The Charter of the Kanak People: in pursuit of “cooperative and balanced legal pluralism” in New Caledonia

Morrison, Rowena Dickins

doi:10.1080/07329113.2016.1223969

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…New actors have entered the arena (multinational companies such as INCO and Falconbrige, now Vale and Glencore, big international NGOs like CI, WWF, PEW, indigenous and environmental associations), new discourses are mobilized (corporate social responsibility, sustainable development, indigenous rights, conservation and environmentalism), and new arenas and regulations appear (ICMM, UNDRIP, etc .). However, the recently issued Kanak People's Charter (2014) provides a constitutional matrix on the basis of which Kanak law and sovereignty (internal or external) could be asserted (see Dickins Morrison 2016 for an analysis of the Charter in terms of legal pluralism).…”

Section: Conclusion: Sovereign Pluralism In the New Caledonian Decolo...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The recent adoption of the ‘Charter of the Kanak People on the Common Foundation of Fundamental Values and Principles of the Kanak Civilisation’ (Sénat Coutumier 2014) helps grasp how the affirmation of the inherent collective rights and sovereignty of the Kanak people generated legal work in which the underlying principles of up‐to‐now informal norms and practices are formalized. Customary authorities also advocated for that Charter's formal inclusion in any future constitutional arrangement following the Noumea Accord process (Demmer and Trépied 2017; Dickins Morrison 2016).…”

Section: Decolonization and Sovereign Pluralism In New Caledoniamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mining and Competing Sovereignties in New Caledonia

Meur

Levacher

2022

Oceania

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Mining, especially nickel mining, has a long history in New Caledonia and cannot be separated from the trajectory of this territory as a settler colony. However, the construction of mining as a political stake and resource in the New Caledonian public arenas has come surprisingly late, only emerging explicitly in the 1990s as pro‐independence parties pushed the issue to the fore in their negotiations with the French state and anti‐independence parties. Nickel mining and processing became part of the claim for sovereignty in the form of a ‘resource nationalism’ discourse. This paper discusses the multi‐layered nature of sovereignty through the theoretical propositions of Richard Joyce on ‘competing sovereignties’ (2013) to illustrate both the complexities of a decolonization situation that has lasted for 20 years and the challenges posed to sovereignty by mining.

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Section: Conclusion: Sovereign Pluralism In the New Caledonian Decolo...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Decolonization and Sovereign Pluralism In New Caledoniamentioning

confidence: 99%

Mining and Competing Sovereignties in New Caledonia

Meur

Levacher

2022

Oceania

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“…Indeed, the proposal perpetuates the great divide between native sujets (subjects) and citoyens (citizens) in terms of their rights and obligations under colonial rule. In an article on legal pluralism in New Caledonia, Dickins Morrison (2016: 484–486) gives a clear summary of their main argument:Demmer and Salomon (2013) maintain that the courts are fixing Kanak identity and “values” in law in an essentialist, reductionist and regressive way, which fails to take into account the continual transformation of Kanak society and social norms, contemporary realities, and the multiplicity of Kanak identities and modes of life today. Moreover, these authors argue that “judicial custom” represents a new source of social discrimination and violence rather than a victory over the denial of Kanak difference, because it reinforces certain power relations within Kanak society and penalizes the most vulnerable and dominated members thereof, such as women, youth, homosexuals, and men and clans of low social rank in the customary hierarchy.…”

Section: Conclusion: “Criticism Is Easy But Art Is Difficult”mentioning

confidence: 99%

La critique est aisée, mais l’art est difficile. A critical anthropology put to the test of decolonization: Lessons from New Caledonia

Gagné

Salaün

2022

Anthropological Theory

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This article focuses on anthropologists’ analyses of decolonization struggles in relationship to past and present movements for self-determination. We begin by highlighting the relevance of Georges Balandier's model of the “colonial situation” for the understanding of these struggles. Next, we show that, as Pierre Bourdieu, following Balandier, suggested, the analysis of these struggles cannot forego an analysis of the position of the researchers themselves in the situation. This brings to light the difficulty of constructing one's “atopic position” as a researcher in decolonization processes. We aim to show that the theoretical precepts which anthropologists adopt (and the precepts’ moral underpinnings) lead them to minimize or overlook the political aspects of decolonization processes. This involves a certain blindness to the concrete conditions—economic, social, and political—that have led to the situation in question. We explore in detail the example of “critical” analyses of the “Kanak People's School System” (École populaire kanak, EPK)—a nationalist Kanak project, aimed at decolonizing the New Caledonia school system in the mid-1980s. We also briefly look at “critical” interpretations of a recent initiative undertaken by a segment of the Kanak population involving the establishment of a written “customary law” in civil (and potentially criminal) matters, which tends to distance itself from the nationalist strategy.

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“…25 25 On the complex socio and political situation of present‐day New Caledonia see, among others, Leblic and Cugola (2018); also Bensa et al (2017), Demmer and Trepied (2017), Faberon (2013), Chappell (2013), Faugere and Merle (2010), Mokaddem (2009), Bensa (1999), Dickins‐Morrison (2016). …”

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confidence: 99%

‘On a nos mots à dire’: Kanak Women's Experience of Bridewealth in Lifou

Paini

2020

Oceania

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Bridewealth in Lifou cannot be discussed on its own; rather it should be considered within the plurality of ceremonial acts which are needed to legitimize a marriage as customary. What do these transactions mean? Where does women's agency lie? Through a longitudinal analysis of ethnographic materials from my fieldwork in Lifou, Loyalty Islands, I consider how Kanak women are engaged in and perceive these ceremonial and cultural processes through a declared women's perspective that highlights their ability to make autonomous choices in an open ended historical context. I argue that it is a case of 'positive agency'. I emphasize that local categories (june hmala and wenehleng) which define specific moments in this process can be subsumed under the anthropological term 'bridewealth'. Further, I examine the meaning of money in bridewealth and the fact that the monetary contribution keeps increasing, raising local concerns about the need to regulate the amount circulating in marriage exchanges and its dispersion. Furthermore in Lifou there is no indication that the assembling of the bridewealth by the grooms implies a commoditization and (later) exploitation of women.

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The Charter of the Kanak People: in pursuit of “cooperative and balanced legal pluralism” in New Caledonia

Cited by 5 publications

References 40 publications

Mining and Competing Sovereignties in New Caledonia

Mining and Competing Sovereignties in New Caledonia

La critique est aisée, mais l’art est difficile. A critical anthropology put to the test of decolonization: Lessons from New Caledonia

‘On a nos mots à dire’: Kanak Women's Experience of Bridewealth in Lifou

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