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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.

Ataï, New Caledonia

Source: Attributed to Ataï, in his confrontation with Governor Léopold de Pritzbuer shortly before the 1878 Kanak insurrection; recorded in period and historical accounts of the revolt (French Wikipedia "Ataï"; Musée national d'Histoire naturelle exhibition records)

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