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.
Caloenas
One or two extinct species are known: the Kanaka pigeon was a large species from New Caledonia and Tonga. It is only known by subfossil remains and was probably hunted to extinction by the early settlers. The spotted green pigeon, another extinct species from an unknown locality, has only a slightly similarity to the Nicobar pigeon due to its neck feathers. Ornithologists place it in this genus but there is not a unanimous agreement. One surviving specimen exists in the Liverpool Museum.