Mixed-Race Kanak in “a World Cut in Two”: Contemporary Experiences in Kanaky/New Caledonia

This article interrogates how the profound history of spatial segregation across colonial, racial, and cultural lines appears in contemporary narratives of mixed-race people in Kanaky/New Caledonia (K/NC). By tracing the moments that specific spaces, such as “the city” and “the tribe,” are mentioned in these narratives, the article shows how the colonial divide structures selves, relations, spaces, and society and manifests itself in discussions with self-identified métis/ses Kanak-White people, especially in the context of the formal decolonization process K/NC is going through. The research draws primarily on interviews with self-identified métis/ses Kanak-White people that took place a few months before the 2018 referendum for independence. The primary question this article seeks to answer is: how does French colonialism spatially determine the lives of métis/ses in K/NC? For this purpose, it analyzes how métis/ses Kanak-White people navigate the variety of spaces they inhabit through experiences of everyday racism and explores how spatial polarization appears in their stories, particularly given the significance of the land for Kanak identity. Notably, the article shows how colonial rhetoric transpires in these different spaces by way of regulating whether the métis/se body belongs within a particular space.