During my visit to the Tjibaou Cultural Centre, I found these quotes by Jean-Marie Tjibaou:
"Si vous lisez l'Ancien Testament, vous retrouverez des similitudes avec la culture kanak: les mythes, les généalogies, etc. Si vous parlez du christianisme gréco-latin, je ne sais pas. Nous nous sentons très proches de la Bible, de l'Ancien Testament, et même du Nouveau. Il y a entre la Bible et nous une certaine vision du monde. L'interprétation du Nouveau Testament faite par les chrétiens occidentaux, c'est intéressant mais pas primordial. Ce qui est primordial, c'est la parole. La parole de notre peuple suit le même schéma que la parole biblique. Et ça ne nous gène pas d'utiliser la Bible."
If you read the Old Testament, you'll find similarities with the Kanak culture: the myths, the genealogies, etc. If you speak about Greco-latin Christianity, I don't know. We feel ourselves very close to the Bible, to the Old Testament, and even to the New. Between the Bible and us there's a certain vision of the world. The interpretation of the New Testament made by Western Christians, it's interesting but not primordial. What is primordial is the word. The word of our people follows the same schema as the biblical word. And it doesn't trouble us to use the Bible.
"Je dirais que le plus dur n'est peut-être pas de mourir; le plus dur c'est de rester vivant et de se sentir étranger à son propre pays."
I would say that the hardest is perhaps not to die; the hardest is to stay alive and to feel yourself a stranger in your own country.
While visiting the Centre, we had the luck to be there during a series of dances performed by a number of groups who were there for the Pacific Arts Festival. On the left is the famous-in-New-Caledonia musical group WeCeCe; on the right is one of the visiting groups.
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