Hunters of the South Seas

Aired 2015-04-19

In this episode, Will Millard focuses on the lives of the formerly nomadic Bajau spear fishermen of Indonesia, who are now settling in stilted villages out at sea, and how their way of life is changing radically. How do people who have wandered the ocean adjust to life in a fixed place?

Aired 2015-04-26

In this episode, writer and explorer Will Millard heads to the Indonesian village of Lamalera, the Coral Triangle's most notorious community, which has survived for centuries by hunting whales. Does such a practice have a place in the modern world?

Aired 2015-05-03

Boasting the richest waters on the planet, the Coral Triangle is home to people who have adapted to ocean life like nowhere else. Writer Will Millard travels to three of its most fascinating communities to understand their unique connection with the sea. In the third and final episode, Will explores the extraordinary cultures of the Kula Ring. This remote part of the western Pacific is home to tiny island communities which have survived thanks to a unique network of trade called Kula. Kula involves islanders setting out on epic canoe expeditions to exchange precious shell armbands with neighbouring islands. Through these exchanges, these isolated communities are connected together and share in other forms of trade. But as mass tourism arrives - and foreign money begins to flow - is there a future for the kula ring and the network it provides?