New Caledonia Proverbs (25)

Nowé wè diè ngà vï wawèkêê nii.

“Do not reject the words of the elders.”

The counsel of elders carries hard-won experience and should never be dismissed by the young.

Hya thebanem!

“The future is before you — do not turn back.”

Face forward and keep moving toward what is ahead rather than dwelling on what is behind.

Dröne i elu ne qagejë hna hule hnei uke theleci a thatre kö la hna trotro.

“The bourao leaf is carried off by the current, not knowing where it goes.”

A person without direction or purpose drifts through life at the mercy of circumstance, just like a leaf swept along by water.

Bane seretha ne icuhma. Ore la erede ne icuhma ko co ridi da ni bonelu.

“The best defense against an enemy is to attack first.”

Waiting passively for trouble to arrive is weaker than meeting a threat with decisive action.

Bane rue ore alayene ni bo. Ore co wapono ko co cilebut ore thu hnahna.

“Rid yourself of shame and timidity, and accomplish your will.”

Excessive shyness or self-doubt holds people back; real progress requires the courage to act.

Son ore bo deko co tetow ri thuben. Dai carajewelu ore ace co rue!

“Think before you act.”

Careful reflection before a decision prevents the regret that follows a hasty one.

Caa ke tang otr, caa ke tang wahep ke oloû hminya obanyen böhngöc.

“With no bag of lobsters and no bag of urchins either, he ends up with his finger bitten by a moray eel.”

Chasing too many opportunities at once, without settling on one, often leaves a person with nothing but harm to show for it.

Pho dua le pwiiwiik ni nec ho pade kên.

“He is like the notou pigeon, still startled by the sound when it relieves itself.”

Said of someone who fails to see that their own actions caused the very consequence now surprising them.

Phu Bweena naa negat.

“To act like the lizard in the sun.”

Describes someone who moves slowly in the morning, unhurried, waiting for the sun to rise higher before beginning the day's work.

Tha heli le pooc waa ma taa, waa ma cada.

“When the spider is seen carrying its eggs, a visitor is coming to the house.”

A traditional sign read from nature, used to foretell the arrival of a guest and to prepare a welcome in advance.

Avant de cueillir une feuille, il faut demander la permission à l'arbre.

“Before picking a leaf, you must ask permission from the tree.”

Nothing should be taken from nature without respect and acknowledgment; what is given with reverence carries greater value.

Voilà ce que nous avions... Voici ce que tu nous as laissé.

“This is what we had. This is what you have left us.”

Spoken while presenting fertile soil and then bare stones to the French colonial governor, protesting the land seized from the Kanak people before the 1878 uprising.

Je suis la femme de l'ombre et du feu, celle qui marche sans bruit sur les cendres, celle qui parle aux pierres et aux vents, pour que la mémoire ne meure pas.

“I am the woman of shadow and fire, she who walks silently upon the ashes, who speaks to the stones and the winds, so that memory does not die.”

A declaration of the poet's role as keeper of Kanak memory and identity through the violence and silence of colonization.

“Our identity is ahead of us. After we are dead, people will take our picture and put it on the wall, and it will help them fashion their own identity.”

Kanak identity is not a fixed relic of the past to be preserved unchanged, but something continually built forward, generation after generation.

“The fight must not stop, for lack of leaders or for lack of fighters.”

A call to keep the Kanak independence struggle going regardless of the loss of any single leader.

Kola tui hmeciöng

“Do not follow the example of the hermit crab.”

The hermit crab drags around a shell far too large for it; trying to take on too many burdens or tasks at once leads to failure.

Troa isa wai melene gen

“Everyone must prepare their own fishing hook.”

Though people live and fish together as a community, each person is responsible for their own preparation and their own life.

L'homme n'est jamais individu; il est le noyau d'un ensemble.

“Man is never an individual; he is the nucleus of a whole.”

In Kanak thought, a person's identity is inseparable from their clan and community, never a self-contained, isolated self.

Le retour à la tradition est un mythe. Aucun peuple ne l'a jamais vécu.

“The return to tradition is a myth. No people has ever lived it.”

Culture cannot be frozen in an idealized past; it must be continually reinvented to stay alive.

Le propre de la culture c'est d'être partagé.

“The nature of culture is to be shared.”

A living culture grows by being offered to others, not by being guarded and kept apart.

“We want true independence. We don't want neo-colonialism or imperialism.”

A demand that Kanak independence be genuine self-determination, not a disguised continuation of foreign control.

“The grassroots are the women, because in New Caledonia the women do every job.”

A tribute to Kanak women as the backbone of daily life and, by extension, of the independence movement itself.

“When they kill one Machoro there are sixty thousand more Machoros arising in New Caledonia to fight.”

Spoken in tribute to slain independence leader Éloi Machoro, warning that killing one leader only multiplies the resolve of the movement.

La décolonisation, c'est un processus et ce processus doit être construit avec tous les Calédoniens, dans le respect de nos différences et de notre histoire commune.

“Decolonization is a process, and that process must be built with all Caledonians, in respect of our differences and our shared history.”

Decolonization is framed not as a single event but as a shared, ongoing undertaking among all of New Caledonia's communities.

Nous avons posé les bases d'un destin commun décolonisé.

“We have laid the foundations of a decolonized common destiny.”

A summary of decades of Kanak political leadership aimed at building a shared future for New Caledonia after colonization.