New Caledonia was only ever supposed to be a stopover, a pause on a family sailing trip around the world. “But we discovered,” a French national, Xavier Decramer, says from his boat in the Nouméa marina, “a very nice place to stay and to live. The infrastructure was amazing as far as the roads, the libraries, the schools … and also a very peaceful place.
“It’s small, people are kind to each other … say hi to everyone … It was a very courteous place, and, and we really enjoyed that.”
And so, it became home to Decramer, his wife, Maeva Zebrowski, who was born in New Caledonia, and their three young children. Their children enrolled in schools and the family found community in Nouméa.
But the turmoil that has erupted into violence this month has ended their New Caledonian homecoming. After less than a year, the family will, in coming days, pack their boat with the supplies that can be sourced and sail for Brisbane, Australia – 770 nautical miles, or about six days of sailing.
“It’s clearly with a heavy heart that we’re going to be leaving this place,” Decramer says.
“Bearing in mind my wife was born here, we wanted to settle here. It’s difficult. We’re really torn between the need to put our family in safety … and the feeling that we are leaving people behind here – people who cannot leave.”
With Nouméa’s international airport closed for commercial flights, leaving isn’t an option for many people. Some governments have launched repatriation flights to take their nationals out of New Caledonia.
Decramer says the decision to depart has been hardest on their three children, “who’ve made friends in school, who will not be able to go back … to say goodbye to the friends they are going to leave”.
The latest unrest in New Caledonia, the French Pacific territory of 270,000 people, erupted over French plans to unfreeze electoral rolls for provincial elections – changes that would give tens of thousands of non-Indigenous residents voting rights.
Under the terms of the Nouméa accord, voting in provincial elections was restricted to people who had resided in New Caledonia before 1998 and their children. The measure was aimed at giving greater representation to the Indigenous Kanak population.
The Kanak people make up about 40% of New Caledonia’s population and Kanak groups argue the new voting rules would dilute their vote.
More than a week of rioting, looting and arson has left six people dead, including two gendarmes, and hundreds injured. France has sent more than 1,000 security forces to its overseas territory and the president, Emmanuel Macron, told a meeting of his defence and security council there was “clear progress in re-establishing order”.
But pro-independence, largely Kanak activists vowed they would not retreat from their protests and reports from Nouméa say some roadblocks taken down by security forces were being rebuilt by pro-independence forces.
Decramer says the political disquiet was always present, made visible in protests and occasional unrest.
“The demonstrations that were happening in the past few months – yes, they were big, but they were peaceful and they were a part of normal life for people living here for a long time. They tell you, ‘Well, it’s been ups and downs for 40 years: you’re new, you don’t understand, it’s OK.’
“Sadly, we’ve seen even the locals have been surprised by the speed and the severity of the uprising.”
But despite the political fractures erupting into violence this month, “there’s been great solidarity between the different people”.
“There is a local news radio, NC La Première, which is doing a fantastic job. They have … an open-air show with everybody calling in for information or questions … The people are helping each other.
“You have the people giving codes so that some people who are far in the islands can recharge their phones. You have people going out to get medicine for elderly people who are stuck in their apartments, live information on which roads are safe or not, which stores open or not.”
At the height of the violence, Decramer and his family left Nouméa for a nearby island in the lagoon off the capital.
“We were 12 nautical miles out and we could still hear some of the detonations from … the city at night. You could still smell the burnt plastic from whatever was burning at the time. Even far into the lagoon … you could still feel the turmoil there.”
Decramer says the deaths during the violence have been a tragedy for New Caledonia. But neighbourhood patrols have been “a blessing”, he says. His youngest child’s school has been patrolled by class parents at night to keep it from being attacked.
And Decramer remains positive about New Caledonia’s future, which he hopes will recognise Kanak Indigenity, as well as the archipelago’s multiculturalism.
“I hope that their path towards independence will be a peaceful one, not like the one today.
“As far as the future of New Caledonia is concerned, I think a greater autonomy or actual independence is the long-term future of this place. But for it to be a peaceful movement … it has to be inclusive.”