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
When Kanaks were forced to move to reserve areas of the island, closer to the mountains, they occupied only 10 per cent of the area of their ancestral territories given that their population had declined so dramatically due to disease, and their living conditions became very hard. This situation arose consequent to induction of 20,000 convicts by the French government between 1864 and 1897, most of whom settled permanently in the country, and who were employed to extract nickel (beginning with 1864) and copper from 1875 onwards. This caused serious resentment among the Kanaks who revolted in 1878 against the French colonial rule, which was suppressed by the French who were better armed. The Kanak leader was decapitated, and his head was put on display in the Museum of Natural History.