Original subtitles

Hey! Is that you, Will?

That's me. That's me.

My golly, this is you?

This is you.

Welcome to my bit of paradise!

Alright, you want me to hop on that boat?

You wanna sink?

Let's get into your boat.

Okay. Alright.

You know how you meet somebody...

and in one second, you know that they're about to take you

on an adventure you will never forget?

You need to be protected from the spirits.

Oh.

If we don't do this, you and I are dead meat.

Oh, okay, so we should do this then, yeah.

That's how it was when I met John Aini.

Will is a world-famous movie star.

But around here,

I am his boss.

I am in charge.

-We go? -Yes, we go.

-Let's go. -Alright.

So, uh, where exactly are we going?

We are heading to a little island

for a ceremony.

What-- what can I expect in this ceremony?

They call Papua New Guinea the land of the unexpected.

Expect anything to happen.

Okay.

We are renowned for being cannibals.

Yeah we still, we still enjoy it.

Me, especially.

Alright.

So, John likes to play.

You know, if we were in Philly,

somebody might say John plays too much.

But when it comes to his work, John could not be more serious.

When I was young, my grandmother,

she would always say,

"Try to make everything you touch better."

She was a nurse, so her entire life

was devoted to helping people.

I guess, growing up, I've always struggled

living up to that.

But I'm working on it. I'm still young.

So, for my next leg of this Pole to Pole journey,

I've come to a beautiful, but fragile island archipelago

way out in the Pacific Ocean...

to meet local chieftain and marine ecologist John Aini.

He kinda reminds me of my grandmother.

That same desire to make everything he touches better.

But his approach is like nothing I've ever seen before.

Who are you with?

Do you both know that...

we have traditional customs here?

So, what does that mean? What's happening?

This is an ancient ceremony called Vala.

Just follow me, you'll be safe.

- I'll be safe. - Yeah.

It's okay. We can go.

We are an ancient ocean people.

Since the time of our ancestors...

this beautiful ocean

always provided for us.

Brother!

I am here with this foreigner

because he wants to honor and follow our ways.

But now, with the challenges of climate change...

in my lifetime, rising sea levels

and extreme weather have totally destroyed our homes.

Come forward.

But I believe there is a way to protect this land,

and that is to embrace our history.

This is wild.

I've never experienced anything like Vala before.

Oh, man.

I could just feel the deep respect

for this beautiful ceremony.

Even though I had no idea what was happening.

So, what exactly was that ceremony?

Like, what does it signify?

Have you seen any fish run around now

-since you walked out? -Oh. Yeah, yeah, no.

You look at the corals, they're-- they're dead.

This very ancient ceremony

signifies that the-- the old reef area is closed,

until the fish return.

So this acts, basically, as a signal

to anyone that might come around,

-to not fish this area? -Yes.

It is my people's tradition

but no one had done it for a hundred years.

I brought it back to life because

all these communities will respect it.

Now, it becomes a sacred place.

This is our food source.

Without healthy coral reefs

we will have nothing.

Watching John do his work,

it really opened my eyes to a different way

of thinking about our past.

Brother, thank you for helping

with the conservation

to save our people.

And you can just tell that John

is... revered.

He is using traditional knowledge,

fighting for people who don't necessarily have a voice.

- Will. - Mm-hmm?

-I want you to meet Robert. -Hey.

-Yeah. -What's happening, brother?

Robert has come from Tench Island,

a very, very small island just out there in the far flung oceans.

So, what's the reason you called on John?

- I can show you. - Oh, please.

Oh, it's beautiful.

- That's where you grew up? - Yeah.

But it's in real danger.

Tench is a very remote island.

Just like a small dot on the ocean.

My whole life is on the island.

But in 2008,

I was with my wife and our first son

when the king tide hit.

Big waves

coming one after the other

and just last for hours.

Three quarters of the island was flooded.

We were very scared

when we see the water rise to that kind of level.

The night after

a naval patrol boat came to our rescue.

Leaving home,

I feel like a refugee to another place.

- That is a scary idea. - Yeah.

If your home was in the middle of the ocean

and the water begins to rise.

And we were evacuated some two years.

-Two years? -Yeah.

So, you weren't able to go back for two years.

It's hard to find a life somewhere else

and if another event like a king tide comes again,

I'm losing everything.

Mm hmm, mm-hmm.

So John, please come to Tench,

it might greatly help.

I respect that, the-- the fight to save your home.

A king tide is the name given to the highest tide of the year.

When extreme weather occurs,

I have seen whole communities...

being washed away in front of my own eyes.

Tench is a 60-mile sail across the open ocean.

You know, perfect for like a high-powered super yacht.

Oh, man.

John, why you couldn't just get a regular boat, man?

This is as safe as it can be.

This can handle a crossing.

-No, this boat cannot get-- -And this is big.

This-- oh, this counts as a big boat?

Alright, why we need these if the boat's safe?

-It is safe. It is safe. -You need some help?

-Get in the boat. -Alright.

You need to experience our culture.

Yes. This is one of the experiences.

-Alright. No, I'm-- I'm down. -This is safe.

It's not safe, John.

-There's no way it's safe. -It is safe as can be.

But, I'm gonna experience your culture.

If he had annoyed me on the boat...

I would have thrown him back into the sea.

Even the dog

know we shouldn't be on this thing, John.

The dog is like, "No! No!"

"Will, no!"

Will...

Before we cross over to Tench,

I want to show you what this place is all about.

Alright.

Beneath us,

is a whole new world.

Wow!

Look at that.

These coral reefs are amazing ecosystems

that are really important to our survival.

That's why a big part of my work is to

monitor the health of the coral reefs.

What's amazing about John,

is he's not just an expert.

In tradition,

he also educated himself

in cutting-edge science.

This is one of the many coral reefs

-that we're trying to protect. -Mm-hmm.

There is a box which is part of our monitoring work,

and, uh, I would want you to get underwater.

-Bring it back. -And I'm gonna bring it back?

-To me. Yeah. -To you?

Um...

Alright, so listen, this may not be the perfect time

for me to share this.

I, um... I'm not-- I'm not a great swimmer.

I don't care, I want you to get underwater right now.

I'm-- I'm not really an ocean guy.

I'm one of the dudes that always has floaties on

when I'm anywhere near the water.

Is there any shark potential?

Yeah.

Alright, well, that's scary.

It is not scary.

You can't tell me, it's not scary.

This is a lot of talking, uh...

-Okay. -Just, go down.

And you're sure that I'm the right person

-that should be doing this? -You are the right person.

- Okay, let's go. - Oh, man.

I didn't realize there's a lot going on

in a healthy alive reef.

In the movie Finding Nemo,

I thought that they were doing too much

with the oversaturated colors.

It's like, oh, no,

that's exactly what it looks like down there.

All these different creatures living together in this...

wild ecosystem.

And there are thousands of miles of these reefs.

Now, I understand why scientists call this place...

the Amazon of the Seas.

♪ Can you rock it like rocket fuel? ♪

- How was it down there? - Oh, man.

I think you were right. I was the man for the job.

You're correct there.

I realized down there, I was like, oh!

That's what an alive reef looks like.

- You see the difference? - For sure.

Our home does not end where the sea is.

It continues onto our coral reefs.

The reefs are like a garden

to the people of these islands,

with so much food right there in the backyard.

I'd never thought about how connected life is

above and below the waves.

-And Will. -Mm-hmm?

-If it's a good healthy reef... -Mm-hmm.

...and the sharks come?

-Mm-hmm? -They may jump on the boat

and bite you.

Alright. Okay, no, see, I can see you about the games.

You like jokes.

If you ever come to Philly, I got you.

I will die before I go to Philly.

So, Will.

Before we go to Tench, I want to make one last stop.

What, do you need some gas?

-You see what's in my back? -Oh, wow.

When you're hanging with John,

you just gotta be prepared for anything that might happen.

Just like my grandmother, you know.

He has this little smile that she had,

like they know something that the rest of us don't know.

- So, we've got company. - Yeah, right.

You see, Will.

we have to stop because I have invited someone else

to go with us on journey.

She is going to be rolling with us.

Okay. That's good. That's good. Just somebody--

Our invitation!

-By-- by special invitation. -Yeah.

We are picking her up at a festival

called a Sing Sing.

This is where tribal groups

show off their customs,

their unique languages.

Keep an eye out,

we are looking for Mary Walworth.

I think I know who Mary is.

-Do you? Yeah. -When I look around, I think

-I know which one is Mary. -The only white Mary.

She's a linguist who specializes in remote languages.

- Alright. - Hello.

-Hey, how are you doing? -Hey!

That's Mary. How you doing?

-Hi. Hi, Will. -I'm Will. I'm a hugger.

-I'm Mary. -How you doing?

Good morning, brother. How are you?

I'm good. I'm good.

I know we just met, but I'm gonna put you

- to work right away. - Put me-- yeah.

I love that.

These guys sing songs in their own local languages.

- Okay. - And PNG is the epicenter

of linguistic diversity.

If you think about 7,000 languages in the world,

there's almost 850 languages...

-Wow. -...in PNG alone.

They're speaking languages that are completely different

from their neighbors, as different as, you know,

-English is to Chinese. -Wow!

So, it looks like...

a lizard of some sort.

Languages are human superpower.

It's quite remarkable how we found 7,000 different ways

of describing the world.

Every season tells a different story about who we are,

-where we are from. -Mm.

But most of them are singing the songs,

but maybe not now knowing the meanings of those songs.

Oh, so they're ev-- so, some of them

-are singing languages... -Words that they

-may not understand. -...they don't-- oh, wow!

Language is the core.

It is what-- what sort of keeps people together.

And if part of that core is going away,

it, um, means part of their identity is-- is also dying.

Every two weeks, a language disappears.

Every two weeks, we lose a piece of our human history,

a piece of our human knowledge.

I think I just understood

part of the plight of Blacks in America,

with the loss of

-individual languages. -Yes.

It's-- it's like a-- a historical tether...

- Yeah. Yeah. - ...gets severed

to your bloodline...

-Yes. Yes. -...what your DNA

has contributed.

It tells a-- it tells a long...

- It tells a long story. - Long story.

Yeah. Mm.

-Never felt that before. -Yeah.

-Yeah. Mm. -I-- I get that.

I get the importance of that.

Yeah, I felt, really, for the first time in my life,

um, a sense of what was lost

for my own history,

and, you know, the idea that the history of Black Americans

didn't start on a boat in 1620.

But I've never really thought about it

in terms of, like, language.

It's who you are beyond what you are today.

It's very similar to the situation in Tench,

- where I'm headed with you guys. - Right.

- Yeah. - It's probably one of the most

endangered languages in the world.

-Oh, wow. -And we'll see.

We'll see, you know, how many speakers

are-- are left of this language.

But it's an incredible opportunity to go

and record them and, um, safeguard them.

So, what-- so it's like a dual conservation mission.

Yeah. Yeah.

So, we're trying to save the land

- and the history. - Exactly.

Yes, exactly, so it's a serious situation.

The final leg to Tench

is when the land starts to disappear.

Can you come and sit in the front.

Yeah, no, no I'm good.

I can't afford to be wet.

I'm good.

And all that lies ahead is open ocean.

Every direction is just blue.

We were, you know, real far from real far.

John, are those storm clouds?

Those ones are, yeah. And there's rain coming.

And you're okay with that?

Well, we will see what happens,

but, uh, if it's on the horizon, it would be real better.

The crossing to Tench has always been dangerous.

That stretch of water, that is unpredictable.

Oh, geez.

The weather is coming in.

It's-- it's, uh...

Oh, man.

Oh, goodness. There's no way this is sturdy.

- John, do we trust this? - You trust it.

- We trust this thing, okay. - Yeah.

This is such a tiny boat.

There's just a few inches of wood separating us from the depths.

You feel vulnerable and powerless.

It's moving, it's moving, it's moving.

The whole thing is moving.

We will make it. We will make it.

Look at this.

What the heck just happened?

See, we are safe from the rain.

I told you, I was gonna look after you.

You feel alright, Will?

Yeah, I'm good. I'm not seasick at all.

I guess that's the feeling that John wanted me to have,

why he picked this boat.

So I could experience the power

of the ocean,

the way his ancestors have for thousands of years.

And then, this little dot just pops up

in the middle of nothing.

That's it? That-- that's Tench?

- That's her? - Yeah! Yeah.

- There we go. - That's Tench.

There she is. There she is.

Tench Island, here we come!

We made it. We made it.

This is fantastic, man.

- Hi. - What's happening, brother?

-Yeah. I'm good. -Good to see you.

This your-- this your hometown.

Yeah, this is my home island. Yeah.

- Welcome to my island home. - Thank you, thank you.

This is stunning.

How many people live in the village?

Currently, it's less than 100.

- Less than 100. - Yep.

While Mary meets the community,

I need to figure out if these people can survive another flood,

by seeing how they live.

These are food gardens for the people,

bananas and yams.

Lots of food. Lunch and dinner.

That's fantastic.

Growing up like this would be wild.

These kids wake up, jump out of their bed,

into the ocean.

Like, this is how you spend your afternoon.

It feels like you have your own little piece

of the-- the Earth,

and...

it's-- it's magnificent.

Yeah.

This would be hard to leave. This would be hard to leave.

Life in Tench is very comfortable.

The island has always given us everything we want.

But when people returned after the last flood,

we were forced to replant and rebuild.

I'm very worried,

if it comes another time

we might lose everything.

This is where the king tide stopped?

The king tide... the water just stopped some meters

behind us.

So, as we're walking down here, you're saying the water

would have-- would have been getting deeper here?

Yes, all this place towards the well was covered with water.

That is sea water going in?

Yeah.

That's our only water source here

and when it spoils, we have nothing left.

Wow.

But we have adapted to it.

When it turns salty

we just drink.

What we're going to do now,

is check out the health of the coral reefs.

Got it.

What makes this reef so unique,

is that it doesn't just surround the island.

It literally is the island.

Whoa!

That's crazy. It's like a cliff.

It's like a coral tower.

A single column rising up from the ocean bed

nearly a mile below...

with just a few feet of land breaching the surface.

Every inch of it made by coral over millions of years.

It looks-- looks healthy from here.

I mean, I'm not an expert, obviously.

It is an amazing reef.

So, that-- that's good news for the people of Tench?

Well, there is also bad news.

From here you can see

the island is so low lying,

if another flood comes in,

Tench may not be here

in the next couple of years.

-Yeah. -Wow.

I fear for these people

because with one more big flood

the only well that they have,

their only source of water,

will be poisoned with salt.

I...

can't find no solution for that.

So, if they don't heed that warning,

essentially, they're just sitting out here waiting

- for another king tide to die. - To die, yeah.

So, you know, essentially...

your recommendation is that they prepare to move.

They've always identified as Tench Islanders.

And if they are going to move out,

I worry that the identity, their culture goes.

These people look upon me as...

as someone that can help, but here I lost.

I don't know what options to offer to them.

These are my people.

It was hard seeing John like that.

You know, I make movies all the time where...

I'm a-- I'm a hero, and I get to just write it in

that I saved the day, you know?

And he was really hoping that he'd be able

to-- to do something and come up with-- with something, and...

Yeah, life's a little more complicated than that.

You know, Tench is really a microcosm of what's going on around the world.

How climate change is affecting many coastal cities.

You know, to imagine if the-- the street

that I grew up on in Philly,

if-- if Woodcrest Avenue was just gone forever.

I think you're a very strong people.

You have survived, you have adapted

with the changing times.

But because we may face much larger king tides.

I know you don't want to leave this place.

But I think you need to start thinking about it.

My brother,

we cannot really accept relocation.

We love our island,

we fear that if we are evacuated then

we seem to have lost everything,

our history, our identity.

So, they-- you-- you feel like you're...

you're not-- you're not moving no matter what?

-No. -No.

I think we will need to work together

to save you as a people.

And at least there is some things that we can just hold onto.

Mary?

I think even in the situation

where you might have to leave, you know, what's important

is the community, the people.

And there is a way to preserve that.

I can work with you guys. We can-- we can start today.

We can start to record, you know, words,

and-- and some of your stories, your songs, and your histories.

It's another way to adapt, um,

outside of the island, if you need to.

Something that kids in the next generation can hold onto.

So long as we save our language and culture,

we gain something and not lose everything.

I really admire your faith and your strength.

- Thank you. - Thank you, brother.

Tench has its own language.

-You're hearing it? -Yeah.

But these days only a few people like my father

speaks it.

Okay, so before we start,

can you just tell me your name?

My name is Norman Jonnah.

I'm from Enusi.

Enusi? What does-- what does that mean?

Oh, it means the name of this island.

So, we've been calling it Tench.

So, that's the-- that's the wrong name?

The name Tench came from a lieutenant.

He just passed by and sighted the island.

The original name is Enusi.

Enusi. Alright.

-Enusi. -So, we're gonna do Enusi.

-No more Tench. -No more Tench.

Okay, I also wanna get a sense

of the health of this language.

How many people are using Enusi?

Maybe 6 people,

but the last time I heard deep language was from my grandmother.

So, Norman, did you speak Enusi with your-- your parents?

Yes, but I seemed to forget most word.

When a language is severely endangered,

uh, and really existing as sort of a linguistic memory,

sometimes it's a bit of an excavation.

So, we might have to do some...

-sort of digging. -Yeah.

- Metaphorically, right? - Yeah. Yeah.

Let's-- let's start with just the body.

So, how do you say this in Enusi?

Um...

-Uru. -Uru. Uru.

With the-- with the...

-Uru? Uru? -Yeah. Yeah.

Eyes?

- Mata. - Mata.

So, you start with very simple words,

words for things in the environment that everyone has.

How would you say beach?

Uh...

-Raratie. -How about wave?

Uh, koto.

Is there a word for coral?

Raday.

And then if you can get that, then you-- then you keep building.

How would you say, "I'm from Enusi"?

Au... Enusi Au.

Au Enusi Au.

Hearing a-- a language that so few people

on Earth have heard,

it's a-- it's a real, real honor.

Like, it tells the story of...

-Yeah. -...of the people.

It-- it is the story.

- It embodies the story. - You got it.

- Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, that's beautiful.

So, we're gonna keep trying to tell the story.

- Yeah. - Put the story back together.

- Yeah. - Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I experienced the incredible beauty

of a father and son

connecting over the language of their history.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, thank you.

You know, um, I experienced

that same connection with my own grandmother.

She would sing old African songs

and-- and lullabies.

Uh...

It-- it was powerful.

I wish I remembered more of them,

you know, for my children.

Those songs were lost

when she passed, and it's really, um...

You know, you lo-- you lose something when you don't preserve it.

We are just one world.

It is the responsibility

of every right-thinking human being on this planet,

to protect what is important.

Once it's gone, it's gone.

This trip for me felt so bittersweet.

The people of Enusi are facing a crisis

that is really almost too much to imagine.

But even in the loss of it all...

John and Mary have created a moment for them to celebrate

through the legacy of their language.

And now, they have part of their home...

to hold onto.

That's beautiful.

Au Enusi Au.

The Kalahari is the largest stretch of sand

on the planet.

Only the toughest survives.

My hands?

Yeah, yeah, it's very soft.

I've never been hunting.

I'm not that dude.

There are lots of tracks here.

Listen, listen. Ah!

You were making noise.

Where are we going?

You will see. Come on.

Wow. That's amazing.