Thinking with Suzanne Ounei

Abstract

This article is a critical reflection on Kanak feminist activist Suzanne Ounei, one of the co-founders of the Group of Exploited Kanak Women in Struggle in Kanaky/New Caledonia in the 1980s. Through a close reading of her essays, speeches, and interviews, it explores the revolutionary character of her praxis. Specifically, the article looks at Ounei’s contribution to making Kanak women into political subjects, her critique of antiblackness in Oceania and by settlers of color in Kanaky/New Caledonia, and her exploration of Kanak feminist resistance against French civilizational feminism. The article frames Ounei’s struggle as Black Indigenous feminist thinking and doing.