Monument in Vao on the Isle d Pins

This is Monument of St Maurice in the small town of Vao which is on the Isle of Pines which in itself is a small island off the main island in New Caledonia

The monument consists of a statue of Saint Maurice which is 'normal' enough, in the sense that it's the non descript catholic statue you see all over the world. Where it gets interesting is that it is surrounded by a ring of carved wooden totem‑style poles, Kanak (the first nations being of New Caledonia) cultural elements. It stands near the shoreline at Saint‑Maurice Bay, just outside the village of Vao, as I said on the Isle of Pines

The statue marks the arrival of the first Catholic missionaries in the mid‑19th century and the first Catholic mass held on the Isle of Pines, often dated to the late 1840s. It also serves as a war or military memorial, remembering islanders who died in conflicts, which gives the site both religious and commemorative significance. So this monument is like a microcosm of New Caledonia itself a sometime very tense balance of Kanak culture and the colonizers (in this can French) who changed everything.

Oh an St Maurice, not one of the better known Saints - This is what AI tells me about him - I really only fine this interesting for understanding where the term decimated comes from.

According to early Christian tradition, Emperor Maximian ordered Maurice and his legion to participate in pagan sacrifices and to attack fellow Christians during a campaign in Gaul (in the region of today’s Switzerland and France). Maurice and his men refused both to worship the Roman gods and to persecute other Christians, insisting that their duty to God came before obedience to the emperor.​

In response, Maximian repeatedly punished the legion with “decimation,” executing one in ten men, and finally ordered the execution of Maurice and nearly all his soldiers at Agaunum (now Saint‑Maurice in Switzerland) around the year 286. Because they chose martyrdom rather than betray their faith or kill other Christians, Maurice and his companions are honored as martyr‑saints in the Catholic Church, remembered as examples of conscience and non‑violence even while serving as soldiers