Original subtitles

Hey! Is that you, Will?

That's me. That's me.

This is you.

Alright, you want me to hop on that 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?

Oh.

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

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

- We go? - Yes, we go.

- Let's go. - Alright.

So, uh, where exactly are we going?

What-- what can I expect in this ceremony?

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

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.

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

- 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.

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.

Watching John do his work,

it really opened my eyes to a different way

of thinking about our past.

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?

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.

- That is a scary idea. - Yeah.

If your home was in the middle of the ocean

and the water begins to rise.

- Two years? - Yeah.

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

Mm hmm, mm-hmm.

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...

Yeah?

Alright.

Wow!

Look at that.

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.

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.

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

- By-- by special invitation. - Yeah.

Uh-huh?

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.

- 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.

Yeah, no, no I'm good.

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.

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.

Oh, really?

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

would have-- would have been getting deeper here?

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

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.

- Yeah. - Wow.

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.

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.

I really admire your faith and your strength.

- Thank you. - Thank you, brother.

- You're hearing it? - Yeah.

Okay, so before we start,

can you just tell me your name?

Enusi? What does-- what does that mean?

So, we've been calling it Tench.

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

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?

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

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.

- Mm-hmm. - 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!

Where are we going?

You will see. Come on.

Wow. That's amazing.