New Caledonia: The everyday life of a family | SLICE

the first thing i see is a strange little island floating there on the coral sea the cook pines and the coconut palms are silhouetted against the sky for those who know they're a sure sign that you're in new caledonia [Music] the first people i come across when i reach the shore are some old ladies wandering around the coral revealed by the low tide [Music] [Music] so [Music] just a few meters from the shore live the tribes of the sea clans they're the ones who look after the coastline and the mountain clans have always depended on them to protect both the abundant resources and the balance of a fragile ecosystem when the octopus season's over it's the crayfish season catching crayfish is a job for the men they use rods they use nets we mothers have to go out on the coral and look for octopuses i can't go and put the nets out for fish only my sons are allowed to do that and my husband that's our tradition and we respect it i can go and catch octopuses though just like my husband anyone can people go there to have a walk there are lots of fish but we don't fish over there the reef just over there though that's all right for people from the tribe it'll be silly for other people to come and fish right under our noses if we're not there well okay but not when we're there [Music] i get our food from the sea it gives me fish and octopus it gives me the clean air and from nature too i like plants so i have my plantations sweet potatoes yams that's where i do my gardening [Music] [Music] me [Music] um [Music] giveaway [Music] so [Music] i don't know if they're naturally hospitable or just mildly indifferent but i feel good with this family i gain their trust and they open up to me they invite me to stay a while with them there in the shadow of the palms [Music] my big brother's been to vanuatu and he told me when you make coconut milk if you don't have a strainer you just put the coconut in there you wet it a bit and you've got a strainer and the juice you get is really pure we make our hearts from the wood we can even use woven leaves for the roof the whole of the coconut palm is good we eat the fruit we eat the inner core the palm heart we build with the wood the whole tree is useful even the roots i talk about the coconut palms because they're there for everyone i like to share what i know about them there are others though that are taboo that i can't talk about [Music] we often have big get-togethers over the yams that's when we have a real exchange you can film my arms they belong to me not my kids i can show what belongs to me but not to my kids it's something that belongs to a clan to a family if you don't have any yams you're not a man or a woman i reckon a yam is more important to a culture than a sack of rice a sack of sugar if i haven't got any yams i don't feel good about going to the yam festival i have to take a yam and all my children have their own yams it's very important i was aware of how important this particular root vegetable was to the malanesians along with maniac and tara root it's a staple food but the way this woman talks about it and especially the things she doesn't say both intrigues me and gives me a glimpse of the mystical universe that surrounds [Music] it [Music] following the children along the beach i have a moment to reflect on this first day and how quickly the conviviality and simplicity of these people has touched my heart this is a beautiful coastline where the sea is bountiful seeing these men and women coming to catch fish as if they were picking fruit i'm filled with the sweetness of life and a nostalgia for times forgotten or lost for the days when a true balance existed between nature and mankind a time when nature was both bounteous and respected by humankind a time for the most part long gone yet which still lives on here and there in the world [Music] you

Channel: SLICE

Views: 252,238

Keywords: documentary, documentaries, shortdoc, shortdocs, slice, slicedocs, new caledonia, kanak, earth, sea, melanesia, family, men, women, everyday life, fish, fishing, octopus, children, parents

Id: wClxsC78LIU

Length: 11min 30sec (690 seconds)

Published: Tue May 25 2021