Education, colonisation and Kanak aspirations in New Caledonia: Historical contexts and contemporary challenges

Abstract

This is an analysis of the role that education has played in the development of colonial relations in New Caledonia. It examines the historical impact of French colonialism and particularly colonial education, and details some of the ways that Kanak educational resistance became a focus of the radicalisation of the Kanak indepedence movement during the 1970s and 80s. It includes a discussion of the rise and eventual demise of the independent school initiative, les Ecoles Populaires Kanak (EPK), and explains how intimately connected the EPK was to the FLNKS policy of rupture with French colonialism. In its discussion of the post-conflict era which began with the 1988 signing of the Matignon Accords and looking towards the 2018 referendum on self-determination, this article considers the state of Kanak languages and the extent to which the challenge of Kanak educational underachievement is being met.