The Indigénat and France’s Empire in New Caledonia

Isabelle Merle is Director of Research in the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) attached to the Centre for Research and Documentation on Oceania (CREDO) at the University of Aix-Marseille in France. She is a specialist in the history of colonisation and the Pacific region, including New Caledonia. Her publications include two books and a wide range of articles on aspects of colonial history, such as subjecthood and citizenship. Adrian Muckle is a Senior Lecturer in the History Programme at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. He is a historian of the Pacific Islands region including its intersection with histories of New Zealand and the French empire. His primary interests include colonialism, decolonisation, violence and race relations, with much of his research focussing on colonial rule and its legacies in New Caledonia.

1. Introduction.- Part I. The Genesis of an Exceptional Regime in France, Algeria, Cochinchina and Oceania.- 2. The History of an 'Exceptional' Legal Regime.- 3. Voyage to Oceania: The Making of 'French Native Subjects' in Tahiti, the Marquesas and New Caledonia.- 4. Bringing the Indigénat to New Caledonia.- Part II. The Indigénat at Work in New Caledonia.- Chapter 5. Establishing the Indigénat: The Work of the Administrators and Chiefs.- 6. Stabilising a Colonial Order: Gendarmes, Grands Chefs and Petits Chefs.- 7. The Head Tax and the Making of the 'Native'.- 8. Controlling Mobility, Segregation and Sociability.- Part III. The Indigénat and the Condition of the 'Native' in the First Half of the Twentieth Century.- 9. The Impossible Reform: Debating the Indigénat in the Empire and in New Caledonia.- 10. Putting 'Natives' to Work: The Indigénat and the Colonial Labour System between the Wars.- 11. The End of the Indigénat.