimoine artistique kanak (Paris, 1990), which contains a number of important essays on Melanesian culture.
Bruno Saura, ‘L’Identité polynésienne: Facteurs de revendication et discours identitaires à Tahiti (Polynésie française)’ (unpublished DEA Thesis, Université d’Aix-Marseille-III, 1986), Ch. 2.
Duro Raapoto, ‘Maohi: On Being Tahitian’, Pacific Perspective, 9 (1980), pp. 3–5
and his book of poems, Te Pinainai o te aau-Pehepehe (Papeete, 1980)
J.M. Kohler, P. Pillon and L.J.D. Wacquant, Jeunesse canaque et coutume (Nouméa, 1985);
see also Patrick Pillon, ‘Jeunesse urbaine mélanésienne et différenciation sociale’ (Unpublished paper, Nouméa, 1985)
Christine Langevin has published parts of her thesis as Tahitiennes de la tradition à Vintégration culturelle (Paris, 1990)
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© 1993 Robert Aldrich
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Aldrich, R. (1993). The Populations and Societies of the French Pacific. In: France and the South Pacific since 1940. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10828-2_4
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