On the edge of a World Heritage Site: local communities and archaeological practice related to the nomination of the New Caledonia Coral Reef

The nomination of six portions of the New Caledonian coral reef as a natural World Heritage Site in 2009 has led, in his wake, to a profound change in archaeological practice in some parts of this multicultural archipelago of Southern Melanesia. This has especially been the case in the region of Bourail, where a large-scale economic development program was started to attract tourists to the reef, with the construction of hotels, an international 18 holes golf course and related infrastructures, all included in the immediate buffer zone of the site. The paper will present the changes witnessed in relation to heritage management as part of the overall development projects. Due to a community-riven demand, the Provincial Services in charge of heritage preservation, have agreed to the idea of the local stakeholders to impose a general archaeological survey of surface sites (abandoned villages, planting grounds, burial areas etc), followed by largescale rescue excavations before any construction. In total, over 300 sites have been documented to date in the 8000 hectares of the property. Over 13000 m2 of surfaces have been excavated, making this area the largest single excavation project ever done in Melanesia. The paper will focus on the specific agreements finalized with the indigenous Kanak groups, as part of the archaeological procedures, around the discovery and study of human remains, before summarizing the main results of the program. These have shown an unexpected number of landscape transformations during the last 3000 years, with the massive expansion of the seashore dune system as well as the intensified occupation of the inland areas over the last 700 years before first European contact. The presentation of the results to the public through site visits, films, exhibitions, on-site panels and publications, has allowed the collective appropriation of the archaeological discoveries by the inhabitants of the Bourail region and beyond, whatever their cultural origins.