«To go to New Guinea and not look at its sea waters is like going to Arizona and not looking at the Grand Canyon.»

New Guinea: Land of the Unexpected: Island Invaders

F. Murray Abraham, Peter Coyote, David Attenborough, Paul Christie, John Benjamin Hickey, Howard McGillin, George Page, Jay O. Sanders, Craig Sechler, Nora Young, Allison Argo, Toby Leonard Moore, and Chris Morgan in Nature (1982)

Neil Nightingale

George Page presents the unexpected beauties of New Guinea, focusing in this first episode on the coasts, with their coral reefs and the peoples of the swampy shores. (XNB/Black Roses)

Fred Kaufman

Documentary presented by George Page for the American PBS series Nature, reissue of Neil Nightingale&apos;s BBC Natural World episode An Island Apart - Beyond the Unknown Shore, here strangely titled Island Invaders. George brings us for two episodes to New Guinea, &quot;land of the unexpected&quot;, &quot;hidden from the outside world&quot;, &quot;an island of extremes&quot;, &quot;fearful territory strange and frightening&quot;, to &quot;portrait the bizarre and the beautiful&quot;. This sensationalist introduction is due to interest people who don&apos;t know at all the country, but fortunately the tone of the documentary will quickly change. George takes the same interesting point of showing both the coast and the inland as Cousteau in his Rediscovery of the World, but without the extreme naivety of his discourse. And George on his side chooses to present New Guinea as a whole, with sequences from both Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya.

The first part of this episode focuses on wildlife, starting with the coral reefs &quot;among the richest on earth&quot;, &quot;a divers&apos; paradise&quot; at &quot;a major marine crossroads between the Indian and Pacific oceans&quot;. The narration is interesting, mixing also geological and ecological explanations. And we discover thus an extraordinary submarine fauna. The lionfish, &quot;graceful&quot; but with &quot;sharp spines loaded with deadly poison&quot;. The clownfish, &quot;covering itself with the mucus of anemones for protection&quot;. The mantis shrimp, &quot;beautiful and well protected&quot;, which can &quot;easily break a person&apos;s fingers&quot;. The razor fish, &quot;swimming in a curious vertical way&quot; to &quot;hide in red gorgonians&quot;. Another small fish prefers &quot;to seek refuge among the spines of the stone fish&quot;. Should it happen to be a good shelter? A triggerfish thinks to have &quot;an easy and tempting meal&quot; with a nudibranch. Will he really find a happy feast? A special point is made on the Magic Passage, between two small islands on the north coast of PNG (actually near Madang), where we discover the great predators roaming around the reef.

We then go ashore to explore the fauna of the coasts. Huge bats, the spectacled flying foxes, &quot;circle the sky&quot; like spirits, and &quot;natives need to guard their gardens against these armies of voracious vegetarians&quot;. Wallabies in the southern open savannas &quot;could be offered as a bridal gift for the prospective family&quot;. The documentary focuses on reptiles, &quot;the largest and most fearful predators&quot; in the absence of &quot;large carnivorous mammals&quot;. We see thus the dreadful amethystine python, which &quot;kills through suffocation&quot;. A strange legless lizard, &quot;sneaking silently&quot;, prefers to hunt other reptiles. Will it manage to catch an &quot;alert and nervous skink&quot;? And the ruling predator is &quot;a creature from the age of dinosaurs&quot;, the &quot;world&apos;s longest lizard&quot;, with &quot;fast moving claws and razor-sharp teeth&quot;, &quot;agile in the water as on the land&quot;, the Salvadori&apos;s monitor. As it can &quot;lunge at a prey twice its size&quot;, which copious meal should he find through its quest?

We watch then &quot;flocks of birds&quot; gathering during the dry season around &quot;shrinking pools&quot;. Magpie geese search for &quot;tender aquatic plants&quot;, herons and egrets hunt for &quot;stranded eels&quot;, for sterns and cormorants, &quot;trapped frogs and fish create a bonanza of food&quot;, the glossy ibis picks &quot;shrimps left on the water&apos;s edge&quot; along an &quot;elegant brolga crane&quot;, and &quot;hundreds of trapped catfish are a feast for pelicans&quot;. But as the great meal goes on, which tremendous danger could suddenly come from the sky?

For the last third, we meet two coastal peoples, starting with the Sepik River one in the north of Papua New Guinea, where &quot;waters thread wastes in a bewildering maze&quot;, like in &quot;a Martian landscape with its complex system of canals&quot;. Sepik people &quot;raise their families on this floating world&quot;, &quot;every aspect of their lives being modified to take place in a small canoe&quot;. We watch traditional fishing scenes, and also some with &quot;more modern methods&quot;. Is it a kind of &quot;idyllic life&quot;? In fact &quot;threat of floods, tribal disputes and illness like malaria make it uncertain&quot;. But people can &quot;appeal to the water spirit creator of their world&quot;, the &quot;deadly saltwater crocodile&quot;. And we see the impressive scars of a young man, marks of the coming of age initiation where he &quot;suffered a ritual attack to possess the power of the crocodile&quot;.

Finally we go to the Asmat people in the south of Irian Jaya, where &quot;headhunting and cannibalism&quot; were &quot;still practiced a few decades ago&quot;. &quot;Skilled carvers&quot; still commemorate this era. We focus on the sago tree, &quot;symbol of the human being&quot;, Asmat itself meaning &quot;tree people&quot;. And we watch &quot;a sacred stone age ritual&quot;, &quot;filmed for the first time&quot;, to &quot;ensure a healthy tree&quot;. We see also women preparing the sago pulp. Which delicious recipe will they make out of this dish? Men on their side have &quot;left apart a trunk for a month&quot;. Which &quot;very wholesome snack&quot; will they take out the decaying wood? We also study the traditional local beliefs. A young boy used to grow &quot;if the spirit of another man entered him&quot;, and for that, &quot;a head was needed&quot;, for it has the power &quot;to give seeds of strength and sexual maturity&quot;. Could these &quot;age-old rituals&quot;, forbidden by &quot;governments and missionaries&quot;, still be practiced in secret?

Documentary presented by George Page for the American PBS series Nature, reissue of Neil Nightingale's BBC Natural World episode An Island Apart - Beyond the Unknown Shore, here strangely titled Island Invaders. George brings us for two episodes to New Guinea, "land of the unexpected", "hidden from the outside world", "an island of extremes", "fearful territory strange and frightening", to "portrait the bizarre and the beautiful". This sensationalist introduction is due to interest people who don't know at all the country, but fortunately the tone of the documentary will quickly change. George takes the same interesting point of showing both the coast and the inland as Cousteau in his Rediscovery of the World, but without the extreme naivety of his discourse. And George on his side chooses to present New Guinea as a whole, with sequences from both Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya.

The first part of this episode focuses on wildlife, starting with the coral reefs "among the richest on earth", "a divers' paradise" at "a major marine crossroads between the Indian and Pacific oceans". The narration is interesting, mixing also geological and ecological explanations. And we discover thus an extraordinary submarine fauna. The lionfish, "graceful" but with "sharp spines loaded with deadly poison". The clownfish, "covering itself with the mucus of anemones for protection". The mantis shrimp, "beautiful and well protected", which can "easily break a person's fingers". The razor fish, "swimming in a curious vertical way" to "hide in red gorgonians". Another small fish prefers "to seek refuge among the spines of the stone fish". Should it happen to be a good shelter? A triggerfish thinks to have "an easy and tempting meal" with a nudibranch. Will he really find a happy feast? A special point is made on the Magic Passage, between two small islands on the north coast of PNG (actually near Madang), where we discover the great predators roaming around the reef.

We then go ashore to explore the fauna of the coasts. Huge bats, the spectacled flying foxes, "circle the sky" like spirits, and "natives need to guard their gardens against these armies of voracious vegetarians". Wallabies in the southern open savannas "could be offered as a bridal gift for the prospective family". The documentary focuses on reptiles, "the largest and most fearful predators" in the absence of "large carnivorous mammals". We see thus the dreadful amethystine python, which "kills through suffocation". A strange legless lizard, "sneaking silently", prefers to hunt other reptiles. Will it manage to catch an "alert and nervous skink"? And the ruling predator is "a creature from the age of dinosaurs", the "world's longest lizard", with "fast moving claws and razor-sharp teeth", "agile in the water as on the land", the Salvadori's monitor. As it can "lunge at a prey twice its size", which copious meal should he find through its quest?

We watch then "flocks of birds" gathering during the dry season around "shrinking pools". Magpie geese search for "tender aquatic plants", herons and egrets hunt for "stranded eels", for sterns and cormorants, "trapped frogs and fish create a bonanza of food", the glossy ibis picks "shrimps left on the water's edge" along an "elegant brolga crane", and "hundreds of trapped catfish are a feast for pelicans". But as the great meal goes on, which tremendous danger could suddenly come from the sky?

For the last third, we meet two coastal peoples, starting with the Sepik River one in the north of Papua New Guinea, where "waters thread wastes in a bewildering maze", like in "a Martian landscape with its complex system of canals". Sepik people "raise their families on this floating world", "every aspect of their lives being modified to take place in a small canoe". We watch traditional fishing scenes, and also some with "more modern methods". Is it a kind of "idyllic life"? In fact "threat of floods, tribal disputes and illness like malaria make it uncertain". But people can "appeal to the water spirit creator of their world", the "deadly saltwater crocodile". And we see the impressive scars of a young man, marks of the coming of age initiation where he "suffered a ritual attack to possess the power of the crocodile".

Finally we go to the Asmat people in the south of Irian Jaya, where "headhunting and cannibalism" were "still practiced a few decades ago". "Skilled carvers" still commemorate this era. We focus on the sago tree, "symbol of the human being", Asmat itself meaning "tree people". And we watch "a sacred stone age ritual", "filmed for the first time", to "ensure a healthy tree". We see also women preparing the sago pulp. Which delicious recipe will they make out of this dish? Men on their side have "left apart a trunk for a month". Which "very wholesome snack" will they take out the decaying wood? We also study the traditional local beliefs. A young boy used to grow "if the spirit of another man entered him", and for that, "a head was needed", for it has the power "to give seeds of strength and sexual maturity". Could these "age-old rituals", forbidden by "governments and missionaries", still be practiced in secret?

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New Guinea: Land of the Unexpected: Island Invaders

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