Kanak People

New Caledonia votes to stay French in referendum – results

Some 175,000 people were eligible to vote in the remote islands where separatists urged indigenous Kanak voters to choose self-determination and throw off the shackles of "colonial" authorities in Paris.

New Caledonia votes on independence from France

There are fears the referendum could inflame tensions between indigenous Kanak people, who tend to favour independence, and the white population, which boiled over into deadly violence in the 1980s.