Déwé Gorodé (1949–2022) was a key figure in the development of Kanak (New Caledonian) literature and politics. A founding member of Palika (Parti pour la libération kanak), an independence political movement, she wrote her first poetry collection while in jail. Read More One of the first women to be elected to government in 1999, she would serve as Minister for Culture, Youth and Sport; later in her political career she was vice president of the New Caledonian Congress. She founded a number of cultural institutions, such as the Maison du livre and the international book fair the Salon du livre océanien (SILO). She continued her work on poetry and short stories and in 2005 she published the first novel by a Kanak author (L’Épave), translated into English as The Wreck (Little Island Press, 2011). Gorodé was also an avowed feminist and militant proponent of women’s rights.