Paici

The Paici are the Kanak people of central Grande Terre in New Caledonia. Their Paicî language belongs to the New Caledonian branch of the Oceanic languages, descending from the tongues of Lapita seafarers who settled the archipelago with pottery and New Guinea obsidian from about 1100 BC.

The Paici lived in clan villages under hereditary chiefs, without kings or unified states. They cleared yam and taro fields, fished the lagoon from outrigger canoes and met for ancestor ceremonies around the chief's great house. Their language took shape over centuries of feuding and marriage exchange between the valleys.

Europeans were only a rumour until James Cook sighted Grande Terre in 1774 and the Comte de Lapérouse sailed along its west coast in 1788. In 1337 the Paici world was one of clans, exchange paths and rival valleys untouched by outside power.