Mausoleum of Grand Chef ATAÏ, the insurgent
New Caledonia, a former french colony and now a french overseas Territory in the South Pacific, has been called to choose by referendums for or against its independence by consulting its population. That the result of Nouméa accords after the turmoil in the 1980s between the kanak independent movement and the French state and its “loyalists”.
The last referendum in 2021 ended in a boycott by the independent movement, which brings the situation back into complex discussions between the different parties. The colonial history of New Caledonia has known several painful episodes, sometimes violent.
One of the first revolt against colonial France was the insurrection in 1878 led by Grand Chef Ataï, 25 years after the island was taken by France. The Grand Chef Ataï and his Dao (sorcerer) Méche had their heads cut off during this insurrection, on the 1st of September 1878. Their heads were sent to France to the Anthropological Society of Paris in 1879 and then kept in the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. They were declared lost when a Kanak committee for their restitution, to return to their homeland, made an official request to the French state. The Grand Chef Ataï had, meanwhile, become one of the symbols of the Kanak resistance in the quest for New Caledonian independence. Finally, the heads were found in the reserves of the Musée de l'Homme in 2011 and restituted to the Grand Chef of Petit Couli, Bergé Kawa in 2014, a descendant of the Grand Chef Ataï.
The determination to conduct a remembrance work on the history of New Caledonia has led to the creation of the mausoleum of Grand Chef Ataï. The project has been possible with the restitution to the Ataï clan in 2021 of a 5 ha plot of land, symbolically located on his native land. This is part of the land taken from the Kanak during french colonisation. This series is the ceremony in Kanak custom for the raising of the Totem poles that model the Mausoleum around the tomb of the emblematic hero Ataï and his sorcerer Méche and their burial on their death anniversary on the 1st of September 2021.
Digitised from a negative on film
The last referendum in 2021 ended in a boycott by the independent movement, which brings the situation back into complex discussions between the different parties. The colonial history of New Caledonia has known several painful episodes, sometimes violent.
One of the first revolt against colonial France was the insurrection in 1878 led by Grand Chef Ataï, 25 years after the island was taken by France. The Grand Chef Ataï and his Dao (sorcerer) Méche had their heads cut off during this insurrection, on the 1st of September 1878. Their heads were sent to France to the Anthropological Society of Paris in 1879 and then kept in the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. They were declared lost when a Kanak committee for their restitution, to return to their homeland, made an official request to the French state. The Grand Chef Ataï had, meanwhile, become one of the symbols of the Kanak resistance in the quest for New Caledonian independence. Finally, the heads were found in the reserves of the Musée de l'Homme in 2011 and restituted to the Grand Chef of Petit Couli, Bergé Kawa in 2014, a descendant of the Grand Chef Ataï.
The determination to conduct a remembrance work on the history of New Caledonia has led to the creation of the mausoleum of Grand Chef Ataï. The project has been possible with the restitution to the Ataï clan in 2021 of a 5 ha plot of land, symbolically located on his native land. This is part of the land taken from the Kanak during french colonisation. This series is the ceremony in Kanak custom for the raising of the Totem poles that model the Mausoleum around the tomb of the emblematic hero Ataï and his sorcerer Méche and their burial on their death anniversary on the 1st of September 2021.
Digitised from a negative on film