In the 1970s, the Kanak claim for independence in New Caledonia was held by many political parties, including two major ones, the Union calédonienne and the Parti de libération kanak (Palika). Through ethnographic description of the rural municipality of Koné, this article stresses the political and social logics undermining the distinction between both parties. Apart from differences of contexts, strategies and ideologies, the practical implementation of the Palika in Koné relied on specific generational and territorial cleavages, elaborated through different modes of historicity, that revealed Kanak representations of politics “on the long run”, including and going beyond the colonial issue.