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.
Kanak people
The word 'Kanak' is derived from "kanaka maoli", a Hawaiian phrase meaning 'ordinary person' which was at one time applied indiscriminately by European explorers, traders and missionaries in Oceania to any non-European Pacific islander. Prior to European contact, there were no unified states in New Caledonia, and no single self-appellation used to refer to its inhabitants. Other words have been coined from "Kanak" in the past few generations: "Kanaky" is an ethno-political name for the island or the entire territory. "Kanéka" is a musical genre associated with the Kanak, stylistically a form of reggae with added flutes, percussion and harmonies. "Kaneka" often has political lyrics and is sung in Drehu, Paici or other Melanesian languages, or in French. The word "kanak" is grammatically invariable. The German racial epithet "Kanake" — which is now applied to all non-whites, even southern Europeans in some cases, and especially to Turkish immigrants — also derives from the same source, and was originally applied to people from German colonial possessions in Oceania.