South Sea Island Life: The Dolphin Hunters (1970)

oh hey [Music] there are places in the world where men still follow primitive ways of life one of these places is in the Solomon Islands where men hunt Dolphins they've done so for centuries the hunting takes place around an island called Malla the select band of men who catch them hunt the Dolphins with their teeth before a man can take a bride he must give a necklace of a thousand dolphin teeth as part of the Bride price as well as dolphin teeth shell money is still widely used for the bride price divers collect the special shells from which the money is made made from the lagoons around [Music] M Lai an island in the langa langa lagoon is one of the few places where the people are skilled at making shell money [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the shells are pounded with stones until they're roughly shaped into small circles then these pieces of shell are ground down between large Stones until they're flat [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] after being ground the shells are drilled so that they can be strung together a hard Flint is used to tip the [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] drill the shell money made here will find its way throughout the islands different colored shells have different values although the same amount of work goes into each token the common white shell money in a strand a few feet long containing hundreds of shell pieces is worth about 10 [Music] [Applause] cents the strong lengths are rubbed down to remove any rough edges then the money is made up into lengths for ceremonial [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] use most of the people of M live on the coast these are artificial Islands built in the lagoons of M from Coral blocks no way where else in the Pacific is this custom [Music] known these islands have been built for hundreds of years and are still being built and enlarged at low tide the coral and soft rock are heun from the bottom of the Lagoon and piled into heaps [Music] as The Tide Rises work canoes are loaded and the stones floated wherever they're [Music] needed nobody knows why these islands were first built possibly as a defense against marauding Hill tribesmen possibly as a refuge from the mosquitoes which carry particularly virulent forms of malaria on the main island all vegetables water and firewood have to be carried to the artificial islands where fish is plentiful and malaria unknown hot stones are used for cooking after being heated the stones are placed on leaves with the food inside the vegetables are grown in gardens cultivated on the narrow strips of fertile land behind the lagoons the people clear fresh land for new Gardens as the old ones wear out [Music] [Music] pigs are kept and fattened on Tiny Island pens for ceremonial feasts the people who live on the artificial islands are known as The Saltwater people and their lives are bound up with the sea those who are still pagans have tmic links with sharks and dolphins this island is Sulu Fu one of the oldest and the largest of the artificial Islands its Founders began building it hundreds of years ago now it measures 100 Paces across and a thousand people live on it dolphins are plentiful in the waters around the Solomons but although the Hunts take place daily for about 3 months catches are not frequent the Dolphins usually Escape Simon the chief Hunter deploys his Fleet of a dozen canoes to drive the Dolphins towards the shore put the the Dolphins are driven by the sound made by special Stones clang together beneath the water but more often than not the Dolphins burst through the mesh of sound flung between the canoes and the hunters return with nothing to show for perhaps 20 mil of hard paddling soon after Dawn on Market Day people from outlying Islands began arriving on the mainland this is the place where the men from the hills meet and barter with the Dwellers on the shore and the saltwater people [Music] [Applause] [Music] the people from the lagoons and the shore sell and barter their fish in exchange for vegetables and tobacco grown in the Hills the market is a center for the exchange of news and a common meeting ground [Music] the hillmen were dreaded Fighters before the islands were pacified in the last century but now they mingle freely with the coastal people on this Pagan Island a group of hillmen complete the last death ceremonies of a pagan high priest who died 16 years before [Music] t [Music] in the mountains The Villages are small and Scattered usually made up of only a few Huts low fences mark their boundaries in this one live two brothers their wives and [Music] children the women are not allowed into the men's Huts the men enter the women's Huts but only to eat [Music] life is not far removed from a stone age [Music] culture for the Hill People Too the dolphin hunting is important not only do they get dolphin teeth but it's one of the few occasions when they get a chance to eat protein they help to support the dolphin hunters while they're camped on the beach during the hunting season in exchange for a share of the spoils for the hunters another five or 6 hours of paddling with the odds strongly against success almost the only source of protein for the Hill People apart from a once a year pig or the chance of dolphin meat is the gnarly nut which is harvested during the dolphin hunting season and in typical malan style the harvesting is done as a team effort and to [Music] music the special stones used for cracking gnarly nuts are made in only one part of M and are very valuable virtually family heirlooms [Music] from the slope surrounding batama Harbor where the dolphin hunters are based the mountain people can see when there's a prospect of a successful hunt the dolphins being driven ahead of a long line of canoes strung across the entrance to the harbor at the start of the chase the canoes were in a semicircle covering perhaps 5 miles now having herded the Dolphins into the long narrow Harbor they prepare for the kill the canoes now Drive the Dolphins into one small Corner a shallow area at the end of the harbor the stones clanging suddenly the Dolphins apparently unable to stand the noise any longer bury their heads in the soft Sandy Bottom with their tails waving in the air the capture begins [Music] [Applause] [Music] this time a large part of the school escaped before the canoes reached the entrance to the harbor and the catch was comparatively small but up to a thousand dolphins have been beached at a time by the hunters [Music] for the hunters the long task begins of drilling the teeth so that they can be strung together in necklaces complying with many old traditions the men live isolated on the beach during the hunting season but their hunting songs and their instruments reflect new ways already there are some pressures on them to give up dolphin hunting altogether and currency is gradually replacing shell money and dolphin teeth but for today on their south sea Islands they follow the traditions of their forefathers [Music] call [Music]