At a meeting of the French High Commisioner with Kanak dignitaries and leaders – members or not of the independence movement – three important themes concerning New-Caledonia after the Matignon agreement (1988) were pointed out. First, the relevance of Kanak ceremonial procedures today and the way they weave relationships, including in the context of administrative colonial events. Second, the primordial aspect of the relations of the Kanak to their land and country, which they constantly reaffirm, and the resulting demand for a specific status, for autochtonous forms of sociability (called “culture” and “custom (coutume)” in French language). Third the fact that all Kanak speakers clearly distinguish between “politics”, on the one hand, and “culture” and “custom”, on the other hand. Conflicts and divergent opinions were observed among the interlocutors. For example, it is far from clear whether today’s French colonial administrators size up how much the relations of this Oceanian people to their land differ from those in France. Consensual attitudes also appear in the very fact of participating in this ritualized political encounter and also in the way all Kanak speakers refer to the past in order to substantiate their views concerning the present and the future.