The Presumption of Indigeneity

Colonial Administration, the ‘Community of Race’ and the Category of Indigène in New Caledonia, 1887–1946

Bibliographic Data

ID9075134
AuthorsAdrian Muckle (0000-0002-1866-2331, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume47
Issue3
Pages309-328
Publication date2012-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Pacific History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3344 • E-ISSN: 1469-9605
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00223344.2012.688183
OpenAlexW1573522344
LanguageEN
Citations received10

From 1887 to 1946, the administrative apparatus known as the indigénat provided French administrators in New Caledonia with a set of exceptional measures to streamline the governing and summary repression of persons defined as indigènes ('natives'). This paper examines the place of the indigénat, the role of colonial administrators in defining one or more communities of race and the variable status of the category of indigène in New Caledonia in the period to 1946. Particular consideration is given to the influence (or absence thereof) of the science of race on administrative thinking about native policy in New Caledonia, the distinctions drawn between different categories of indigène, the extent to which cultural and political divisions between the Grande terre (mainland) and the Loyalty Islands were imagined or constructed in racial terms and the situation of métis ('half-castes'). The paper argues that an incipient definition of the indigène as a person of Melanesian, Polynesian, mixed or Oceanian race must be understood in the context of the development of the indentured labour and immigration regimes (the importation of workers from Asia and other parts of Oceania) as well as the ways in which the indigénat was differently applied and experienced between New Caledonia's mainland and its dependencies (notably the Loyalty Islands), as well as by métis. AcknowledgementsEarlier versions of this paper were presented at the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society Conference, Wellington, 11–13 December 2009, and at the conference on 'Race, Encounters, and the Constitution of Human Difference in Oceania', Canberra, 20–22 January 2010. I gratefully acknowledge the advice offered by other participants in the sessions where earlier versions of this paper were presented as well as the further valuable commentary provided by the editors of this collection

Genealogy · Political science · Presumption · African history and culture studies · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Law · New Caledonia Indigenous Studies

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