Calls for a new Autonomy Day in French Polynesia

6:41 am on 1 July 2020
French Polynesian Autonomy Day parade in Papeete.

French Polynesian Autonomy Day parade in Papeete. Photo: French Polynesia President's Office

A community organisation in French Polynesia is pushing to have the date of Autonomy Day changed.

For 35 years, the territory has marked the day on 29 June, the day a treaty was signed with France to annex the kingdom of Tahiti in 1880.

Indigenous and pro-independence groups usually mark it as a day of mourning for the loss of independence.

The community organisation Nuna'a a ti'a held a meeting outside the assembly in Papeete asking the government to move autonomy day to November.