Kanak people
New Caledonia languages are divided into several groups. The Northern language group is tonal and includes 12 languages: Caac, Cemuhî, Fwâi, Jawe, Kumak, Nemi, Paicî, Pije, Pwaamei, Pwapwa, Yalayu, and Yuaga. Approximately 60,000 residents of New Caledonia speak at least one of the Kanak languages. Most of these languages are only in spoken form. There is no one unified language among the Kanaks; however, the largest group of Kanaks speak Drehu.
Kanak people
In 1981 the movement for Independence began, following the murder of Pierre Declercq, the secretary general of the Caledonian Union (French: "Union calédonienne", UC) on 19 September 1981. A national forum titled "Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak Socialiste" (FLNKS) was established in 1984. This forum refused to participate in elections to the Territorial Assembly and even declared its own Provincial Government; it met with opposition by the French. FLNKS "organized a boycott of the territorial elections in New Caledonia, smashing ballot boxes and setting up roadblocks to prevent people from voting." The FLNKS persisted with their agitation and unilaterally announced on 7 January 1985 that a referendum on independence would be conducted in July 1985. After the death of Kanak leader Eloi Machoro in 1985, Kanak activists took 27 gendarmes hostage on the island of Ouvéa, igniting a French response (see Ouvéa cave hostage taking).