"I'm in the South Pacific, heading for the island of Anuta, one of the most remote communities on Earth." "There is nothing else on the horizon in any other direction." "Rarely have I ever felt so isolated." "Five thousand years ago people made this same journey, setting off from Asia in ocean-going canoes." "These prehistoric navigators colonised a vast area of the Pacific " "Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti." "When the first Europeans came through these waters, they found peoples living apparently idyllic lives on lush island homes." "They thought they'd sailed into paradise." "The original way of life has long since disappeared from most of these islands, but Anuta, so cut off from the outside world, is now one of the last traditional Polynesian communities in the Pacific." "After four days at sea, we sight a speck of land on the horizon." "Half a mile wide, 75 miles from its nearest neighbour, this finally is my first sighting of the island of Anuta." "How do people survive in such an isolated place, and could this really be paradise on Earth?" "My name's Bruce Parry." "I've been travelling to some of the world's most remote places to see how people there live and how they're adjusting to a rapidly changing world." "I believe there's only one way to really understand another culture and that's to experience it first-hand, to become, for a short while, one of the tribe." "The island of Anuta is surrounded by a shallow reef, so our yacht anchors off shore and I'm paddled towards the beach." "OK?" "How are you?" "Look at you guys!" " What is your name?" " My name is Laurence." "Laurence!" "And your name?" "Anuta's one of the Solomon Islands, which used to be under British rule, but even so, I didn't expect this many people to speak English." "Apparently, many months can go by without a ship being sighted, so someone coming ashore is a big event." "The entire community is here to greet me and I'm told that I must shake hands with each and every one of them." "This really is phenomenal." "What a reception." "Everyone is out, all smiling and er..." "just a really warm feeling." "And let's face it, look around." "What an amazing place." "I'm in paradise." "A couple of hundred handshakes later and I'm taken to meet the community leaders." "So tell me, what is the protocol?" "I must go in on my... very low?" " On my knees?" " Just go like this." "Then shake hands with him..." "I've heard it's customary to greet the chief in the Polynesian way, with a nose kiss." "Yes, you sniff them." "OK." "But I don't kiss him with my lips?" "Or just with my nose?" " Yes, your nose." " OK." "Then I greet the deputy chief." "My aim is to spend three weeks here on the island and to share some of your customs and rituals and your daily life and hopefully gain an understanding of what it is like to live on the island of Anuta." "The chief tells me I can stay on Anuta, and says he'll gather all the islanders together to give me a traditional welcome." "Obviously people arriving here on an island so remote is a big thing and they have very formal rituals for the arrival of any newcomer." "I'm dressed in a cloth made form tree bark." "It's not rough at all." "It's quite stiff, card-like, but... it's very smooth." "A woman smears me with a strong-smelling paste made of ground turmeric, and one of the men adorns me with garlands." "I'm going to be given a tour of the island by its entire population, all 250 of them." "We walk past a graveyard." "I'm told the islanders have been Christian since missionaries arrived here 90 years ago." "Anuta's only half a mile wide at most, so it doesn't take long to cross it." "As we head up to the highest point," "I'm surprised to find us walking through field after field of neatly tended crops." "Two things I really noticed about my journey around the island, is that is that at first glance when I arrived, it looked quite wild and rough and jungly, but when you start walking through it and are shown around," "you notice that it's not jungle at all, it's all garden and every inch of this island is used to produce food." "And it needs to be too." "That's the first thing, and then the second thing is just the wonder and the majesty of the isolation here." "I cannot see another thing in any direction." "It's so... humbling, really." "We're in the middle of nowhere." "Unbelievable." "I like your island." "I've come with all sorts of gifts." "Kerosene for lamps, a two-way radio and sacks of food." "Before they're given out, I'm asked to say a few words." "My hope is to live within your wonderful community, and experience a little bit of what it is like to live on this glorious island of Anuta." "And so my aim is..." "Everything I brought is carefully divided amongst the island's 24 families." "Giving gifts and sharing whatever you have is a fundamental principle of life here." "It's a way of expressing what Anutans call aropa, your love and and compassion for your fellow human beings." "So our people will respond in a word of thanks." "The most important part of the ceremony is a feast." "Banana leaves are opened to reveal boiled fish and mashed vegetables like taro and manioc." "Just as we're starting to relax, the weather turns nasty." "Then a shout goes up from the beach." "My lifeline to the outside world is on the move." "The winds are so strong, its anchor chain has snapped, so it's heading off to the nearest safe anchorage." "Just goes to show that a seeming paradise can turn treacherous in no time at all and even our trusty yacht Margarita has had to leave." "That is it now." "We're totally on our own, marooned on this island." "Fantastic." "Before I move into the village, I've been asked by the chief to look in on a sick man." "This is Paul." "He's got a badly infected foot." "There are flies everywhere, and the smell is awful." "Could you show us the wound to have a look?" "And then move the foot over?" "Paul's wife, Martha, tells me the only medicines they have on the island are traditional ones like these leaves, but they don't seem to be helping much." "This is so bad, he could easily die from it." "My understanding, Paul, is that you, two or three weeks ago, you stepped on a fish bone that went in, and it has become septic and your foot has swollen, and now you have some bouts of fever," "you have intense pain and, as we can see from your foot, it's very septic and swollen." "Is this true?" " Yes." " OK." "I always travel with a decent medical kit, and I've done a fair bit of first-aid training, but I'm no doctor and I've never had to deal with an infection as serious as this." "First I must clean the wound as best I can." "I'm so sorry, Paul." "I'm so sorry." "It'll be over very soon." "Paul's gonna need all the antibiotics I've got with me, but first I must test to see if he's allergic." "Can I have some tape?" "The nearest hospital is almost 300 miles away, and as cargo ships only pass by two or three times a year, there's no way of getting him there." "Being cut off from the outside world may seem romantic, but such isolation can be life-threatening." "It's time for me to move into the community." "This man will look after me during my stay." "He has an Anutan name, but it's only his parents who really use it." "So I'm gonna call him Hudson, like everyone else." " They're cooking today?" " Yeah." "No, no..." "Yes..." "Hello!" "Are you Hudson's wife?" "No, my brother's... brother's wife." "Your brother's wife." "My name is Bruce." "Nice to meet you." "Hudson's extended family, nine people in all, live in this hut." "Miriam." "Hello Miriam." "And what is your name, little one?" "I'm sorry." "The hut is low-roofed with tree trunks lashed to poles sunk deep into the ground." "It's so sturdy, it can even survive the storms that occasionally strike the island." "So in a cyclone or a hurricane, you stay inside the house?" " Yes, we stay inside." " And it makes some noise, but it's still safe?" " Yeah, it's safe." " Wow." "If like me or my brother..." "Hudson's English is pretty good." "He went to school on Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, nearly 700 miles away." "Many islanders have spent several years in the city, and know a lot about the outside world." "One of the kids has even been named after a film star." "I'm going to be sharing a house with Mel Gibson." "The seas are too rough to launch canoes, so the men go beach casting instead." "But they'll never catch enough to feed everyone." "An alternative method is called for, so everyone gathers on the beach." "This is gonna be an amazing day." "It's something I'm really looking forward to." "It's a community fish drive, and what's happening is every single member of the island is gonna gather together, and we're gonna go out and force the fish into this area here, and then we dive and spear the lot of them!" "What could be more fun?" "Everyone's gonna be out there." "The first job is to repair walls built on previous fish drives." "It's a pretty obvious system, but it's deadly and productive at the same time." "Essentially, this wall we've all been rebuilding is here to stop the fish getting away, so when the wall of people beat towards us, the fish can't escape here and they go into the killing area, and that's where we spear them." "While we wait on the wall, the kids go after the smaller fish with their spears." "By working together, Anutans get many more fish." "The catch is divided amongst the 24 families." "This is how aropa works." "Sharing food in this way binds the islanders together." "Hey!" "The next morning, I wake up to the sound of the surf, and breakfast." "We're having roasted sea birds which were caught by Hudson's brother." " And you catch this with a big net?" " Yeah." "Maybe today when we go round you can show me what they look like, uh... before they've been char-grilled." " They taste lovely." " Yes." " It's better than chicken." " Yes, better than chicken." "After breakfast, I relax in the hut with my family." "I've just found out that Mel Gibson's father and two other men are lost at sea after a storm." "So Mel Gibson's being looked after by Hudson and his other uncles." "Everyone's anxious to find out if the missing men managed to sail to safety, but they've had no way of contacting neighbouring islands." "One of my gifts will hopefully change that." "I've brought a solar-powered, two-way radio." "It will replace a government one that broke a few years ago." "The aerial needs to be as high as possible if we're going to reach even the nearest islands." "It's OK?" "Yes, I think so." "...radio." "Do you read me?" "Over." "This transmission is from almost 300 miles away." "None of the islands we eventually contact has seen Mel Gibson's father or the others." "There's a small chance they made it somewhere else, but it will take days to contact all the islands." "I really want to learn about the different ways Anutans fish, so Hudson's taking me to meet Derek, one of the island's top fishermen." "Father bless this our food..." "You can't go into anyone's house without being offered a meal." "Thank you God for what we are about to receive through Jesus Christ, our Lord." "Amen." "Like Hudson, Derek spent a few years in Honiara, but says he prefers fishing for free on Anuta to working for money in the city." " This is turtles." " This is?" " Turtles." " Turtle!" " Yes." " And did you catch the turtle?" " Yeah." " Wow." "And who do you fish with..." "I've heard that turtles are particularly hard to catch." "...share with all my families." " Sure." "The next morning there's a break in the weather." "Derek organises a fishing trip and says I can come along." "Finally, this is my first opportunity to go out to sea and fish here." "I've been here over a week." "And this is it." "Fantastic." "We wait till there's a lull in the waves, then paddle hard." "Most canoes are waterproofed with algae from the reef but this one's benefited from some paint brought back from Honiara." "It's still pretty rough, so we're going to paddle to a reef near the island." "I though we were just gonna to hold lines over the side of the canoe, but then Derek and the others jump into the water, and I follow." "I've never seen fishing like this before." "The trick is to hang in the water and drop weighted lines down to the reef below." "You see these guys and they're just so skilled." "They're just dangling like this." "Just looking down, and er... it's all I can do, apart from pant and kick my legs to keep my head out of the water." "For such a big guy, Derek's so graceful in the water." "The visibility is so good, he can see fish swimming on the bottom." "All he's got to do is drop his hook into the middle of a shoal." "This is precision fishing." "I've had some bites but no catches at all." "And now that I've lost my hook and my weight, that's not gonna happen today." "So I've been pretty useless really." "The wind starts to pick up again, so we head home." "Unbelievable." "The best day I've had at sea ever." "Derek..." "Thank you, my friend." "That was a very special day for me." " Really lovely." "Thank you so much." " Thank you very much." "Next time I will try and catch some fish for you." "As usual, aropa requires that our catch will be shared out amongst all the families on the island." "Even though it's pouring with rain, we can't take shelter just yet." "A man's first fishing trip is marked with a ritual." "Thank..." "Ooh!" "That's great." "First, Derek washes me with warm water." "I'm so sorry everyone else..." "Everyone is stood in the freezing cold, and here I am really warm." "I don't feel I worked hard enough to deserve this." "Woah!" "Sorry, sorry, sorry." " Now, that's nice." " Ah, yeah." "That really does warm you up." "Finally we're all painted with turmeric." "My new friends are shy and quietly spoken." "Perhaps living on such a small island doesn't make for big personalities." "But their smiles seem to speak of a deep contentment and happiness." "They're all just brilliant." "They really, I mean it, really are." "They're just... proper smile every time you see someone, always a wave and always a big, heartfelt grin." "Every time without exception." "It's such a warm place, this." "Lovely, lovely place to be." "Twice a day, a shell is blown to summon us to service." "My host, like most people here, is very devout, and we go to one of the island's two churches every morning and evening." "The island has been Christian since Anglican missionaries came here in 1916." "The basic teachings of Christ, to love your neighbours and be charitable to them, fitted nicely with the concept of aropa, making the islanders receptive to the new religion." "You're brother was dead, but now he's alive." "Instead of praying to their ancestors and the old spirits the Anutans now look to the Christian God to provide a good harvest and protect them from natural disasters." "I've been on the island for two weeks now, and the seas are still rough." "The old people say it never used to be so windy at this time of year." "Anuta may be cut off from the rest of the world, but its climate is changing just like everywhere else." "The weather might be keeping us on land, but we've still got to eat." "It's time to hunt some birds." "I joined some hunters on a cliff top." "Sea birds returning to roost for the night will fly over our heads, and, if we're quick enough, into our nets." "Everyone has their own call, to lure the birds in." "I think mine might need some work." "The birds won't be killed just yet." "Their distress calls will lure others into range." "Can't see a thing, frankly." "It's pitch-black." "Just a little bit of light out there over the water, but if they come to me towards..." "from the trees, I can't see them." "Like that." "Oh, shi..." "It's so dark, I almost slip and fall off the cliff." "These guys have got amazing night vision." "And they're pointing out stuff that I frankly haven't seen." "I glimpse a bird flying towards me and raise my net." "I've got one." "We've got a good handful of birds, so we call it a night." " How we kill it..." "like this." " You spin it." "There you go mate." "Then another, we bite it, yeah?" "Pretty swift." "The next morning I join my host family on the top of the hill." "They're harvesting manioc, the starchy root vegetable that's one of the island's staples." " So I pull this one here?" " Yeah." "Have to shake." "Ah." "OK, that's the top bit." " So here, Hudson?" " Yeah." "Anutans are as much farmers as fishermen." "This is how their ancestors colonised the Pacific, by getting the most out of the land as well as the sea." "Everyone then helps to peel the manioc." "Although Mel Gibson's too small to be given a knife." "We're not gonna eat this today, tomorrow, or even the next day." "We're gonna bury it instead." "This is a ma pit - the Anutan larder." "A special kind of leaf is used to waterproof the sides." " The whole thing?" " Yeah." " And do I lift it this end?" " No, it's OK." " You can do it?" "You're sure?" " Yeah." "You've got it now, boss." "With little air left in the pit, the manioc will slowly ferment into a starchy paste that can be dug up and cooked if the harvest fails." "Storing food in this way makes the Anutans totally self-sufficient." "And they need to be." "There's no help for hundreds of miles around." "The pit is sealed with wet leaves and stones." "I've never come across anything quite like it in my travels before, and it's brilliant." "It's truly ingenious, and of course a real life-saver." "And just talking to Hudson..." "Just three years ago after cyclone Zoe, every family here on the island pretty much had to delve into their long-term ma pits just to gain their sustenance, to keep them going." "And when will you take it out to eat?" "I think about... after six months." " Six months?" " Yeah." "And what's the longest you can keep it here?" " Two, three, four years." " Two or three years... four years?" " Yeah." " Wow." "And so, at the end of every day, we go for a dip in the turquoise ocean." "Life's not that bad, is it?" "Many Anutans finish their day with a quick swim." "From the day they are born, kids like Mel Gibson are taken into the water." "It's like their second home." "Early the next morning, I noticed some frigatebirds flying above the village." "I'm told these birds are not hunted." "In fact they're pets." "Come on." "This is Derek's." "And it's time for its breakfast." "This, eat this." "It's a fish." "Get in, get in, get in." "Come on, get in, get in." "Oh nice!" "Nice, nice, nice." " And so you feed him every day?" " Every day." " Is it a him or a her?" " Ah... she's a her." " Her." "You feed her." " Yeah." " Does she have a name?" " Uh..." "I call him Stalon." " Stalon?" " Yeah." "And so when she is older she will fly away, but will she come back to you for food?" " Yeah." " Wow." " And what about this one here?" " No, for somebody else." " That's somebody else's pet?" " Yeah." "Wow." "She's very lovely, but quite noisy." "Every neighbouring island has been contacted and asked about the men who were lost at sea... but no one has seen Mel Gibson's father or his friends, and they are presumed dead." "Mel Gibson's uncle will become his adopted father." "But there is good news on the island." "You... your eyes are more bright and you are more sparky." "This is a good sign." "I've been looking in on Paul almost every day." "There is improvement." "There used to be a big red line all the way around, and this has disappeared." "You can still see, of course, the wound." "He's responding well to the antibiotics." "The Anutans are totally dependent on their environment, so they take care to protect it." "When coconuts are scarce, the chief stops people harvesting them." "Crayfish have been over-hunted in the past, so now their only eaten at special times." "My visit is such an occasion, and Derek's gonna make the most of it." "I'm quite excited but also dreading it a little bit." "I'm going out on a night hunt with Moffat and Derek and we're gonna try and find some crayfish." "And I've been given this great spear gun." "I've seen this in many parts of the world and it's incredibly ingenious." "All it is is this is a rubber tube." "Sometimes they just use a bit of inner tube or any sort of elastic really." "And it's just all done in one hand, no trigger mechanism or expensive stuff here, and it's just as deadly." "So Derek, I'm in the water, I'm horizontal," " and the surf and the waves above me..." " Yeah." "And then you say, I push..." "into the ground to get some tension," " and then hold out to the fish..." " Yeah." "Wow." "Night fishing wouldn't be possible without the waterproof torches Derek brought back from Honiara." "As we swim along, our beams pick out spiky sea urchins and reef fish." "The light temporarily blinds the fish and makes them easy prey for an expert fisherman." "Then Derek spots what we're really after." "It's a crayfish hiding under a rock." "I just speared my first fish and then, suddenly, a wave took me to one side and I just stuck my hand on an urchin." "And that's really very sore." "So I'm gonna have to go back and, like, take them all out." "There's millions in there." "While I'm back on the shore, digging out the spines, the guys carry on fishing." "They eventually return with a sack full of fish." "It weighs a ton." "There's a lot of fish in here." "Genius." "Well done." "I'll carry this." "You've done all the work..." "There's no way of storing the catch, so it all goes straight in the pot." "I'm asked to say grace." "Bless this food we have in front of us." "Bless all of the people of Anuta." "And may the seas remain as bountiful as they are now." " Amen." " Amen." "Wonderful." "Derek, you must start." "Wow." "Look at that." "We were in the sea ten minutes ago." "It's had a five-minute boil." "Can't get fresher than that." "Wow." "Waterproof torches are not the only foreign things here." "Anything that washes up on the beach is put to good use." "A gas cylinder hangs outside the island's second church." "Floats from Chinese trawlers are highly prized." "And this boat turned up with an outboard motor and a tank full of fuel but, sadly, no pump." "With so few manufactured goods around, Anutans still rely on the island's plant life." "The bark of this tree is used to make rope." "These leaves are woven into mats and this bark's beaten into a cloth." "This hardwood tree is, perhaps, the most important plant on the island." "It's hollowed out to make a canoe." "Derek's brother, Ruben, has almost finished one." "It takes five or six months of painstaking chipping to complete the canoe." "Before they had metal tools, this would have been done with sharp, volcanic stones." "OK." "I've, er, I've used these tools before and Ruben makes it look very easy, believe me." "Especially as..." "This here." "So this one?" " Yes." " This one." "OK." "So I'll start here." " OK." " I'm just never hitting the same space twice and, er, Ruben's being very cool but I think the look on his face is a bit worrying." "Er, "Bruce is wrecking my canoe" is the interpretation I have." "Let me try again." " OK." "Let me check it, yeah?" " Yes." "I think maybe I'm going too deep." "Yes." "It's OK." "I think we'd better move to other place." "Sure." "Do you want to finish this to make it look good?" "Otherwise, I will leave today and think..." "I need to know that you can repair it." "You finish there." "You have to use a little one to finish off at the bottom." "It's so incredibly difficult." "And all the more so cos it's a canoe." "It's like, you can't afford to get it wrong." "But you see he uses both hands." "You have to get it in exactly the same spot." "A millimetre out and then you end up digging in again an inch further up and then that means you're having to take more layers off and more layers off." "And so every, every wrong hit, of which there's been quite a few, means it has to go deeper." "And it's just one of those things that if you go too far, then you start again." "Unlike the rounded hulls of many other Polynesian canoes," "Anutan ones are still V-shaped, so they can cut through big seas on long journeys." "The sides sit low in the water and the waves are always breaking over them, so every canoe has one of these." "This is the bailer for getting the water out?" " But you make..." "Each canoe..." " Yes." "...has one specifically for it." "Is this true?" " It's true." " So this one, the shape here..." " The same as is the same as the shape here, so that it's perfect..." " Yes." "... when you do the bailing." "Wow." "Anutans take such care of their canoes, they can last more than 80 years." "The trees they're made from are so rare and they take so long to build that when a canoe is smashed and sunk, a ceremony is held." " Is this a big occasion as well?" " Yes, it's a big occasion." " We make also a feast for it." " A feast?" " Yes." " OK." "Like a funeral." " Yes, like a funeral." " OK." "So we treat this like a human being." " You treat it like a human being." " Yes." " I had heard that." " Because it's very important to us." "It's very, yeah, of course." "After three weeks on the island, the storms that brought day after day of wind have finally moved on." "The calm seas and sunshine lift everyone's spirits." "Ooh!" "The turmeric that is a vital part of so many rituals here has been dug up and brought to the beach." "Today is a special day where all of the women in the community get together and they wash the turmeric." "They do it once a year." "Today's the day and I'm just gonna go and join in." "Men are not normally allowed to be involved but the women have insisted that I join them." "It's light work for so many hands, especially when the waves are doing the rinsing." "Although I've been living on the island with the women and chatting with the women," "I've never really had a chance to hang with the women until today." "And look what I've been missing." "It's fantastic." "Woo!" "It's like being out on a hen night." "The songs about their private parts are just as rude." "If only washing carrots and spuds could be half as much fun as this." "I'd be a chef by trade." "Ah." "The men join the women to pound and grind the washed roots." "The turmeric is all grown by one family but the whole community processes it and anyone can use it." "Once it's mashed, it's twisted in a special grass." "Some will flavour food but most will be mixed with coconut oil and used in rituals and ceremonies over the coming year." "I've been checking on Paul whenever I can." "Martha's been using some salt I gave her to bathe Paul's foot." "I think he'll be OK now but he could have died without the antibiotics." "I had thought that there were no medicines on Anuta because it's so isolated." "Now Martha tells me there was a plan to put a clinic here but the chief stopped it, saying prayer is the best cure for illness." "Maybe he also sees a clinic as a threat to his authority." "The community is divided over the issue." "Not everything here is as harmonious as I thought." "The fine weather might not last long, so the men waste no time uncovering their canoes." "Sun shades are fashioned and fishing gear prepared." "This is the reel I first went out fishing with but today is the day I've been looking forward to for some time." "It's my big, big journey and, guess what?" "This is the reel we're gonna take away." "Check the size of that hook." "Today, marlin, sailfish, tuna and maybe even shark, who knows?" "Really looking forward to it." "This is the exhilarating moment, when the sail goes up and we can feel the power of the wind." "Bit like wind surfing." "You can see John at the front, there." "He just feels the breeze with his hands and sometimes he unfurls the sail, other times, he, he rolls it up." "And then, at the back, we have Morgan, acting as rudder and then Derek, here, is just pulling on the outside of the sail cos it gets so strong here." "And all together, we have this magnificent team who all know their thing." "The sea is so calm, we're gonna sail a few miles out." "Experienced fishermen, like Derek, have a mental map of all of the reefs in the area." "He navigates by looking back to reference points on the island." "When certain trees and rocks come into view, he knows he's over the right reef." "But this isn't the only way Anutans can navigate." "They read the sea and sky like I read road signs." "And at night, they set their course by the stars." "By using such techniques, their ancestors reached almost every inhabitable island in the Pacific Ocean, and the only major difference today is that the sail is made from cloth instead of woven leaves." "As we sail out to the reef, we trail a baited line behind us." "Kingfish." "Not too bad, eh?" "We were going at full speed." "It was all chaotic." "And, suddenly, we caught it." "We were going very fast." "I had to jump out of the way." "It was all a bit mad." "But, er..." "There you go." "I'll give it back to the experts." "Once we're over the reef, we drop the sail and start paddling." "This is one of hundreds of reefs in these waters." "As long as there's calm weather, the Anutans have a never-ending supply of fish." "The area's so rich in marine life, sharks come here to feed." "But today, the hunters are the hunted." "So this is good bait for shark?" "Wonderful." "While Derek fishes, his cousin Morgan keeps the boat in position." "I've also got a job to do." "Unlike the canoe I helped dig out, this one's made from planks of wood stitched together." "After 60 years at sea, it looks like it's nearing retirement." "The island's priest is also out fishing for sharks." "We've just come across Father Nomnius and his crew, out doing the same thing as us." "This is our fourth reef that we've tried now." "They caught the one kingfish but we haven't had much luck since then." "And so not even a bite of a shark yet, which is, er, really disappointing." "But they're a bit of a luxury item." "These guys don't get them every time they go out, for sure." "Father Nomnius' crew has had more luck." "This shark weighs around 200lb and was dragged up from the depths by hand." "It must have been one hell of a struggle." "Unbelievable." "I was just walking home with my, what I thought, was quite impressive catch for the day." "I thought I'd stop to help Father Nomnius drag his canoe up the shore and check what they caught." "Unreal." "Sharks are not hunted for meat but for their fins, which the Chinese make into soup." "Demand is threatening shark populations worldwide but this is the Anutans' only way of making money." "The fins will be dried and stored until a cargo ship comes by and they can be sold." "Fish might be shared amongst the community but cash is not." "Money is starting to change things on Anuta." "Some families have even tried to sell crops to those that were running low, which was totally against the principles of aropa." "The chief stopped them." "Time will tell whether the islanders' desire for money is greater than their commitment to tradition." "The fine weather has allowed our yacht to return." "The calm period may only last a few more days, so it's time for me to say my goodbyes." "I've spent the morning visiting each of the families on the island, sitting down to 24 meals, one after the other." "In the last hut, they get me ready for my farewell ceremony." "Wow." "Look at that in the daylight." "That's fantastic." "I'm already covered in turmeric." "But now, finally, and very sadly is, literally, the moment of our departure." "We're gonna go to the beach and I believe that there's gonna be a little bit of singing, traditional singing, and some dancing." "And then I'm gonna leave the island." "The entire community is here to see me off." "I thought I was coming to watch a display of dancing." "I have a terrible feeling," "I have a terrible feeling that I'm going to be joining..." " Yeah." "... joining a display of dancing." "The men wanted to give me a proper sendoff and have been practising their dancing every morning since I arrived." "If I'd known I'd be joining them, I'd have done the same." "Wo-ho-hoo." "But the next stage in the ceremony takes me completely by surprise." "Anutans might normally be quiet and reserved but when they say goodbye, they really let go." "My natural reserve would normally hold back my emotions but that would be disrespectful and dishonest." "When I look at my friends who I may never see again," "I let go, too." "Thank you, Derek." "When I arrived, I greeted everyone by shaking their hands but now, I'm nose-kissing them goodbye, every man, woman and child." "It's kind of like a forced expunge, it's like a forced release and it's incredibly powerful and it works." "It's, it's like it just gets it out and we have our goodbye." "It's fantastic." "And although I've cried like a baby, I feel really good about it." "It's a lovely way to just say goodbye and be done with it." "Amazing." "Thank you." "I will remember you." "Very much." "And I will see you again." "There's no such thing as an earthly paradise, human nature sees to that, but I reckon Anuta comes pretty close." "Despite their disagreements, the islanders seem to understand what's really important in life." "Being so isolated is difficult but is has protected the Anutans from the rapid change that can sweep traditions away." "They can look at the rest of the world from a safe distance and develop in a way that finds a balance between the old and the new." "I've been shown the many skills needed to survive on such a remote island." "But the Anutans have taught me so much more - about living as a community, about pulling together in times of need, about aropa." "So I may be dressed in tradition finery," "I may be emotional but I've still got to bail out the canoe."