Amazing Quest: Stories from Fiji Islands | Somewhere on Earth: Fiji Islands | Free Documentary

[Music] [Music] [Music] fiji an archipelago located in the pacific ocean of its more than 300 islands only about 100 are inhabited in these parts life rolls along to the lazy rhythm of the long ocean swell there are three colors to the fiji's the white of the long beaches the turquoise blue of the lagoons and the green of the jungle and rugby is a religion here frank a rugby coach chose to combine the easy life of the islands with his passion for the oval ball he combs the villages of the outlying islands hoping to discover the rare gem of fijian rugby [Music] hannah is a surfing champion she and her friend issei are in search of the perfect wave their quest will take them all the way to cloud break one of the most beautiful waves in the world for hannah the ocean is her lifeblood manasa lives in benga an unspoiled atoll where the traditional rituals form the bedrock of the community in the shelter of the barrier reef just a stone's throw from the village manasseh goes diving with his son tombi to feed their guardian angels the shark gods i live in a very little paradise you know i i don't want to stay in overseas australia america uh maybe france or europe i like my little world it looks like this no big no small i leave this in my heart [Music] the fiji islands located in the heart of the pacific ocean are isolated from the rest of the world [Music] situated two thousand kilometers north of new zealand and about three thousand kilometers east of australia these volcanic islands are made up of mountains covered with tropical forest [Music] it's a corner of the world where time has never mattered perhaps because the weather is so clement all year round [Music] [Music] before christianity many people in fiji believe that they need a guardian you we supposed to have a guardian that is before christianity so uh many people in fiji they choose different types of uh nature they choose nature like a little mountain uh ocean moon sun but the people from my village they choose a sharks to be their sea god so the story goes like that we believe that that the sharks in the oceans those are our guardians [Music] as soon as we jump in the water we don't have any fear because the same guardian is looking after us uh you know ocean they rule the ocean right sharks rules the ocean they they balance the ocean okay when we jump in the water to meet them we respect them [Music] has been diving under the protection of his shark gods every day for the last 15 years these turquoise waters were part of his childhood and his first dive was a revelation ever since he has been doing his best to preserve this underwater realm and protect the coral barrier reef [Music] every weekend takes his family to the island of bengal where he was born across from the main island [Music] the ferry does a daily run and takes two hours to make the crossing everyone on the boat knows manasa they even call him papa he holds a very important position in his community he is the village spokesman [Music] is a little village like so many others in the fiji's a few houses by the lagoon coconut trees no roads no stores and villagers enjoying the good life that is my village this is where i was raised this is from my ancestor my green green grandfather and until today i have a family and this is my home my son my daughter they're all born in this village i found my beautiful wife in this village so uh i don't have to go away everything is right there and the ocean behind me that is our resources and uh we respect the animal in the ocean because we believe that we are one so it is like a freedom paradise this is nobody want to live we want to stay here forever [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] [Music] i have a little bit of a heart problem in 2007 i was in hospital and since then my whole life changed it's changed completely [Music] i choose the way to be a very honest christian you know to worship the mighty god and uh i'm very proud to be a preacher and look after a church the everlasting life is only given by the master himself however by god himself by the lord jesus himself no one can give this life it's only him himself in the fiji islands sunday is a day devoted to prayer several families have come by boat from the island's other villages to attend manassas services afterwards the parishioners stay to share a meal together like fiji the standard of living is low so most of the thing is most of the family doesn't have like a source of income so that's why we share the more we give the more we get [Music] away this morning they're preparing for a traditional ceremony in the forest the young men of this island have a special gift walking barefoot over burning stones the firewalk tunvi manasa's son is going to participate for the first time long time waiting i've been waiting for a long time 26 years now i moved to the mainland when i was small just a small boy and now today i'm here to do the firewalk i'm gonna do the firework today yeah it's good i'm very excited about this [Music] must present himself before the sacred fire with a pure heart and for that there are a few rules to respect he's been very honest with a promise no coconut for fornite and no woman for fortnight it's really tough for the young people no no woman for four nights yeah i i told the priest i think tonight is okay but the priest say oh oh four nights [Music] the stones have been heating in the fire pit for five hours the ceremony can begin [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] the men are totally concentrated they're invoking the spirits and asking them for the ancestral power that only the village inhabitants possess [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we walked on fire yeah no pain the stones felt cold it's okay it's the power of the fire walk we gather it here and we use it to walk over the stones [Music] oh on the island of benga legends and the supernatural encroach on reality manasseh is proud of his son who has braved the sacred fire and stones for the first time so [Music] loves diving just as much as his father today like every day they're going to see their second family the sharks [Music] so i'm just about to get ready to introduce myself to the under water world most of the animals they they know me very well the last 15 years so uh still i have to use this they know papa very well [Music] [Music] i feel great because uh when i put my wetsuit on my fins my mask with the tank behind me to enter that world down there it's something that's in my heart i know because in in the underworld world there is my guardian there he looks after myself my son the life is very different down there because you see the fish they don't know anything about you know the war about what is going on up here and they're very friendly so i want to put myself just like them [Music] since he had his heart attack manasa doesn't dive more than a few meters down tunby has taken over from his father he has a rendezvous in the depths with other sharks the bulldogs [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] shares his life between these two worlds on land he's actively involved in the community of rukua he's one of the pillars of the village in the depths he's the privileged witness and guardian of an underwater realm manasseh knows that these two worlds are inextricably linked and complementary we want to keep this bay and this uh place as it is as you can see there is no building no cars no boat just us and we want to keep the population of my village as low as we are yeah in another 10 15 years time i believe in my heart this place will be still the same and then we will pass it over to our generation to come when i will be old my grandchildren you go there and use the lamb [Music] [Music] so [Music] where do you think we should go i think right now i think we should go fabric there's waves but it's trying i think it's probably high tide and the swell is probably not big enough hannah bennett and issei kukovu are two of the best surfers in the fiji's they spend days on end in search of the best waves it's good to you know envision yourself before you're out surfing and um hopefully it'll be some fun ways so yeah concentrate but surfing is fun you know not too serious it's for fun yep so there's my wax check my fins make sure they're on tight hannah who's 22 years old is a surfing champion she competes under the fijian flag in international meets and she recently won the melanesian cup a meet open to the best surfers of this part of the pacific ocean it takes one wave to fall in love with surfing but it also takes one wave to just completely not want to do it again but when you fall in love with it it's so worth it it's you know words can't really describe it you forget about the paddling how hard it is you forget about you know almost drowning sometimes just for that feeling because it's very in the moment and it's very intimate with with the ocean with nature [Music] hannah grew up in rotuma a remote group of islands in the northern fiji's her life goes from one side of the pacific to the other from california where she's finishing up a degree in international trade to fiji where she has her roots and comes to recharge her batteries [Music] [Music] earth is the water planet it's everything you know it's all around us it's in us physically you can't live without water but also mentally i don't think i could live without being surrounded by the ocean as a person i need water i need the ocean to mentally be healthy and stay sane in a way i could never live in the desert or inland or in cities for years at a time wherever i go you know it's always based off of where the ocean is going to be [Applause] to set sail on the high seas an adventure that has always inspired humanity ever since the dawn of time the most daring souls have challenged the horizon in search of new lands flag right go go up too much [Music] it's generally thought that migration to the islands of the pacific proceeded gradually starting in southern china the men and women who would discover the largest ocean on earth first made a sojourn for several generations in taiwan their most intrepid descendants pressed onward to what is now the philippines and indonesia [Music] sailing from island to island those adventurers explored the pacific in the hope of conquering unknown lands those mariners opened new routes towards virgin territory [Music] once they had settled vanuatu they were within 800 kilometers of the fiji islands the fijian people had their distant roots in a group of exceptional seafarers [Music] in 2011 a german philanthropist decided to revive that epic journey in his own way he built several traditional sailing canoes to undertake a sea odyssey across the pacific to california hannah followed the expedition very closely she was even a crew member when this boat first took to sea off the coast of fiji angelo a skilled sailor quite naturally became skipper of this mythical craft the uto niyalo heart of the spirit select this one there were seven canoes like this all the same different islands like kasamoa tahiti had one new zealand had two so we sailed as a fleet just raising awareness and trying to prove that what our ancestors did we can still do it you know we proved that we don't need fuel to travel so far and when we did it you know the voyage was 20 months in total days in sea the longest we are out there was 31 no land no tv nothing yeah just looking at a lot of flying fish and that's pretty much it these latter-day seafarers accomplish the entire crossing without the help of any navigational instruments just like their ancestors no charts no gps no sextant the sailors on board were armed with no more than their daring their keen intuition and the stars to guide them across these vast expanses that knowledge is being lost now only a handful of people they know it so one guy in satellite in micronesia he taught five people his wish was for that fight to teach more so we were lucky we had three of the five on the voyage yeah that was a big part of people's lives back then you know our ancestors this is what they did and to see it you know unfold and people try to practice it the same way is this beautiful thing it's reviving our culture again and it's reminding the next generations of who we are [Music] every time hannah comes back to the fiji's to train she connects with ize he's like a big brother but he's also an exceptional surfer who knows these islands better than anyone else [Music] to get out to the open sea and the rollers hannah and ize have to cross a vast mangrove swamp a sort of natural passage from the world of land dwellers to the realm of the surfers [Music] cloud break is one of the most beautiful waves in the world it's like an eldorado for surfers every year the world surfing elite comes here for a prestigious international meet the jury officiates from a stand built right in the sea facing the legendary wave for me the perfect wave is a feeling that's very hard i think when you're surfing it's very in the moment and it goes by so fast sometimes you don't appreciate or you you can only reflect on it after you've surfed the wave but for me the perfect wave is being able to actually recognize that feeling as you're surfing the wave so a nice long you know good size wave that as you're surfing it you just you're aware of how good the feeling is you know yeah nice babe it's very easy to shoot waves in fiji the waves are so nice here the light is perfect water is blue you don't have to be a very good photographer to take great photos here it's really easy look at this place it's beautiful all by itself surfers form their own tight-knit community and stewart is a well-known figure at cloudbreak beautiful come have a look at your shots so many sick ones look at this shot you're gonna freak out this is like a magazine cover check this out these waves have traveled for thousands of miles from from a storm here in off antarctica all across the ocean and you wait for them and then you ride their energy and you can feel the the whole energy of the ocean and go through your body and it's you forget every worry of the world you can't pay for that there's no drug there's no therapy you can do that that is better than surfing it's like being hugged by the entire ocean it's a really great feeling [Music] surfers don't pit themselves against the ocean and the waves they strive to become their accomplices and play with the elements in order to reach a state of pure pleasure [Music] [Music] to become one with the forces of nature a challenge that one throws down only to oneself you feel very vulnerable but very powerful at the same time you know i sometimes i'm the biggest scaredy cat out there i'm terrified but that's when i feel most alive [Music] the ocean is is like my second home you know we're brought up around the ocean and nature and you just you learn to adapt a lot to your surroundings and that's that's a great skill to have this is where i was born and raised and i wouldn't have it any other way this is my home base i mean everywhere i go it's almost as if it makes me appreciate fiji even more and it makes it just as special [Music] [Music] there were a lot of sailors in my family my great uncles my uncles they sailed the south pacific a lot and they brought back a lot of souvenirs that would just stir our imagination and in particular when we were little my brother and i had a book on tahiti in polynesia with a picture of an island girl on the beach and she was bare-breasted it was really quite alluring that's what set me to dreaming about the south pacific ever since it's a bit of a cliche but it's the honest truth frank guava is heading for bukama a village in the yasawa islands isolated in the northwest of the fiji's [Music] frank has been an international rugby trainer for more than 40 years whenever he can he goes from island to island meeting the village rugby clubs he's also out to spot the young talents that may someday play in the world's leading clubs fiji is a major rugby power in the pacific and in fact if it weren't for its international reputation in this sport the archipelago would be completely forgotten frank has been living in the fiji's for 17 years but this is the first time he's come to train the players of bukama still everyone knows him because he worked with the national rugby sevens team here [Music] this is a furthest island uh here in cesar and it's the furthest village there sorry it's a new adventure each time but more important there's the notion of sharing they really like to share their experience their history that's part of how they teach the sport here because the rugby in fiji really meshes quite well with their culture and traditions and also with their history of warring between villages now they don't make war anymore but the village over there comes every saturday to play that village down there so in a way they're carrying on their warrior rituals of the past [Music] wow [Music] [Music] in fijian rugby the clan spirit is an essential element each match begins with the theme bee a warrior dance designed to provoke and intimidate the adversary [Applause] [Music] rugby is a combat sport and in the fiji's the warrior enjoys a privileged social status even more so than a school teacher or a doctor if god invented rugby he surely invented it for the fijians and in particular sevens rugby no doubt about it and i think that's just what god did he invented rugby for the fijians the tongans and the samoans seriously it's a blessing for these countries because it can channel all the energy of the youth and the warrior spirit that goes with it to defend their village to defend their island it's essential so we have to use that the coach is sitting in the village something we don't know we learn from him and first time too we see frank we just hear his name on the radio see on the tv first time to see him [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] respect for the environment we use what we have at hand to construct the goalposts this is genuine rugby like we used to play as kids in the villages of southern france in catalonia and in occitania we used to do things like this so for me this is like going back to my roots [Music] there are some 200 fijians playing in different french rugby clubs and the demand keeps rising for these rugby artists with their singular style a mixture of power and improvisation i've had the good fortune to discover players in their unpolished state i often cite the example of two players i recruited right from their village they were practically barefoot with just a t-shirt and they were fish farmers to help their parents support the family and six to nine months later there i am at the national stadium in france watching them play in the finals of the top 14 in front of 80 000 people a thrilling moment just fantastic being a rugby trainer in the fiji's means dealing with the oppressive heat and the slow rhythm that goes along with it for the moment there are only children in bukama no sign of any players yet i think we're going to be running on fiji time meaning practice will begin around 3 30 4 o'clock maybe time is a vague notion on the island because no one has a watch there is no time don't go over so we'll just wait and see a good coach should always arrive before his players that's not very hard here are you how was work good yeah yeah your teammates they're gonna come ah yeah so yeah yeah all right take the coconuts and we're gonna go in that part of the field there for now all right it's uh this part of the field is better okay let's go [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh yeah what do you do for a group game then i blow wizard up then you go long passes ready go get out of the way guys attack inside shoulder good well done ready go baller they're not used to training they're not used to having strict practice sessions not used to organized drills so you have to break them into the routine but once you do they take the ball and run with it and once that's done they know how to do the rest [Music] they play for fun to relax which is a strong point because i think you need a playful dynamic to do well in sports you really have to have fun enjoy it and all the rest will flow naturally the really nice thing about these islanders is that their basic motivation is the joy of playing [Music] good place thanks to his reputation frank is respected by everyone here today he's training future players but fijian trainers as well he has also set up a prisoner rehabilitation program frank is teaching them the profession of referee [Music] i think rugby is a social regulator you'll notice that in countries where there's not as much rugby the crime rate's extremely high but not here in the fiji's and i noticed the same thing in tonga and samoa all the young people play rugby at four o'clock in the afternoon they get out of school they get off work they come in from the fields and they play rugby and when the match is finished and they've gotten rid of all their aggressive hormones they're worn out with no energy left to go out and get themselves into trouble all right look at that beautiful all right [Music] foreign [Music] my [Music] mama [Music] oh there are no roads to speak of here so people get around with the village's one motorized perug [Music] in the yasuwa islands they even bust the children to school by both [Music] in bukamas village school there are three levels in each class and the children learn english right from the first grade english and rugby both legacies of the british colonization at recess frank organizes a rugby match it's france versus fiji all right hey you so you score a try over there got it and you guys score try over there yes so you must pass a ball to one girl yeah all right and we must have three passes [Applause] oh that's a nice bus keep going [Music] the women of fiji are struggling to free themselves from the weight of tradition and frank is convinced that sports are one of the best ways they have to achieve that goal [Music] promoting women's rugby has been a personal crusade of frank for 30 years he's convinced that playing rugby in school will bring about a change in people's attitudes come on guys naka yeah that was fun yeah all right you like greg beer that's very good and you're gonna be a very good player yeah you're gonna be a very good player all of you thank you women's rugby is really taking off now and here in fiji we have the fijianas you're gonna you maybe you can play for fijiana yeah the national team who beat new zealand back in october and were world champions in seven's rugby so they have enormous potential which we'll have to nurture in order to take on the really big teams okay let's do have a cheer let's go frank continues his voyage on to the next island on to the next rugby pitch as a trainer frank has always sought to transmit his passion and love for this sport it's very important to me that the fijian trainers and coaches be competent so that they can carry on the work themselves and not depend on the know-how of us westerners as the saying goes it's more important to teach a person to fish rather than fish for them that has been the guiding philosophy in my work here i always try to stand back a bit and help them to grow and develop for frank rugby in the fiji's is a lovely romance between a game imported from the other side of the planet and the people born to play it [Music] you

Channel: Free Documentary

Views: 677,499

Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), somewhere on earth, amazing stories, amazing stories from Fiji, amazing quest, Fiji, Fiji Islands

Id: bLk7scBWWjo

Length: 52min 6sec (3126 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 26 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/ThankYouLuv]

Just posted last week