On Tuesday 13 May 2025, we gathered at Camp Sovereignty on the unceded land of the Kulin Nation to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Kanaky Uprising, and to stand in unwavering solidarity with the Kanak people in their struggle for liberation from French colonial rule. It has now been over 170 years since France violently annexed the islands now known as New Caledonia, dispossessing the Indigenous Kanak people of their lands, autonomy, and lives. What we commemorate today is not a single moment of resistance, but a long and unbroken lineage of struggle, from the anti-colonial revolts of the 19th century, to the 1980s independence movement, to the Kanaky Uprising of 2024, and the ongoing fight to restore sovereignty, dignity and self determination.
On 13 May last year, Kanak people rose up against a proposed constitutional amendment by the French state, which sought to allow settler residents to vote in the independence referendum – a deliberate and strategic attempt to dilute Indigenous voices and derail the Kanak struggle for self-governance. This was not merely a political manoeuvre; it was an act of settler colonial violence, aimed at entrenching French power and erasing Kanak futures.
In response, the Kanak people mobilised. Protesters blockaded roads, occupied sites of political significance, and defended their right to determine the future of their land. The French state responded with brutality. Protesters were arrested, injured, killed and surveilled. Yet despite the repression, the Kanak resistance remains alive and strong. The spirit of independence, grounded in land, culture, and collective power, continues to burn.
As decolonial organisers and comrades living on unceded Blak land, we recognise our responsibility to stand with the Kanak people in their struggle. Colonial borders may divide us, but our struggles are interconnected. So-called Australia, too, is a settler colony that continues to dispossess First Nations people. This government upholds colonialism in the Pacific through military partnerships, economic exploitation, and diplomatic cowardice. We
reject the narrative that frames France’s occupation of Kanaky as ‘democratic’ or ‘legitimate.’ Settler colonialism is not a legitimate form of governance – it is an ongoing crime.
Tuesday’s rally was not just about remembrance. It is an act of refusal – a refusal to allow imperial powers to quietly continue their occupation, a refusal to accept the slow suffocation of Indigenous sovereignty under bureaucratic disguise. It is also an act of internationalist solidarity. We affirm our support for the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) and all revolutionary Indigenous movements resisting imperialism.
To those who have remained silent on Kanaky: your silence is complicity. To those who speak of democracy but ignore colonialism: your words are hollow. The time to act is now.
We call on our communities to amplify the voices of Kanak leaders, to materially support their resistance, and to pressure the illegitimate Australian government to break ties with the French colonial regime.
Kanaky is not French. It never was.
Kanaky is Kanak land. Always was, always will be.
Gathered at the fire at Camp Sovereignty to stand in solidarity with Kanak peoples fight for liberation and to honour lives lost in the resistance.
Roscoe Lee Brown shares words of solidarity with Kanak people on the one year anniversary of the uprising.
We honoured the Kanak freedom fighters killed in the uprising.
Kanak and Aboriginal flags held side by side representing shared decolonial struggles.
Smoking Ceremony in solidarity with Kanak people at Camp Sovereignty.
Free Kanaky Solidarity Naarm presented information and images from Kanaky to inform and educate about the struggle for freedom.