while separatists and loyalists are tearing each other apart in New Caledonia, the inhabitants of La Foa manage to preserve civil peace

In La Foa, there are no long queues for shopping like in Nouméa, comments Françoise. The mother of a large family and her friend Maeva, both Kanaks, are taking a cigarette break. “There is no worry about foodconfirms Françoise. It’s unfortunate for the people of Nouméa but we are at peace. No worries, no trashing, nothing. In La Foa, there is no difference, we don’t see color. We share common destinies, we can’t hurt each other, we know each other so well !” Independence remains a goal to be achieved, “the Kanaks demand their rights all the same!she exclaims. For independence but not like that.”

La Foa is a right-wing, loyalist town, insists Florence Rolland, the mayor under the Générations NC label. But “no matter the political tendency, no matter the origins, the communities. We all have our political ideas within the municipality. We respect them”. In his village of 3 500 inhabitants, spared from the violence, the thirty-year-old, youngest mayor of New Caledonia, is working to maintain civil peace through meetings on the ground and zero communication on social networks.

“There was apprehension because we heard that it was going to happen here. Every day, we witnessed the total disinformation which created a real psychosis in our population.”

Florence Rolland, mayor of La Foa

at franceinfo

Every day a team of elected officials and deputies is deployed in the field : “We carry out quite a few actions in the municipality, we go into the neighborhoods, we also keep the youth busy so that they can take their noses off the phones a little”describes the mayor.

Occupying the minds of young people is also the objective of Jean-Jacques known as Tchuky, in his workshop as a sacred wood sculptor, in the heart of the Oua Tom tribe, about twenty kilometers from La Foa. Since the start of the riots, seven people have died, hundreds have been injured and the damage amounts to hundreds of millions of euros. “The events happening in the country are gut-wrenching. Young people died on the dams. They were slaughtered like cattle, Tchuky is moved. If things happen in Nouméa, they can happen throughout the country.”he fears.

“Here, we’re taking the ship together. It’s so stupid that we’re shooting at each other, that we’re killing each other just because there are laws coming from the mainland that are disrupting everything.”

Jean-Jacques, sculptor

at franceinfo

“Here, we are all mixed racecontinues Jean-Jacques. There are Corsicans, Bretons, Wallisians, Futunians, Savanese… And it is all this mixture that makes us rich. We must remember that we are in a process of decolonization and the State must support us with neutrality.”

His partner, Mathieu, a metropolitan stonemason based in New Caledonia for 20 years old, is between two : “I am in support of a demand that seems legitimate to me. Afterwards, am I a pro-independence ? I don’t even want to say ‘yes’. Maybe there is a third way. Here, it’s binary. Either for or against independence. On the other hand, he is very much against the thaw of the electoral body which has ignited the powder because he foresees that more than 42 000 Voters, provided that they arrived in the archipelago before 1998, can now vote in the provincial elections which determine local life in terms of health and education in particular. “I understand what it meansconfides Mathieu. I don’t want to be part of the problem.” A problem which is fracturing New Caledonian society more than ever.