Kanak people
Kanak languages are extremely diverse, but French serves as the official language of New Caledonia. There are 28 distinct Kanak languages, as well as many dialects, out of the 1,200 Melanesian languages spoken throughout the Pacific. They are mutually incomprehensible. All are a part of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family. They all belong to the New Caledonian subgroup – except for Fagauvea, which is a Polynesian language.
Indians in New Caledonia
New Caledonia has several descendants of Tamils, whose parents intermarried with the local population already in the last century. New Caledonia requires a special study since a large number of Tamils went there as labourers and a report in a book published about 1919 states that of the Chinese, Indians and Javanese who colonised new Caledonia, the Indians gave satisfaction. In Tahiti in August 1967, were found about twenty families who had descended from Tamils. Neither the parents nor the children had any knowledge of their ancestry, but the parents remembered their own parents and how when their parents and Indian friends met they spoke 'la langue' and often sang and cried remembering their homeland. The family name was the only clue to their Indian origin e.g. Pavalacoddy, Mariasoosay, Rayappan, Saminathan, Thivy, Veerasamy."