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Pole to Pole with Will Smith - Season 1 - Episode 05: The Pacific Islands
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00:23Hey! Is that you, Will?
00:25That's me. That's me.
00:27My golly. This is you?
00:29This is you.
00:32Welcome to my bit of paradise.
00:35All right. You want me to hop on that boat?
00:36You want to sink?
00:37OK.
00:38Let's get into your boat.
00:39All right.
00:40You know how you meet somebody, and in one second,
00:47you know that they're about to take you on an adventure
00:49you will never forget?
00:52You need to be protected from the spirits.
00:54Oh.
00:54If you don't do this, you and I are dead near.
00:57Oh, OK. So we should do this then.
00:59Yeah.
01:01That's how it was when I met John Aeney.
01:07Will is a world-famous movie star.
01:12But around here, I am his boss.
01:16I am in charge.
01:20We go?
01:21Yes, we go.
01:22Let's go.
01:23All right.
01:29So where exactly are we going?
01:32We are heading to a little island for a ceremony.
01:37What can I expect in this ceremony?
01:41They call Papua New Guinea the land of the unexpected.
01:44Expect anything to happen.
01:46OK.
01:50We are renowned for being cannibals.
01:52Yeah, we still enjoy that.
01:54We still enjoy that.
01:55OK.
01:55Me especially.
01:56All right.
02:01So John likes to play.
02:03You know, if we were in Philly,
02:05somebody might say John plays too much.
02:08But when it comes to his work,
02:11John could not be more serious.
02:35When I was young, my grandmother,
02:38she would always say try to make everything you touch better.
02:44She was a nurse,
02:45so her entire life was devoted to helping people.
02:52I guess growing up,
02:54I've always struggled living up to that.
02:59But I'm working on it.
03:00I'm still young.
03:04So for my next leg of this pole-to-pole journey,
03:08I've come to a beautiful but fragile island archipelago
03:13way out in the Pacific Ocean
03:16to meet local chieftain and marine ecologist,
03:20John Aeney.
03:21He kind of reminds me of my grandmother.
03:27That same desire to make everything he touches better.
03:32But his approach is like nothing I've ever seen before.
03:47So what does that mean?
03:48What's happening?
03:49This is a patient ceremony called Vala.
03:53Just follow me.
03:54You'll be safe.
03:55I'll be safe.
04:02It's okay.
04:03We can go.
04:03You get that?
04:04Yeah.
04:06We are an ancient ocean people.
04:13Since the time of our ancestors,
04:15this beautiful ocean always provided for us.
04:33But now with the challenges of climate change,
04:38in my lifetime,
04:39rising sea levels and extreme weather
04:42have totally destroyed our homes.
04:48come forward.
04:52But I believe there is a way to protect this land
04:56and that is to embrace our history.
05:12This is wild.
05:25I've never experienced anything like Vala,
05:29before.
05:30Oh, man.
05:35I could just feel the deep respect
05:39for this beautiful ceremony.
05:47Even though I had no idea what was happening.
05:55So what exactly was that ceremony?
05:58Like, what does it signify?
06:01Have you seen any fish run around here now
06:03since you walked out?
06:05Oh, yeah, I know.
06:05You look at the corals.
06:07They're dead.
06:13This very ancient ceremony signifies
06:16that the whole reef area is closed
06:18until the fish return.
06:22So this acts basically as a signal
06:26to anyone that might come around
06:28to not fish this area.
06:30Yes.
06:32It is my people's tradition.
06:35But no one had done it for a hundred years.
06:38I brought it back to life
06:40because all these communities will respect it.
06:45Now it becomes a sacred place.
06:51This is our food source.
06:55Without healthy coral reefs,
06:57we will have nothing.
07:11watching John do his work,
07:15it really opened my eyes
07:17to a different way
07:19of thinking about our past.
07:30And you can just tell
07:33that John is revered.
07:38He is using traditional knowledge,
07:42fighting for people
07:44who don't necessarily have a voice.
07:52Will, I wanted to meet Robert.
07:54Hey, hey.
07:55Yeah.
07:55What's happening, brother?
07:56Robert has come from Tenth Island,
07:58a very, very small island
07:59just out there in the far-flung oceans.
08:02So what's the reason you called on John?
08:05I can show you.
08:06Oh, please.
08:09Oh, that's beautiful.
08:11That's where you grew up?
08:12Yeah.
08:13Yeah.
08:14But it's in real danger.
08:23Tenth is a very remote island.
08:28Just like a small dot on the ocean.
08:34My whole life is on the island.
08:38But in 2008,
08:41I was with my wife and our first son
08:46when the king tide hit.
08:54Big waves coming one after the other
08:58and just last four hours.
09:03Three quarter of the island was flooded.
09:07We were very scared
09:09when we see the water rise to that kind of level.
09:20The night after,
09:23a naval patrol boat came to our rescue.
09:29Living home,
09:31I feel like a refugee to another place.
09:41That is a scary idea.
09:44Yeah.
09:44If your home was in the middle of the ocean
09:47and the water begins to rise.
09:51And we were evacuated some two years.
09:54Two years.
09:56Yeah.
09:56So you weren't able to go back for two years.
09:59It's hard to find her life somewhere else.
10:02And if another event like a king tide comes again,
10:05I'm losing everything.
10:07Mm-hmm.
10:08So, John,
10:09please come to Tens.
10:12Might greatly help.
10:15I respect that,
10:17the fight to save your home.
10:26A king tide is the name given
10:28to the highest tide of the year.
10:33When extreme weather occurs,
10:36I have seen all the communities
10:39being washed away in front of my own eyes.
10:52Tensh is a 60-mile sail across the open ocean.
10:57You know, perfect for like a high-powered superyacht.
11:03Oh, man.
11:05John, why you couldn't just get a regular boat, man?
11:08This is as safe as it can be.
11:10This can handle the crossing.
11:11No, this boat cannot get.
11:12And this is big.
11:13Oh, this counts as a big boat?
11:18All right.
11:19Well, we need these if the boat's safe.
11:21It is safe.
11:21It is safe.
11:22Do you need some help?
11:23Get in the boat.
11:24All right.
11:26You need to experience our culture.
11:28Yes.
11:29This is one of the experiences.
11:30All right, no, I'm down.
11:31This is safe.
11:32It's not safe, John.
11:33There's no way it's safe.
11:34It is safe as can be.
11:35But I'm going to experience your culture.
11:38If he had annoyed me on that boat,
11:42I would have thrown him back into the sea.
11:46Even the dog know we shouldn't be on this thing, John.
11:48The dog is like, no, no.
11:50Will, no.
11:51No.
11:52No.
12:07Will, before we cross over the tents.
12:09Yeah.
12:10I want to show you what this place is all about.
12:12All right.
12:13We need us.
12:16It's a whole new world.
12:19Wow.
12:21Look at that.
12:24These coral reefs are amazing ecosystems that are really important to our survivors.
12:35That's why a big part of my work is to monitor the health of the coral reefs.
12:43What's amazing about John is he's not just an expert in tradition.
12:50He also educated himself in cutting-edge science.
13:00This is one of the many coral reefs that we are trying to protect.
13:04Mm-hmm.
13:06There is a box, which is part of our monitoring work.
13:09Okay.
13:10And I would want you to get underwater.
13:14Bring it back.
13:14And I'm going to bring it back.
13:15To me.
13:16To you.
13:16Yeah.
13:20All right.
13:21So, listen.
13:21This may not be the perfect time for me to share this.
13:26I'm not a great swimmer.
13:30I don't care.
13:31I want you to get underwater right now.
13:34I'm not really an ocean guy.
13:38I'm one of the dudes that always has floaties on when I'm anywhere near the water.
13:45Is there any shark potential?
13:47Yeah.
13:49All right.
13:50Well, that's scary.
13:51It is not scary.
13:52You can't tell me it's not scary.
13:53This is a lot of talking.
13:55Just go down.
13:56And you're sure that I'm the right person that should be doing this?
13:59You are the right person.
14:00Okay, let's go.
14:01Oh, man.
14:12I didn't realize there's a lot going on in a healthy, alive reef.
14:19In the movie Finding Nemo, I thought that they were doing too much with the oversaturated
14:26colors.
14:27It's like, oh, no, that's exactly what it looks like down there.
14:33All these different creatures living together in this wild ecosystem.
14:44And there are thousands of miles of these reefs.
14:51Now I understand why scientists call this place the Amazon of the Seeds.
14:59Can you rock it like rocket fuel?
15:02Oh!
15:06How was it down there?
15:07Oh, man.
15:08I think you were right.
15:09I was the man for the job.
15:11You're correct.
15:11Okay.
15:12I realized that.
15:13I was like, oh, that's what an alive reef looks like.
15:17You see the difference?
15:18For sure.
15:20Oh, that's not end where the sea is.
15:23It continues on to our coral reefs.
15:29The reefs are like a garden to the people of these islands with so much food right there
15:37in the backyard.
15:39I'd never thought about how connected life is above and below the waves.
15:53And Will, if it's a good healthy reef and the sharks come, they may jump on the boat and bite
16:01you.
16:02All right.
16:03Okay.
16:04No, see, I can see you about the games.
16:05You like jokes.
16:06If you ever come to Philly, I got you.
16:08I will die before I go to Philly.
16:31So, Will, before we go to tents, I want to make one last stop.
16:38What, you need some gas?
16:43You see what's in my back?
16:44Oh, wow.
16:46When you're hanging with John, you just got to be prepared for anything that might happen.
16:52Just like my grandmother, you know.
16:56He has this little smile that she had.
17:00Like, they know something that the rest of us don't know.
17:04See what's happening?
17:06Yeah, right.
17:08You see, Will?
17:09We have to stop because I've invited someone else to go with us on our journey.
17:15She's going to be rolling with us.
17:16That's good.
17:17That's good.
17:17Just somebody.
17:18Our invitation.
17:19By special invitation.
17:20We are picking me up at a festival called Sing Sing.
17:34This is where tribal groups solve their customs, their unique languages.
17:43Keep an out.
17:44We are looking for Mary Woolworth.
17:46I think I know who Mary is.
17:48Do you?
17:48When I look around, I think I know which one is Mary.
17:51They all know white Mary.
17:52She's a linguist who specializes in remote languages.
17:55All right.
17:56Hello.
17:57Hey.
17:57How you doing?
17:58That's Mary.
17:59How you doing?
18:00I'm Will.
18:00I'm a hugger.
18:01Will, I'm Mary.
18:02How you doing?
18:02How are you?
18:03I'm good.
18:04I'm good.
18:05I know we just met, but I'm going to put you to work right away.
18:08I love that.
18:12These guys sing songs in their own local languages.
18:15Okay.
18:16And PNG is the epicenter of linguistic diversity.
18:18If you think about 7,000 languages in the world, there's almost 850 languages in PNG alone.
18:25They're speaking languages that are completely different from their neighbors.
18:29It's different as, you know, English is to Chinese.
18:31Wow.
18:39So it looks like a lizard of some sort.
18:45Language is our human superpower.
18:56It's quite remarkable how we found 7,000 different ways of describing the world.
19:18Every sing-sing tells a different story about who we are, where we are from.
19:27But most of them are singing the songs, but maybe not now knowing the meanings of those songs.
19:36Oh, so some of them are singing languages.
19:39Which they don't understand.
19:42Oh, wow.
19:47Language is the core.
19:49It is what sort of keeps people together.
19:56And if part of that core is going away, it means part of their identity is also dying.
20:04Every two weeks, a language disappears.
20:10Every two weeks, we lose a piece of our human history, a piece of our human knowledge.
20:19I think I just understood part of the plight of blacks in America with the loss of individual languages.
20:35It's like a historical tether gets severed to your bloodline, what your DNA has contributed.
20:53It tells a long story.
20:55It tells a long story.
20:57Yeah.
20:58Never felt that before.
21:00Yeah.
21:01I get that.
21:04I get the importance of that.
21:10Yeah, I felt really for the first time in my life, a sense of what was lost for my own
21:23history.
21:24And, you know, the idea that the history of black Americans didn't start on a boat in 1620.
21:34But I've never really thought about it in terms of, like, language.
21:41It's who you are beyond what you are today.
21:51It's very similar to the situation in Tench, where I'm headed with you guys.
21:56Yeah.
21:57It's probably one of the most endangered languages in the world.
22:00Oh, wow.
22:00And we'll see.
22:01We'll see, you know, how many speakers are left of this language.
22:04But it's an incredible opportunity to go and record them and safeguard them.
22:11So what?
22:12So it's like a dual conservation mission.
22:15Yeah.
22:16Yeah.
22:16So we're trying to save the land and the history.
22:20Exactly.
22:21Yes, exactly.
22:22So it's a serious situation.
22:40The final leg to Tench is when the land starts to disappear.
22:49Can you come and sit in front?
22:50Yeah, no, no, I'm good.
22:51I can't afford to be wet.
22:52I'm good.
22:57And all that lies ahead is open ocean.
23:04Every direction is just blue.
23:11We were, you know, real far from real far.
23:33John.
23:35Are those storm clouds?
23:37Those ones, huh?
23:39Yeah.
23:40And there's rain coming.
23:41And you're okay with that?
23:42Well, I will see what happens.
23:44But if it's on the horizon, it would be real better.
23:55The crossing to Tench has always been dangerous.
24:00That stretch of water, that is unpredictable.
24:08Oh, geez.
24:10The weather is coming in.
24:13It's, uh, oh, man.
24:20Oh, goodness.
24:21There's no way this is sturdy.
24:26John, do we trust this?
24:28You trust?
24:29We trust this thing, okay?
24:31Yes.
24:32This is such a tiny boat.
24:35There is just a few inches of wood separating us from the depths.
24:45You feel vulnerable and powerless.
24:49It's moving.
24:50It's moving.
24:51It's moving.
24:51The whole thing is moving.
24:55We will make it.
24:56We will make it.
24:58Look at this.
25:04What the heck just happened?
25:06See?
25:06We are safe from the rain.
25:08I told you.
25:08I was going to look after you.
25:11You feel all right, Will?
25:12Yeah, I'm good.
25:13I'm not seasick at all.
25:14Ha-ha!
25:16I guess that's the feeling that John wanted me to have.
25:21Why he picked this boat.
25:25So I could experience the power of the ocean the way his ancestors have for thousands of years.
25:44And then this little dot just pops up in the middle of nothing.
25:54That's it?
25:55That's Tench?
25:56That's her?
25:57Yeah.
25:57There we go.
25:58That's Tench.
25:59There she is.
26:01There she is.
26:03Tench Island.
26:04Here we go.
26:24We made it.
26:26We made it.
26:28We made it.
26:35This is fantastic, man.
26:38Hi.
26:39What's happening, brother?
26:40Yeah, I'm good.
26:40Good to see you.
26:41This is your hometown.
26:42Yeah, that's my home island.
26:44Here.
26:45Welcome to my island home.
26:57This is stunning.
27:03How many people live in the village?
27:06Currently it's less than 100.
27:08Less than 100?
27:09Yep.
27:10Here we go.
27:12Here we go.
27:13Here we go.
27:14While Mary meets the community, I need to figure out if these people can survive another flood by seeing how
27:21they live.
27:23These are food gardens for the people.
27:27Bananas and yams.
27:30Lots of food.
27:32Lunch and dinner.
27:33That's fantastic.
27:40Growing up like this would be wild.
27:42These kids wake up, jump out of the bed, into the ocean.
27:48Like this is how you spend your afternoon.
27:52It feels like you have your own little piece of the earth and it's magnificent.
28:06Yeah.
28:08This would be hard to leave.
28:10This would be hard to leave.
28:17Life intense is very comfortable.
28:20The island has always given us everything we want.
28:26But when people returned, after the last flood, we were forced to replant and rebuild.
28:36Very worried.
28:38If it comes another time, we might lose everything.
28:43This is where the king tide stopped.
28:46The king tide, the water just stopped some meters.
28:49Oh, really?
28:50Beyond us.
28:51So, as we're walking down here, you're saying the water would have been getting deeper here?
28:56Yes.
28:57All this place towards the well was covered with water.
29:01Yeah.
29:01That is sea water going in, huh?
29:03Yeah.
29:04This is our only water source here.
29:06Mm-hmm.
29:07And when it spoils, we have nothing left.
29:09Wow.
29:13But we have adapted to it.
29:16When it turns salty, we just drink.
29:33What we are going to do now is check out the health of the coral reefs.
29:36Got it.
29:41What makes this reef so unique is that it doesn't just surround the island.
29:46It literally is the island.
29:50Whoa.
29:52That's crazy.
29:53It's like a cliff.
29:56It's like a coral tower.
30:00A single column rising up from the ocean bed nearly a mile below.
30:06With just a few feet of land breaching the surface.
30:11Every inch of it made by coral over millions of years.
30:18It looks healthy from here.
30:20I mean, I'm not an expert, obviously.
30:23It is an amazing reef.
30:25So that's good news for the people of Tench.
30:30Well, there is also bad news.
30:33From here, you can see.
30:35The island is so low-lying if another flood comes in.
30:41This may not be in the next couple of years.
30:51I fear for these people because with one more big flood, the only well that they have, the only source
31:01of water will be poisoned with salt.
31:17So if they don't heed that warning, essentially they're just sitting out here waiting for another Kingtai to die.
31:26So, you know, essentially, your recommendation is that they prepare to move.
31:38They have always identified as tense islanders.
31:42And if they are going to move out, I worry that their identity, their culture goes.
31:55These people look upon me as someone that can help, but they're my lost.
32:03I don't know what options to offer to them.
32:10These are my people.
32:45It was hard seeing John like that.
32:49You know, I make movies all the time where I'm a hero and I get to just write it in
32:57that I saved the day, you know, and he was really hoping that he'd be able to do something and
33:03come up with something.
33:07Yeah, life's a little more complicated than that.
33:13You know, Tench is really a microcosm of what's going on around the world.
33:23How climate change is affecting many coastal cities.
33:28You know, to imagine if the street that I grew up on in Philly, if Woodcrest Avenue was just gone
33:39forever.
33:57I think you're a very strong people.
34:00You have survived, you have adapted with the changing times.
34:04But because we may face much larger king tides.
34:14I know you don't want to leave this place.
34:18But I think you need to start thinking about it.
34:34My brother, we cannot really accept relocation.
34:43We love our island.
34:46We fear that if we are evacuated, then he seems to have lost everything.
34:51Our history, our identity.
34:55So that you feel like you're not moving no matter what?
35:01No.
35:02No.
35:04I think we will need to work together to save you as a people.
35:08And at least there is something that you just hold on to.
35:15Mary.
35:17I think even in the situation where you might have to leave, you know, what's important is the community, the
35:26people.
35:27And there is a way to preserve that.
35:30I can work with you guys.
35:32We can start today.
35:33We can start to record, you know, words and some of your stories, your songs, and your histories.
35:40It's another way to adapt outside of the island if you need to.
35:46Something that kids in the next generation can hold on to.
35:50So long as we save our language and our culture, we gain something.
35:55And not lose everything.
35:56I really admire your faith and your strength.
36:04Thank you, brother.
36:15You're hearing it?
36:17Yeah.
36:18But to these days, only a few people, like my father, speaks it.
36:24Okay.
36:25So before we start, can you just tell me your name?
36:29My name is Norman Jonah.
36:32I'm from Enusi.
36:35Enusi, what does that mean?
36:38Oh, it means the name of this island.
36:41So we've been calling it Tench.
36:43So that's the, that's the, the wrong name.
36:47The name Tench come from a lieutenant.
36:51He just passed by and he cited the island.
36:54The original name is Enusi.
36:57Enusi.
36:58All right.
36:58So we're going to do Enusi.
37:00No more Tench.
37:00No more Tench.
37:01Okay.
37:02I also want to get a sense of the health of this language.
37:06How many people are using Enusi?
37:09Maybe six people, but the last time I had a deep language is from my grandmother.
37:15So, Norman, did you speak Enusi with your, your parents?
37:19Yes, but I seems to forget most words.
37:30When a language is severely endangered and really existing as sort of a linguistic memory,
37:38sometimes it's a bit of an excavation.
37:41So, we might have to do some sort of digging metaphorically, right?
37:49Let's, let's start with just the body.
37:52So, how do you say this in Enusi?
37:59Urru.
38:00Urru.
38:00Urru.
38:01With the, with the r, urru.
38:04Yeah, yeah.
38:05Eyes.
38:06Mata.
38:07Mata.
38:09So, you start with very simple words.
38:11Words for things in the environment that everyone has.
38:15How would you say beach?
38:21Urru.
38:23Urru.
38:25How about wave?
38:28Urru.
38:30Is there a word for coral?
38:34Rare.
38:37And then if you can get that, then you, then you keep building.
38:41How would you say, I'm from Enusi?
38:48Urru.
38:49Urru.
38:50Urru.
38:55Urru.
38:57Hearing a language that so few people on earth have heard.
39:04It's a, it's a real, real honor.
39:06Like, it tells the story of the people.
39:11It, it is the story.
39:12It embodies the story.
39:13You got it.
39:14Yeah.
39:14That's, that's beautiful.
39:16So, we're gonna keep trying to tell the story.
39:19Put the story back together.
39:20Yeah.
39:21Mm-hmm.
39:21Yeah.
39:26I experienced the incredible beauty of a father and son connecting over the language of their history.
39:35Thank you, sir.
39:37Thank you, thank you.
39:39You know, I experienced that same connection with my own grandmother.
39:47She would sing old African, uh, songs and, and lullabies.
39:58Uh, uh, uh, he know, he know, any, any, any, any, ah, ah, ah.
40:05It was powerful.
40:07I wish I remembered more of them, you know, for my children.
40:16Those songs were lost when she passed.
40:21And it's really, um, you know, you lose, you lose something when you don't preserve it.
40:34So, knocked, how did you see it?
40:45, What is that?
40:50And it's a beautiful song
40:51The people knowing that they are in the stories of the family or the family ....
40:51We have just one world.
40:55It is the responsibility of every right-thinking human being
41:02on this planet to protect what is important.
41:08Once it's gone, it's gone.
41:16This trip for me felt so bittersweet.
41:22The people of a new sea are facing a crisis that is really almost too much to imagine.
41:33But even in the loss of it all, John and Mary have created a moment for them to celebrate
41:43through the legacy of their language.
41:47And now they have a part of their home to hold on to.
41:56That's beautiful.
42:15The Kalari is the largest stretch of sand on the planet.
42:21Only the toughest survives.
42:25My hands?
42:27Yeah, yeah, it's very soft.
42:32I've never been hunting.
42:36I'm not that dude.
42:37There are a lot of tracks here.
42:39Listen, listen.
42:42We were making noise.
42:50Where are we going?
42:53You will see.
42:55Come on.
42:56Wow.
42:57That's amazing.
42:59That's amazing.
43:36Tokyo childhood horror.
43:37Come on.
43:38The Park Has completely gone.
43:38Theans?
43:42Is there anything to add story?
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