SJSCA

Special Issue

Vol. 32 No. 2 (2025): Arts Grappling With the Local and the Global: What are the Political Issues in the Public Sphere?

Kanak Youth’s Artistic and Political Engagement in Mainland France: Shaping Transnational Memories beyond North–South Borders

Submitted
March 30, 2024
Published
2026-05-20

Abstract

This article explores the artistic and political engagement of a collective of young people from Kanaky–New Caledonia, who were temporarily living in France during the referendum period (2018–2022)—a decisive moment in the history of the archipelago, marked by deep uncertainty about its future. More specifically, the article follows the organisation of a cultural festival held in September 2021 on the Larzac plateau in southern France, along with a series of artistic residencies that preceded it. Through artistic expression and strategic occupations of public spaces—from urban parks to rural resistance zones—Kanak youth have created platforms that transcend geographic and colonial boundaries, enabling them to articulate political visions and reclaim agency in the decolonisation process. Drawing on the concept of decolonial cosmopolitanism, the article highlights how these artistic initiatives challenge the center–periphery dynamics inherited from the colonial past by fostering forms of rootedness in the homeland, reactivating silenced local memories, and encouraging solidarity with other local movements.

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