Abstract
The characteristic of the Kanak decolonization movement in New Caledonia lies in the revendication de l’identité kanak (demand for Kanak identity) as the recovery of rights of indigenous people. As identity is process, my main purpose is to see diachronically how Kanaks claimed their indigenous identity and struggled to recover their rights via their decolonization movement, and how they have achieved rights as a result of the struggle. As identity is multiple, the problematic of this diachronic aim is that it has to take a synchronic approach as methodology: in the relation between identity and discourse, Kanak identity is inseparably linked to the dimensions of nation, culture, and community as an articulated ensemble. Therefore, after theoretically introducing the synchronic approach, in the diachronic aim the paper represents the revendication de l’identité kanak from a macro-viewpoint, while demonstrating how the above 3 are interwoven as the ensemble through discourses of the people.
