Déwé Gorodé: champion of Oceanic culture

Yesterday before they landedin our historyof roots recitedof origins memorisedwho you were exactlywhat your place wasin the world of our peopleIt’s up to you, my mother,it’s up to you, my sisterto try and find

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Vale finally sells nickel assets in New Caledonia

By Nic Maclellan After months of political dispute, the Brazilian corporation Vale has finally sold its Goro nickel smelter and other assets in New Caledonia’s Southern Province. The new owners Prony Resources and

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Maclellan wins Sean Dorney Pacific journalism grant

Islands Business correspondent Nic Maclellan has been awarded the Sean Dorney Grant for Pacific journalism for 2020. Established by the Walkley Foundation, the Sean Dorney Grant for Pacific Journalism aims to

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Overseas Minister buffeted by New Caledonia crisis

By Nic Maclellan, in Noumea, New Caledonia France’s newly appointed Overseas Minister François-Noël Buffet has travelled to New Caledonia for a four-day visit, pledging that “the time has come for the return of

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Forum debates French colonialism, China and climate change

As Presidents, Prime Ministers and Premiers assembled in the Kingdom of Tonga for the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting (PIFLM), the region’s Blue Pacific agenda was overshadowed by geopolitical jousting and

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Kurt Campbell pledges support for Forum, as US mobilises across the north Pacific

“Across the board, if you look at the nature of our step up in every arena, it is unmistakable, it is fulsome, it is deliberate and it will continue.” `-Kurt Campbell As Pacific leaders gather in the Kingdom of

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FLNKS congress postponed, as independence movement debates the way forward

In a fast moving and complex situation, both supporters and opponents of independence in New Caledonia are preparing for the outcome of French elections later this month. Islands Business correspondent Nic Maclellan

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Where is USP heading amid a gathering storm?

In February 2021, the University of the South Pacific (USP) was plunged into crisis when Vice Chancellor, Professor Pal Ahluwalia was unceremoniously thrown out of Fiji following a middle-of-the-night raid on his campus

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Tackling nuclear legacies, 70 years after Bravo

On 1 March 1954, the US government exploded a thermonuclear weapon on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, codenamed Bravo. The test had an explosive yield of nearly 15 megatons, a thousand times more powerful than the

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Forum wants action on climate finance and Loss and Damage

RAROTONGA/PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM 2023: As the region faces an El Nino summer and Vanuatu reels from the devastation of Cyclone Lola – the third Category 5 cyclone to hit the nation in seven months – it’s no

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Black mist across the desert

Yami Lester was ten years old when a British atomic weapon, codenamed Totem 1, was detonated at Emu Field on 15 October 1953. The isolated test site in the desert of South Australia was downwind from his home at

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Macron plans a new political statute for New Caledonia

In a major speech in Noumea, French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed he would forge ahead to seek changes to the French Constitution in early 2024, to reform voting rights and create a new statute for New Caledonia

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