The French military presence is everywhere. Here, a helicopter sweeps over the Kanak insurgent’s headquarters (a farmhouse) at Thio, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
French teenagers sprawl at midday on the beach at Anse Vata—and to that extent, including the topless trend, they lead a life imitative of the metropole, a kind of bargain basement St Tropez, with a covering of red Pacific dust, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Insurgents of the ragged army of the Kanak Socialist Liberation Front in New Caledonia are part-time insurgents only. Most of the time, they are farmers. Their task is to retain some control over the countryside surrounding the east coast town of Thio, centre of the nickel mining industry and thus the heart of the New Caledonia economy, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
New Caledonia in general and Noumea in particular are almost defined by graffiti. Add to it the political polemics and the glib irrationality of race and there is a picture of a troubled society, which is more to the point than the tourist images of bikinis, beaches, bathing and boats, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
The French military presence is everywhere. Here, on the road between Noumea and the airport at Tontouta, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Farmer-insurgents spend one week in three doing duty based at a farmhouse on the outskirts of Thio. They man roadblocks and remain in a state of preparedness for any vigilante actions that might be mounted against them by whites seeking to wipe out the small gains the Kanaks have made in re-establishing their presence on tribal lands, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
The late Eloi Machoro, shot dead by gendarmes at La Foa in January 1985, was the gladiator for the Kanak Socialist Liberation Front. He was mindful of the adage that living by the sword would condemn him to the sharp end of it, and he was nervous about it—though with bravado. Machoro was a fed up with the words about freedom and justice: he had been listening to them for the best part of thrity years. He led the incursions on to farms, which occupied land formely in tribal ownership. He and his followers would harass the occupants—and threaten them—until they either reached an accommodation with Machoro and his men or they left their farms and sought settlement from the Land Office in Noumea. Machoro had made them an offer they chose not to refuse. He knew the French could wipe him out with the merest flick of a finger and he remarked on it just a few days before his journey to la Foa, and his death at the hands of a French marksman. In Noumea, his opponents celebrated in the streets, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Women, who help on the barricades from time to time, tend the open-fire cooking area and prepare the next meal. There is an unmistakable French influence. Some sit with a bowl of cafe au lait and munch on a stick of bread. Others sit and read a Paris Match version of their activities, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Insurgents of the ragged army of the Kanak Socialist Liberation Front in New Caledonia are part-time insurgents only. Most of the time, they are farmers. Their task is to retain some control over the countryside surrounding the east coast town of Thio, centre of the nickel mining industry and thus the heart of the New Caledonia economy. Farmer-insurgents spend one week in three doing duty based at a farmhouse on the outskirts of Thio. They man roadblocks and remain in a state of preparedness for any vigilante actions that might be mounted against them by whites seeking to wipe out the small gains the Kanaks have made in re-establishing their presence on tribal lands, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Farmer-insurgents spend one week in three doing duty based at a farmhouse on the outskirts of Thio. They man roadblocks and remain in a state of preparedness for any vigilante actions that might be mounted against them by whites seeking to wipe out the small gains the Kanaks have made in re-establishing their presence on tribal lands, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Farmer-insurgents spend one week in three doing duty based at a farmhouse on the outskirts of Thio. They man roadblocks and remain in a state of preparedness for any vigilante actions that might be mounted against them by whites seeking to wipe out the small gains the Kanaks have made in re-establishing their presence on tribal lands, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
The French military presence is everywhere. Here, an armoured personal carrier partolling the streets of the nickel mining town of Thio, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Farmer-insurgents spend one week in three doing duty based at a farmhouse on the outskirts of Thio. They man roadblocks and remain in a state of preparedness for any vigilante actions that might be mounted against them by whites seeking to wipe out the small gains the Kanaks have made in re-establishing their presence on tribal lands, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Farmer-insurgents spend one week in three doing duty based at a farmhouse on the outskirts of Thio. They man roadblocks and remain in a state of preparedness for any vigilante actions that might be mounted against them by whites seeking to wipe out the small gains the Kanaks have made in re-establishing their presence on tribal lands, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Farmer-insurgents read a Paris Match version of their exploits at the Machoro encampment on the outskirts of Thio, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
A gendarmes roadblock on the road between Boulapari and Thio north of Noumea to check for guns and liquor. The roadblock is also manned by members of the Kanak FLNKS, making sure the gendarmes do their job properly, since any weapons being smuggled into the area are likely to be for the use of white vigilante groups for use against Kanak insurgents. There is a constant half-bantering dialogue between the two groups of checkers, but the weapons on both sides—semi-automatic rifles and handguns for the genddarmes and sticks and hoes for the Kanaks, are a constant reminder of the seriousness underlying the banter, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
New Caledonia in general and Noumea in particular are almost defined by graffiti. Add to it the political polemics and the glib irrationality of race and there is a picture of a troubled society, which is more to the point than the tourist images of bikinis, beaches, bathing and boats, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
In Noumea, Champs Elysee elegance remains amongst the tawdry streets. A city of tension, lived in but not quite cared for, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
The French military presence is everywhere. Here, the CRS, the Paris riot squad, in Noumea, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
The French military presence is everywhere. Here, barbed wire surrounds the telecommunications installation at the post office in Bourail, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Altogether a French provincial town, Bourail is a bastion of anti-independence. Even fourth generation caldoches remain French and New Caledonia is merely a state of the metropole, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Altogether a French provincial town, Bourail is a bastion of anti-independence. Even fourth generation caldoches remain French and New Caledonia is merely a state of the metropole, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
New Caledonia in general and Noumea in particular are almost defined by graffiti. Add to it the political polemics and the glib irrationality of race and there is a picture of a troubled society, which is more to the point than the tourist images of bikinis, beaches, bathing and boats, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Jeanine and Claude Dubois: she a gynaecologist, he a paediatrician, she from the metropole, he a Caledonian. “The average level of the Melanesian is lower than that of the average white. But you have to remember that 200 years ago, they were in tribes and eating one another. In 200 years, we’ve had then make a considerable evolution. They haven’t caught up with our level, but they’ve done well. In 200 years, you can’t catch up on 2000 years of culture.” New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
New Caledonia in general and Noumea in particular are almost defined by graffiti. Add to it the political polemics and the glib irrationality of race and there is a picture of a troubled society, which is more to the point than the tourist images of bikinis, beaches, bathing and boats, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Claude Bouquet, chief of the Pothe tribe near Bourail, trembles with suppressed passion when it is suggested that he is one of the Kanak tribal leaders who is supposed to be against independence. He clenches his fists and hugs his arms against his torso. He repeats important words three times for emphasis: “Everyone here is for independence. Everyone, everyone, everyone.” He sweeps an arm about—“This is our land around here. We’re squashed in here, and then the whites, they get the benefit of our land, and then they expolit us as well. I’ve been to France. It’s too far away from here. They don’t know anything about what happens here. But then they tell us which is our place, our land. We’re demanding our rights. We’re always slaves here. Ahhhhh . . . we’re sick of it, sick, sick, sick. Had it up to here . . . We’re the people of this land.” New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
“You see that land there? There are only whites who raise their cattle on that land. It started in 1858 since the whites came. They came as convicts, and when they got out of the prisons they started to push us. You see? I’m 67 now. I was born in 1919. My father and my grandfather, they knew all about that.” (Claude Bouquet, Pothe chief, Bourail), New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Gaiton Boanmola, 80 years old, has lived on his small farm a few kilometres from Bourail for the past 58 years. Now, he says, he is being harassed by nearby tribespeople who believe he is occupying land that is rightfully theirs. They cut his fences and throw rocks on his roof. “Still, that’s kids’ fun. They’ve done nothing to me. My son was here, but then he became frightened and went to Bourail.” Gaiton puts responsibility for his harassment with the Government: since they gave him the land, they, not he, must solve the problems with his tribal neighbours. “The independence asked for,” he says, “is not reasonable. They’re asking for independence for the Kanaks—but we don’t count. When we came here, there were just trees. I made a space here, to build my house; I worked; I made that road there. And now, they want it for themselves alone. It’s not logical.” New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Canala farmer, Noel Kabar, his wife, Lucette and daughters Annie-Claude and Yannick. Canala has been all but deserted by its white residents and farmers, driven off by the harassment from Eloi Macoro and his ragged army. Kabar is one of the few who remains, testimony to the fact that accommodation is possible. The Kabars are caladoche, broadly, New Caledonians of French descent, and quite possibly with some Kanak blood. Noel Kabar is one such. He and Lucette are third generation Caledonians. They raise their pigs and cattle in peace, untouched, apparently, by the turmoil around them. A few years ago, the Kabars, alarmed by the increasing signs of violence, went to discuss the matter with their Melenesian friends and neighbours. “I went to say, well what do you want, do you still want us here, or not? They said, ‘there’s no problem, you’ve always been correct with us, we’ve always helped one another, we’ll go on the same way’. And so it has been.” New Caledonoia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Insurgents of the ragged army of the Kanak Socialist Liberation Front in New Caledonia are part-time insurgents only. Most of the time, they are farmers. Their task is to retain some control over the countryside surrounding the east coast town of Thio, centre of the nickel mining industry and thus the heart of the New Caledonia economy. Farmer-insurgents spend one week in three doing duty based at a farmhouse on the outskirts of Thio. They man roadblocks and remain in a state of preparedness for any vigilante actions that might be mounted against them by whites seeking to wipe out the small gains the Kanaks have made in re-establishing their presence on tribal lands, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
The caldoches of Bourail do not exude wealth, but the young children, 150 years removed from the metropole, remain exquisitely French, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Jacques Lafleur, leader of the RPCR, a coalition of conservative groups which commands a big majority in the Territorial Assembly, and a French Deputy. He is possibly the best-know white man in New Caledonia—and by his own account, the most inaccurately quoted in the foreign press, especially the non-French press. To him, there is no alternative to continued French rule: New Caledonia is a French territory, therefore New Caledonia is part of France, therefore New Caledonia is France. Eternal France. “I’ve heard a lot of things here in 50 years, from Melanesians. They say they don’t want to go back to clan wars . . . last century they were eating each other after wars. That is one thing that France stopped, and they don’t wish to go back to it. That’s what must be understood.” New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
For years, Jean Marie Tjibaou, the mayor of Hienghene and a vice-president of the Union Caledonienne was a leading member of the moderate Kanak independence movement. Now he leads the FLNKS whose demands of the French become tougher the more their aspirations are thwarted. Tjibaou, with a puckish sense of humour, was trained as a priest at the Catholic University of Lyon, and in sociology and ethnology at the Sorbonne. It wasn’t so much that the politics of religion led him into politics, he reports, it was more the development of awareness linked to religion—“linked to the search for truth that makes one become aware of injustices in a more glaring way.” He believes that fear is the basis of the racial confrontation in New Caledonia: “the whites here don’t know us because they don’t want to know us. It’s because if they know us, they’re obliged to know the exactions they’ve made of us. So they reject us en masse, and now they’re afraid of us because they don’t know who we are. We have a very great cultural discipline in life, while they are individuals who are somewhat savage.” New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Altogether a French provincial town, Bourail is a bastion of anti-independence. Even fourth generation caldoches remain French and New Caledonia is merely a state of the metropole, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz
Altogether a French provincial town, Bourail is a bastion of anti-independence. Even fourth generation caldoches remain French and New Caledonia is merely a state of the metropole, New Caledonia, December 1984
•
selenium-toned,
silver gelatin, fibre print
edition open, signed,
numbered, dated verso,
across two sizes,
160 x 236 mm, image size,
372 x 555 mm, image size,
contemporary print available,
NZ$2,500/NZ$5,500, including
appropriate taxes
155 x 230 mm, image size
exhibition series of 29,
printed 1985, collected by
National Gallery of Australia,
August 2014
{Suite} Gallery
241 Cuba Street
Wellington 6011
NEW ZEALAND
www.suite.co.nz