Kanak-ajië love poem

Ajië (Adjié, Wai, Houailou, Wailu, Anjie, A'jie, autonym : Waawilûû), is one of the important Kanak languages since it is a regional language and has 5,500 speakers. It is a language of the Oceanian subgroup of the Austronesian language family, which is taught and can be taken at the baccalaureate.

The area where live the speakers of the Ajië language, includes the regions of Houailou (east coast of Grande Terre), Bourail and Moindou (west coast), as well as some areas on the Poya side.

Linguistic fragmentation in New Caledonia is largely a consequence of the functioning of a Kanak society shared between exogamous and virilocal groups.

Men found their wives in neighboring groups, and to the newborn children were transmitted both languages. Thanks to this bilingualism, a vehicular language was without a real interest; This system was inherent to the Canaque sociology.

Ajië, like Drehu, was one of the languages chosen by Anglo-Saxon missionaries (Protestant), who settled on Grande Terre, Isle of Pines, then on the Loyalty Islands.

The objective of these missionaries was twofold: first of all, of course, it was a to evangelize the populations, but also to educate them, so they could read the gospel.

In some places they achieved a such success that many native people could read and write in their own language.

In 1853, when France became the colonizing power of New Caledonia, the French saw the success of these missionaries as a real risk of loss of control.

So, in order to consolidate its power, France will do everything to impose on missionaries, French in their schools, and prohibit the indigenous languages (1863, and partly reaffirmed in 1905).

Small lullaby in the Ajië language: Na êrê na pani méyë Yè parâ ölè méyë yari: "mi na, mi na, wathöru puyi". Céré acëi na parâ ölè Wè cer da dö bara auu "puyi, puyi, wathöru köwi". (Edna Wema)
Mother hen says to her chicks "Come on, come on, watch out for the cat". The chicks respond Because they are not afraid "Cat, cat, take care of your hands". Collected by Stéphanie Geneix-Rabault (ALK, 2009).

The figures of ancestors are present everywhere in New Caledonia, carved on the doorframes and the lintels of the doors, as well as on the retaining posts or on the beams of the large chiefdom huts.

These stylized figures, and the geometric ornaments which complete them, are treated in low relief in the south and the center of the island, in round bump in the north.

Also in the north are large masks in high relief and richly colored, which personify mythological beings.

This Little kanak ajië love poem is a translation of love, of the mirror of the sun. It is on the ocean, mirror of the expanses of golden sands underwater, that it is reflected.

The sun and the ocean, stretch on the golden sands of New Caledonia, where floats her image.