Baháʼí Faith in New Caledonia

New Caledonia map from CIA World Factbook

As a special member of the former Second French colonial empire today's New Caledonia has a Sui generis relationship with France. The French government oversight of the islands of French Polynesia included an immigration policy of denying non-French speakers/citizens long-term residency in French Overseas Territories. English speaking Australians Baháʼís were thus ineligible for permanent residency. Consequently, Australian Baháʼí pioneers were itinerant rather than permanent, and frequently returned to Australia or travelled between colonies when their visas expired. Access to the Loyalty Islands was even more restrictive as they were designated off-limits to all Europeans, including French citizens.[3]

Shoghi Effendi, head of the religion after the death of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, communicated about New Caledonia in several letters: 3 June 1952, 30 April 1953, 7 May 1953, 31 December 1954, 24 January 1956, 3 May 1956 and 15 February 1957, before he died in November 1957.[2] Overall there was poor growth of the Baháʼí community in the French Overseas Territories in the period following World War II including New Caledonia which contrasted strongly with other areas of the Pacific (see, for example, Baháʼí Faith in Vietnam).[3]

In this atmosphere of restricted visits, the first pioneer to reach New Caledonia was Australia's Margaret Rowling in early 1952[2] followed closely by Mariette Bolton in February the same year.[8] While visiting Nouméa, Bolton went to Bourail and Voh communes.[9] Francois Feminier is mentioned as a convert by July 1952 but may not have been a resident.[10] In January 1955 Rowling described her experiences in New Caledonia in talks at Yerrinbool Baháʼí School in Australia.[11] Daniel Haumont became a Baháʼí in the Society Islands in early 1955, and travelled to the Loyalty Islands in October 1955 and was named a Knight of Baháʼu'lláh.[2]

A Persian family, the Sohailis, denied entrance to Australia because of Australia's White Australia policy was able to pioneer to New Caledonia in 1955.[2][12] In 1958 representatives from the Baháʼí community of New Caledonia attended the 1958 intercontinental conference held in Sydney Australia.[13] By 1959 translations in the Ajië language (also called Houailou) were available.[14]

In 1961 the first citizens of New Caledonia converted to the religion. Perhaps the first resident Baháʼí was Jeannette Outhey.[4] She accepted the religion in Thio on the north side of the island on 10 June 1961. In the same year the first people from the Loyalty Islands converted to the religion – they were a husband and wife who joined the religion in Nouméa on the south side of the main island but whose home was on Maré Island.[15] By the end of 1961 there were enough Baháʼís to form a Local Spiritual Assembly in Nouméa with a smaller community in Thio.[16] Outhey took part actively in 1961 in the election of the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Nouméa and served on that body for nineteen consecutive years before serving in other capacities.[4]

In 1962 Hand of the Cause Collis Featherstone travelled between 3 October and 12 November with an itinerary that included Nouméa among many stops.[17] A regional National Spiritual Assembly had been elected in 1959[3] to whose annual convention a delegate from the Nouméa spiritual assembly attended first in 1963. Jean Sevin, who was designated a Knight of Baháʼu'lláh to the Tuamotu Archipelago region, was the only French Baháʼí to pioneer in the Pacific during the Ten Year Crusade. In 1968, at the request of the Universal House of Justice, Sevin moved to New Caledonia, settling in Nouméa.[2]

Growth by conversion had been sporadic but accelerating by the end of the 1970s. In the 1970s a number of gatherings of Baháʼís resulted in teams of people who cooperated in efforts to bring the religion to the attention of people in New Caledonia.[29][30] In one nine-week period in early 1977 29 people converted to the religion; 12 being from the town of Thio alone, and three more are from the Loyalty Islands.[31] In 1978 Meherangiz Munsiff, a Baháʼí from Great Britain, attracted publicity. In Nouméa, Munsiff participated in a one and one-half-hour television broadcast mentioning Baháʼí teachings on the role of women which was transmitted to many places in the South Pacific.[32] In 1979 Baháʼís sources state there were seven assemblies and 24 additional localities with at least one Baháʼí, plus six assemblies and 24 localities of at least one Baháʼí in the Loyalty Islands.[33]

In the 1980s larger group dynamics began to come into play. In 1982 Baháʼís in the Loyalty Islands from Maré Island built a Baháʼí center for the Baháʼís of Nakéty of Canala province of the main island, in a traditional style – at the dedication some 100 non-Baháʼís and village elders were moved by the act of service from one community to another.[34] In 1986 tribal chiefs accepted news of the religion with enthusiasm when they understood that progressive revelation from a Baháʼí point of view neither negated nor condemned previous religions, and indeed their own tribal faith predicted the coming of a great "Peacemaker."[35]

In 1990 in classes by Helen Perkins, a Baháʼí from Australia, aspects of the religion were emphasized as well as giving a chance to respond to questions of Baháʼís. She also spoke at a large gathering.[36]