One year after seven people lost their lives in riots, businesses suffered hundreds of millions in losses, and a state of emergency was declared for New Caledonia, French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a proposed agreement to give New Caledonia more autonomy. The agreement would create a “State of New Caledonia” within France, enshrined in France’s Constitution; however, the agreement would not grant New Caledonia full independence. For the agreement to be in effect, it must be approved by both the French Parliament and the people of New Caledonia.

One year ago, riots led to fears of civil war. At the time, President Macron denounced the New Caledonia protests as an insurrection movement, but nonetheless proposed that pro- and anti-independence groups negotiate an agreement. The new proposed agreement would create a New Caledonian nationality, which French citizens who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years would be able to acquire, according to the New York Times. Residents would be allowed to hold both French and New Caledonian nationality.

France acquired New Caledonia through colonization from Australia in 1853. The territory is situated over 10,000 miles away from France, near the west coast of Australia. New Caledonia’s natives are the indigenous Kanaks, who are now a minority in their own homeland—with many white settlers immigrating to New Caledonia since 1853, as well as the introduction of population-devastating diseases like smallpox, now only 40 percent of the population is Indigenous Kanak. Pro-independence Kanaks use the name Kanaky to refer to New Caledonia.

The Kanak people have protested French rule since colonization began. Rebellions have sometimes been violent. In the 1980s, French troops were sent to combat a violent uprising in New Caledonia. This uprising led to dozens of people dying, and after the violence ended, France agreed to put New Caledonia on a pathway to possible independence. However, after France agreed to hold an independence referendum within a decade, it was put off for two more decades.

The first referendum occurred in 2018 with pro-independence garnering 43 percent of the vote, and two years later, a second referendum saw 47 percent for independence. The slim anti-independence majority can be partially explained by concerns that New Caledonia’s nickel-dependent economy could not survive without financial assistance. A third referendum took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, a pandemic that devastated the Kanak communities. Local mourning customs prohibited political activity, and indigenous leaders urged Macron to delay the 2021 vote, which he did not. Many Kanaks boycotted the vote in protest, which ended in an overwhelming majority against independence, according to the New York Times. 

Though the autonomy granted by the proposed agreement is welcome to some, it falls short of full independence. With only a year since the riots occurred, peace and respect for the natives of New Caledonia should be of utmost importance for the French government. It is a territory with a history of being a penal colony with an exploited resource of nickel and a shrinking indigenous population. This is why it is important for France to do all it can to acknowledge the history of colonization in the territory and repair the autonomy of its residents.