Gudrun Rath

This paper focuses on a moment of temporal and spatial convergence in the South Pacific, where deportees from the defeated Paris Commune, exiled Algerians and Kanaks – local residents who had rebelled against French rule – encountered each other with their different struggles for social participation, equality and freedom. Based on Louise Michel’s memoirs from Kanaky/New Caledonia, the text reflects on the directions from which these struggles came, their connections, and the impossibilities of new communities. The text concludes by asking about the niches of possibility that, despite everything, can still be glimpsed from this moment to the present day. mehr