By Pete McKenzie
At 5.30pm on May 13th Nancy Travers, a small woman with an ash-blonde bob, was driving back to her home in a leafy, seaside suburb of Nouméa, the capital of the French territory of New Caledonia. For more than a week, the poor, indigenous Kanak minority had been protesting against French rule. Now, at the end of a long promenade lined with coconut palms, Travers came to a roundabout. Roughly a hundred young protesters gathered in the road, dancing and chanting, “This is our place, this is our country!”
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