New Caledonia

Austronesian voyagers of the Lapita culture settled the archipelago around 3,000 years ago, and the Kanak developed clan-based societies built on yam horticulture, exchange, and the authority of chiefs. James Cook charted the main island in 1774 and named it for Scotland. France annexed it in 1853 and, from 1864, used it as a penal colony — some 20,000 convicts were transported, including Communards after 1871 — until 1897.

Settlers, known as Caldoches, and indentured labourers from Asia and other Pacific islands arrived for nickel mining and cattle ranching. The Kanak were pushed onto reserves, taxed, and subjected to forced labour and a curfew; major revolts in 1878 and 1917 were crushed. Kanak gained the vote only in 1957, and from the 1970s a pro-independence movement, the FLNKS, grew. The mid-1980s brought a period close to civil war, "les Événements", culminating in the 1988 Ouvéa cave siege in which nineteen Kanak and six others died.

The Matignon Accords of 1988 and the Nouméa Accord of 1998 set up power-sharing, a restricted electoral roll, and a series of three referendums on independence. Voters rejected independence in 2018 (57 per cent) and 2020 (53 per cent); a third vote in 2021 produced a 96 per cent "no" but was boycotted by the FLNKS, which disputes its legitimacy. In May 2024 a French bill to widen the electoral roll triggered riots that killed more than a dozen people, caused billions of euros of damage, and pushed the nickel industry and tourism into crisis; negotiations on a new political settlement are continuing.

Kanak culture centres on the chefferies (customary chiefdoms), the round grande case with its carved rooftop spire, the yam calendar, and la coutume — the ceremonial offering of cloth, money, and words that must open any serious meeting or visit. Around 28 Kanak languages are spoken, the pilou is the great communal dance, and a Customary Senate sits alongside the elected institutions. Renzo Piano's Tjibaou Cultural Centre in Nouméa is the modern showcase.

Overlaid on this is a French-Caledonian settler culture — Nouméa is in many ways a Mediterranean town transplanted to the Pacific — along with Wallisian, Tahitian, Vietnamese, and Ni-Vanuatu communities. The relationship between Kanak and non-Kanak, and the question of a shared or separate future, is the unavoidable theme of life here, and visitors are expected to be respectful of it, to ask before entering tribal land, and to observe local tabu sites.

About 270,000 people live in New Caledonia — roughly two-fifths Kanak, a quarter of European descent, and the rest Wallisian, mixed, or Asian — with more than half in Greater Nouméa, a modern French city of marinas, supermarkets, and suburbs. The interior, "la brousse", and the Loyalty Islands are more Kanak and more rural.

The economy has rested on nickel — mining and smelting — which is now in deep trouble, alongside the French public sector, state transfers, and tourism. There is a stark income gap between Nouméa and the mainly Kanak north and islands. French prices, wages, schooling, and welfare shape daily life, and since 2024 so has the disruption from the unrest: shortages, damaged infrastructure, and a sharp economic downturn.

Bougna is the signature Kanak dish: yam, taro, sweet potato, and chicken, fish, or flying fox with coconut milk, wrapped in banana leaves and baked in an earth oven. Reef fish, lobster, mud crab, and the prized local prawn (la crevette calédonienne) are abundant, and venison from introduced deer appears on menus.

Nouméa has French bakeries, charcuterie, cheese, and bistro cooking, and Vietnamese phở, bò bún, and spring rolls are a beloved everyday option thanks to the long-established Vietnamese community. Tropical fruit, market vegetables, and imported French wine round out the table.

The New Caledonia barrier reef and lagoon are a UNESCO World Heritage Site — the second-longest reef system in the world, enclosing a huge lagoon dotted with sand-cay islets such as Amédée, with its slender colonial lighthouse, and overlooked from the air by the "Cœur de Voh", a heart-shaped clearing in the mangroves.

The Isle of Pines, off the southern tip, has the columnar pines, the white sand of Kuto and Kanumera bays, and the natural swimming pool of Oro. The Loyalty Islands — Lifou, Maré, and Ouvéa — offer limestone cliffs, caves, and long beaches with a strong Kanak presence. On the main island, the Blue River provincial park and the red-earth "Grand Sud" preserve endemic dry forest and the flightless cagou bird, and the northeast coast around Hienghène has the black limestone "brooding hen" rock formations. Humpback whales gather in the southern lagoon between July and September.