Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Noumea
Likened by some to a Boeing 747 landing in their backyard, the latest gift from France to the people of New Caledonia is a spectacular Cultural Centre which opened to the public on 16 June 1998. Coinciding with the formal inauguration of the Centre on 4 May, an event attended by a select number of political and cultural representatives and watched on television by the general population during eight hours of continuous coverage, was the signing, in Noumea, of decisive political accords between France and New Caledonia. These accords allow greater autonomy for the territory until an independence referendum takes place sometime between the years 2013 and 2018.
'Ngan Jila, Tjibaou Cultural Centre' is the outcome of a long struggle for recognition of the Kanak people. The name Ngan Jila means 'the house of riches ' and traditionally belongs to the family of Jean Marie Tjibaou, the Kanak Independence leader who believed that no political solution could be found for New Caledonia without a recognition of Kanak culture. In 1975, he organised the Melanesia 2000 Festival which allowed Kanak identity to take centre stage on the island and to express its sense of belonging to the geographic and cultural space of the Pacific Islands. The new Centre has been constructed on the very site of this Festival. Tjibaou's determination to conduct peaceful negotiations with France led to the 1988 ' Accords de Matignon' and the creation of the ADCK, Agence de Developpement de la Culture Kanak. Tragically, it also led to his assassination by Kanak extremists in 1989.
The idea for a Cultural Centre came first from the necessity to house the ADCK. The assassination prompted plans for a more... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline