France and Oceanian Sovereignties

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe character of sovereignty in its constitution, expression, and experience across Pacific Islands has come into renewed focus over recent years. Decades after the onset of the post‐war period of decolonization and independence, non‐self governing French territories in Oceania are seeing communities chart and navigate new relationships with sovereignty conceptions and practices across local, regional, and global scales. These navigations often evidence striking articulations of authority, rights, governance, and law rooted in enduring cultural values of Pacific Islander communities. Drawing nuanced attention to divergent historical and contemporary articulations of sovereignties in French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna, and Vanuatu, the seven articles gathered here collectively highlight the comparabilities, diversities, and trajectories in how sovereignties are being negotiated and contested by different communities within France entangled Oceania. This collection brings into visibility the complicated field of actors maintaining, transforming, or seeking to summon, establish or disestablish forms of sovereignty on the ground in everyday Oceanian worlds.