Summary
Today in New Caledonia some Kanak clans live on reserves known as “customary lands”. These clans claim ownership of their ancestral lands usurped by France since its colonization of the archipelago.
The Kanak People’s Congress (CPCK) is fighting for the recognition of the rights of the island’s indigenous people and especially for the sovereignty of their traditional lands.
Nothing happens up in the sky (Rien ne se fait dans le ciel) follows the charismatic CPCK coordinator Roger Cho from his tribe, where he shares the life of his clan, to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The CPCK has developed a project to build maps of ancestral and clan lands to support land claims lodged with institutions in New Caledonia, France and the United Nations.
The CPCK has based itself on the model of the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2007. The declaration is part of international rights that concerns all indigenous peoples on the planet.
Nothing happens up in the sky is shot in New Caledonia and Geneva. It gives voice to local actors; Kanak and representatives of institutions responsible for land redistribution who are trying to decipher the contradictions inherited from the colonial period.
The film also presents the actors at the United Nations involved in the struggle for the rights of indigenous people and examines the history of the indigenous peoples’ movement since the first indigenous peoples’ conference in Geneva in 1977.
It offers a broader view of, not just the Kanak struggle, but also the struggle faced today by indigenous people around the world whose lands have been colonized.
21 авг 2024