How many Kanak still live in New Caledonia?
Susanna Ounei
Susanna Ounei was born in 1945 in Ouvéa in the Loyalty Islands Province of New Caledonia.
Her official birthdate was 15 August 1945, although later in life she found that this date may have been incorrect.
She grew up in Poindimié on the east coast of New Caledonia.
Under French colonial rule the Kanak population fell from about 70,000 in the pre-colonial era to about 26,000 in the 1980s.
The Kanaks were segregated from whites and were subject to many restrictions and impositions.
Ounei wrote that "We grew up seeing how our parents were humiliated."
Serious Kanak resistance began to develop in the 1960s and 1970s.
In response, the French government encouraged massive migration to New Caledonia to reduce the Kanaks to a powerless minority.
New Caledonia catshark
The New Caledonia catshark or Kanakorum catshark ("Aulohalaelurus kanakorum") is a catshark of the family Scyliorhinidae in the order Carcharhiniformes, known only from one specimen collected near southwestern New Caledonia in the western central Pacific Ocean. The holotype measured . The New Caledonia catshark is a rare and vulnerable inshore catshark found around coral reefs.