Recit fondateur et culture politique en Nouvelle-Caledonie. 'Tea Kanake', de Melanesia 2000 au Festival des Arts du Pacifique (1975-2000)

In 1975, Jean-Marie Tjibaou, whose name was to become synonymous with the pro-independence movement in New Caledonia, organised the Melanesia 2000 Festival in Noumea. The idea behind this Festival was to bring together Kanak from all over the Territory in an attempt to revive their culture and pave the way for a new 'postcolonial' identity. Tjibaou produced a play-pageant of 'Jea Scenique', which was an adaptation of the Kanak foundation myth, Tea Kanake. A quarter of a century later, Dewe Gorode, a Kanak writer and activist who had been opposed on political grounds to Melanesia 2000, also adapted this foundation narrative in her play, Kenake 2000, written for the 8th Pacific Arts Festival, which took place in Noumea in 2000. After comparing the tenets, versions and implications of this foundation myth produced by Tjibaou and Gorode, we present an interview with Gorgode, who is today Vice-President of the New Caledonian government, in charge of culture.