The Javanese of New Caldonia

The story of how almost 20,000 Javanese were taken to New Caledonia between 1896 and 1949 on five-year labour contracts is a little-known part of the colonial history of the Southeast Asian region. Among other things it is a story of the tension between the cultural hybridity that results when populations move, or are moved, and adapt to new surroundings, and notions of ethnic cohesion in the diaspora.