Jean-Marie Tjibaou: Kanaky

by Fraser, Helen and John Trotter (2006), 308pp., ISBN 1 74076 175 8.

AUD$31.78 (Including GST: AUD$34.96) (softcover)

Writings translated by Helen Fraser and John Trotter

A translation from the original French edition La Présence Kanak, Jean-Marie Tjibaou, edited by Alban Bensa and Éric Wittersheim.

Published in French in 1996, Jean-Marie Tjibaou: Kanaky is an edited collection of interviews with and essays by the charismatic Kanak leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou (1936–1989). This English translation reveals the remarkable scope of Tjibaou's political career: his rhetorical power, his passionately held beliefs and his persuasive ideology of Kanak unity and independence. Through his intellectual legacy covering ethnology, development, Kanak culture and spirituality, as well as political analysis, the reader is given an unparalled insight into the social and political dynamic of New Caledonia and the Kanak people.