Pictures/FX

Sound

TC

Hands on paddles,  gloves,  masks.

Sombre Music

02.21

Floating debris

These men are heading back to their village for the first time since it was destroyed by a massive tidal wave.  - a wave that killed up to 3,000 people.

03.14

House roof in river

"That's the teachers house."

03.24

Joseph and Camilus in masks

Joseph Menson and Camilus Canuvo are elders of the Warapu and tragedy seems to have followed their tribe across the generations...

03.34

Their fathers made this same agonising journey across the destroyed lagoon...and their  fathers before them.

03.47

"There's the clinic."

03.55

The bodies of their relatives are still floating around them but Joseph and Camilus haven't come back for the dead - they've come back to make a decision about the future of those who survived.   The aftermath of this wave is now threatening to destroy what remains of the Warapu tribe.

03.58

This is the story of the night that devestated them and the decisions that now confront them.

04.17

"I'm too upset - sorry."

04.37

Chopper shot comes in over the sea and reveals destroyed village.

Chopper fly over peninsula.

It was the evening of July 17 (PAUSE)  and this village was crowded with houses...

04.55

8,000 people lived along this peninsula,  stretched over just a few kilometres A saltwater people that harvested the richness of the sea.   A sea that sustained them and then destroyed them.  The villages of Sissano and Malol sliced in half.  Arop virtually gone.  And every trace of Warapu, literally wiped off the earth.

Sound of waves

Map

05.32

Warapu shots.  Rubble,  wreckage,

PTC

'This Peninsula is about 100 metres wide and the first wave broke right here in the middle.  It came in about 20 or 30 feet high,  about as high as these smaller coconut trees,  and broke directly on top of the houses on this side of the village sucking them straight out to sea.    It then rolled on and pushed all the houses on this side straight into the lagoon where it travelled at full speed until it hit the mangroves on the other side. "

05.34

Chopper. Wide circle around lagoon.  Showing water and bush.

Today,  the dead are still in the lagoon - there's virtually no chance of ever retrieving them.  The dieing are still struggling for their lives in hospital...and the survivors are still behind the mangrove swamp where the wave dumped them....driven into the refuge of the bush.

We spent a week there with the survivors of the Warapu...

06.23

Close up hands wrapping bark around pole etc.  General faces 

It's a week after the wave hit and the last of the Warapu families are coming in from where they were scattered around the lagoon - gathering together finally at one bush camp.  The fear of another wave is still strong here and they're pitching their tents a good 2 or 3 hours walk inland.

06.53

Constucting

07.10

General Faces

On the night the wave struck there were about 3,000 people in the village of Warapu - it's now becoming clear that there's maybe 1,500 left

07.12

General villagers,

Joseph Menson

"Many were just young people. Some were going to High School, just about to get work.

They'd got a good education and their fathers and mothers had worked hard to pay for their school fees. 

But now we've lost them.  They've left all the fathers and mothers are with heavy hearts."

07.22

Joseph walking through camp

Village elder Joseph Menson is one of those fathers

07.53

Like dozens of others,  Joseph's son was back from boarding school for the mid year holidays  when he was killed by the wave.  It was the very last day of the school break

07.57

Joseph walks

Joseph thought track.

O/L "Every one of our families has lost someone.....swept away by the sea.

08.10

When I ask Joseph how many of his people have been lost he takes me around to each clan to find out - the Warapu are still literally counting the cost of this disaster

08.17

Man in sun

"8 people died from this tent.  Mark:  Piccaninies,  Marys?  Yes some children,  one old woman,  one old man,  one grandma"   end 5.45

08.28

Joseph inside

"This is the Naguru clan,  they've joined here with the Tooendoc clan. 

This tragedy has brought them together in this one tent.  They've lost so many they must stay here.

This man can tell you about it."

08.45

Man inside 

(Let's see 1,2,3,4,)  Five members of my family have been lost. Some have gone to hospital.  My wife and I and two of our children are here."

"So there are four of us here,   four in hospital. Eight of us alive. Eight of my family survived. Mark:  So 8 lived and 5 died?  (in english) Yes 8 lived,  5 died.

09.06

Woman

"My husband went of by himself and he was lost.

His father was also lost. Just his mother and I survived and now we have no men to look after us."

09.31

Man in sun.

"All my line are finished - I'm the only one left.   My brother,  all of my cousins,  my sisters have all gone.   So I'm the only one that's survived and I just think about them all the time.  This place has given us nothing but pain since our ancestors time."

09.49

"I've found 6 of their bodies. 6 of my family.  But many of my family are  mixed up with the other bodies lying around.  I haven't found them all yet.

10.06

baby scene

At the nearby village of Ramo,  a Warapu woman has just given birth - the first Warapu born since the wave struck - but it seems its an event which brings little joy

10.28

Helen (mother)

"When we came here I knew the baby was coming.  I gave birth on Saturday.  Was that yesterday?  Saturday night."

10.41

There's too many grieving mother's here for the birth of Helen's baby to be celebrated.  Most of the babies of Warapu died in the wave - the babies and the very old have disappeared.

10.58

Helen survived the disaster unscathed and found both her husband and boy alive in the swamp the next morning.   But even the luckiest of Warapu families feel the burden of the wave.

11.10

Shots of camp, children eating

11.23

Joseph int

"When I look around there aren't many of us left.  The sea has wiped them away.  Now we can think of nothing but this disaster ."

11.26

Church int.  Singing "Family of God"

11.44

It's their first Sunday mass since the wave hit them a little over a week ago and the Warapu have come to church at Ramo.  In all the mayhem there's been no funerals no time for public grieving.

12.03

Priest

welcome

12.33

Shots of people's faces

For most of them today is the closest thing they've had to a ceremony to rememmber their dead and to remember the afternoon of July 17,  at sunset as the village was settling in for the night...

12.42

Close-up of man in church.

Maggie: "We were about to start cooking dinner and then I felt the ground start to shake.

12.57

Maggie IV

As the water started to shake up, it wasn't long before I heard a noise firing up in the sea. "

13.07

Casper

"A roar of thunder it will be going like   - Crooooooo...

When they hear this they left to find means of escape.

13.17

And what did you see?

13.36

Casper: When we look out to the sea we saw long waves, coming-up and coming-up. And then we saw the light...like flames,  like flames coming from the waves"

13.40

songs, taking communion at service

14.02

Shots of service...to Martina

"I was sleeping in the house and then I woke up.  Men were running up from the beach yelling that the sea was rising up   We ran down to have a look then I ran back to the house,  went inside and got my Rosary.  I  came back out and went down to the water."

14.13

More shots of service, priest

Hudson: "I'm a fisherman. We were coming across the sea near Sissano when it happened."

Hudson

I heard this big noise in the sea and there was lightening.  The noise was very loud.  I looked across and I saw the sea breaking towards the shore. I thought of my family.  5 children and my wife,  six of them and my brothers.  I knew the sea would hit them all and I was crying as the sea came up.  I cried because I knew then that I'd lost them. "

14.58

Casper tape

"And then a miserable thing happened.  I grabbed my granddaughter and did my best to hold her but it was like someone reached down and pulled her away......... and my watch...like someone trying to rip it off"

15.41

Guitar tuning.

16.13

Anton Manuwai

"At about 4 o'clock I got all my family and friends together to celebrate my new canoe. We were about to play some guitar music for the canoe because it was a new canoe that I had made.   We were going to take the canoe across to the main village to show it off. "

16.20

Sylvia Tanimpe

Then we started cooking food for the party and we were all standing there looking at the canoe.

16.56

Joseph Taveno

Chasing children with his guitar, laughing children.

It was now  about 6 O'clock and we wanted to play a little music to celebrate the new canoe.  So I'll show you what happened next.

(sings)

The sea. The sea.

17.08

Anton Manuwai

"So I climbed up a tree

And when I looked down and the sea didn't look too good - I can tell you straight it looked bad.

The sea was rolling and crying out as if it wanted to kill everyone ."

18.08

Joseph Taveno

"It sounded like a chopper coming but it wasnt a chopper it was the sea. And the sound of the sea was really loud like this - whooooooo -  and we said "Hey its the sea- lets get going!"

18.34

Sylvia Tanimpe

"We rushed to the canoes to put everything in and called to everyone to get in so we could start paddling. But we were too late.

The sea came and turned us over.

We tried to head for the bush but the waves turned us over and rolled us in the sand- three times. 

I had my baby in a sling and the sea came and shook her loose and I lost hold of my baby.   When I was rolled over and I went under I lost hold of my baby. When I lost my baby I tried to escape to the top. I pushed the wood out of the way and got to the surface. Underneath the water was full of logs and when I tried to get free I lost my baby.

Q How old was your baby - a little baby?

Just one year old.

Q What was his name?

Elsie.

Her name - a little girl eh?

A little girl - Elsie."

18.52

Hudson

"When the sea ran out there wasn't a house  or a dog or anything. No living soul, but I could hear them crying in the mangroves."

John with gun and boys walk 

John: "We came here this morning to kill those dogs which are digging up the bodies.  They're feeding on human beings so we have to kill those dogs."

20.52

Crunch crunch. Chopping through bush.

v/o: This track is littered with tragedy and the graves of people who almost made it...

There's no roads into this jungle,  nowhere to land a chopper.  In the first frantic days after the disaster, the Warapu were forced to largely rescue themselves.  It was along this trail that families carried or dragged their injured for hours to the nearest helipad at Ramo.

21.04

Coconuts Chop Chop.  Then John Chops

John Aitoney is a Warapu man.  He works as a policeman in Moresby and raced back to his village when the wave struck.

His severely injured daughter survived the journey along this track but countless others weren't so lucky.

21.32

John

John: People are buried along here,  injured and passed away. They're buried along here.

21.54

They died on way to evacuation?

John: Yes.

How many?

John: Plenty.

Someone smoking or sucking coconut.

John at grave

'This is one of the victims injured and taken along here and passed away.

Pan down.  Who was it?

Joe:  It is my nephew.  How old was he?  He was 12 years old.  Were you with him?  Yes etc..we found him at 10 in the morning,  he still had his heartbeat.''

22.39

John drags wood and throws over grave.

20.23

John with map

''It pushed all these people across the lagoon and then another wave comes in here and pushes them into the mangroves.  (Pans down to map)  here and here''

23.37

over map

Evening fell within twenty minutes of the wave hitting - there was no moon that night - and sound was the Warapu's only guide....

24.00

Maggie

"I heard children crying out "Dad Dad Mum help me. Dad, Mum its me"

But by then it was too dark "

24.10

Martine

"When the sea had died down we were left lying on top of the debris.  We were lying there as night fell. We sat on the logs in the dark crying and singing out. Calling for help and praying.

I was worrying about my family. I thought about my little brother and then I found him and held him."

24.22

John

"One lady got onto this bag and surfed the wave.  5 kilometres.  She survived. " (throws bag down) We normally carry our food in that!

24.58

Araporo canal

It was here at Araporo just behind the mangrove swamp where most of the survivors dragged themselves out of the lagoon.  They came up this canal on a flotila of broken boats.  Every Warupo suvivor has a story about clasping onto one of these canoes and kicking their way to safety.  And it was these same boats that ventured back into the night looking for the injured and the dieing

25.33

Hudson

"I lifted up my wife and I put her into the boat.   

When the sea hit her it tore all her clothes off.  Just her pants were left.

When I saw my wife was naked, I took off my shirt and I covered her body with it.

Then I took my wife up to Araporo and in the bush at Araporo I buried her.

I found a skirt,  put it on her and buried her."

26.01

Anton

"When the sea had gone down.. we tried to find people and bring them all together. But we were too late.. Some were already dead others had bad cuts.

Bad cuts on the head ... the arms ... the legs ...

One manwas stabbed in the chest and it came out his neck. There were plenty of injuries like this. "

26.40

Martine

"Some people found the bodies of my father and mother and they put them amongst the mangroves.

My father, they dug a grave up in the bush and buried him, and my mother, they just left her in the mangroves.

They found my brothers body in the village and they dug a hole and buried him there.

My sister was lost in the water and they never found her."

27.07

Most of the bodies were never retrieved -and today,  there's little peace even for the few that were given shallow graves

27.27

John

"This is my aunties grave"

"The dogs are trying to dig the dead body up up so you smell the dead body"

27.55

John walks and fires

Bang.

Camp argument

Policeman

"This is no time to be cross.  Don't try and cause bloody trouble. This isn't the time to get cross over a dog."

28.29

Girl about

They got the wrong dog.  My dog hasn't been digging up bodies.

28.44

Man about

I went down to see and I said 'That's the wrong dog'.  The dog that's been finding bodies - they've hidden it down there.

Gunman

"Is this the dog their talking about.  Is it yours?"  or

"Is this the dog or is it up there." or

Tent man

A little over a week since the wave pushed then up into the bush,  tensions are rising among the Warapu themselves and with their hosts the Ramo.

Not only are the Warapu living on top of one another they're living off other peoples land - a great indignity for any Melenesian.

29.05

Joseph v/o over village scenes, puppy eating coconut

"So now all of us are living on Ramo land,  we're eating their coconuts and sago.  We're eating all the Ramo food.

Joseph

"Its a big problem - if the Ramo get cross with us its a big worry."

29.56

Finding a place to keep the tribe together is now Joseph's central problem - a problem that's plagued the Warapu throughout history...

30.05

Camp

Two to three hundred years the Warapu were forced to leave their ancestral lands in West Papua - the part of the island now controlled by Indonesia.  They've been fighting for land and  survival ever since.    After being pushed out of other areas that they tried to settle the Warapu arrived here about 150 years ago and the story goes that it was the Ramo that  gave them shelter at last- some wives and a piece of their own land.

30.15

Lagoon

That Warapu land is now underwater - swallowed up during a huge earthquake which formed the lagoon in 1907 .  Having lost their land the Warapu retreated to the edge of the beach where they've lived ever since

30.49

Matthews camp

Woman by fire

31.07

Matthew puts arm around boy

He's taking a picture of us - then he'll take it back to his place and show it.

Matthew Nakombo is the Warapu's land arbitrator and he's a walking titles office.  He knows every piece of land the Warapu have occupied throughout their history as well as the disasters which seem to have followed them.  This is not the first time they've been destroyed by a wave....

31.20

Young man to Mat.

The second disaster,  was it in 1938,  when the sea killed the people? 35!

After the village was devestated in 1935,  yet another wave hit them in ‘53 when Matthew was 12 years old.

31.57

Mat interview.

"our ancestors worshiped this spirit which has made the sea turn against us."

32.09

Mat sync

"From the time of our ancestors this thing has tried to teach the Warapu a lesson.  Does it want to kill us or wipe us out altogether - we dont know.  So as I said,  we need to find somewhere to hide. "

Warapu leaders meet. 

Finding a place to keep the tribe together is now becoming urgent.  Joseph and Matthew meet with the other elders to discuss whether they can go back to Warapu. 

Joseph is in favour of returning to the beach if only someone could find out what it is that destroying them...

32.55

Joseph 

"We want our PNG government or the Australian government  to help by sending experts such as divers to try to find out what is under the sea and to mark the source of the trouble."

33.17

The trouble is that they live directly on top of one of the most unstable parts of the earth's crust - two plates that have continualy shifted - and sooner or later will shift again.

33.46

Simbal

"I see this tidal wave has happened three times before to our ancestors.... and now a fourth time.

It happened to our fathers before us. And now I've seen it with my own eyes I'm terribly afraid..

33.58

Simbal on wide

"(Now it's been 4 times) and I dont want us to stay there.  We must get all our people and move to another place. "

34.11

Simbal

"It can stay as a big cemetary,  leave it like that.  This lagoon must remain as a memorial because there are thousands of bodies of people from Warapu,  Arop and Sissano there.

Wide group. Start music

Of all the tribes that were hit by the wave only the Warapu have no traditional lands behind the coast.  They've got nowhere else to go but these leaders agree that they can ‘t  return to their home at Warapu

34.47

Warapu VILLAGE song

"I stand at Warapu Village

And gaze across the islands

Across the tranquil Warapu Lagoon

(repeat)

A cool breeze blows over and over

Bringing sweet memories

Flooding back to me.

(repeat)

35.07

Voice over in mid song

As anxiety grows about their future some of the families here are talking about moving to the town of Vanimo.

 Their only chance of remaining together and near the lagoon rests upon getting some land that's officially owned by the Ramo... 

35.39

Ramo Village

After the big earthquake in their grandparent's time the Ramo gave the Warapu hunting and gardening rights to a strip of land behind the lagoon and the Warapu have used it exclusively ever since - but according to the Ramo it's a kind of tenancy not the basis for a permanent settlement..

36.00

Chop chop coconuts

John Awan regards his clan as the true owners of the land and although willing to help,  he thinks the Warapu have brought this disaster upon themselves by maintaining their old customs and spiritual beliefs...

36.20

John Awan

John: "bad things connected with the evil world,  I think the Warapu are still holding onto these things.

Their ancestors used magic on the sea and now the sea has turned on them."

John Awan

"Ramo has never received any money. Our grandfathers who owned the land never took any money for that land. The government never gave us any money because we agreed they could only stay according to our good will."

36.56

Joseph

If we start working the ground then the Ramo might say "No this is not your land.

So this is the problem. This is the worry we have."

37.12

Matthew.

"If our children or grandchildren have a fight with the Ramo people then the Ramo people would take back the land.  And then we'd have to look for another place to settle again"

37.22

Joe and Mat walk to Ramo 

If they want to build on the land they've been using behind the lagoon - Joseph and Matthew  have to go cap in hand to Ramo and ask for it.

It's a humbling walk - but their people have no other options.

37.44

Walk away from camera.

"So as I see it we have to build the village there."

Meeting

38.06

The meeting,

Joseph

"Matthew and I are the right men to talk with you about these matters.  The land that our ancestors used is clearly marked.  We haven't argued about these things in the past and there should be no argument now."

38.11

The meeting

Joseph is pointing out that the use of land was agreed to 90 years ago.  In a sense it's already his land but to claim full ownership would be an explosive move..

38.30

Big chief

We're worried that there might be fights and arguments and killings over this piece of land.

38.44

Although the Ramo will allow  the village to be built they'll retain ownership of the land.  The Warupo have no money to buy it once and for all.  Whatever the mood is today,  there'll be no guarantees for the future.

38.52

Old man

"We've come together as brothers to discuss this ground.  We've made a promise at this time.   We the owners of this land have said its alright for you to stay there,  as you have since the  time of our grandfathers.

39.06

In a country where land is so highly valued the Ramo are being extraordinarly generous....but within minutes of the agreement,  John Awan has the last word. ...

39.32

John Awan

"I've got no grudge against you but the Warapu must change their old ways - as I've changed mine.  You must see that this disaster was caused by your ancient customs."

39.43

The landlord has issued his first instruction - it would seem that Mathew and Joseph aren't going to be quite free men on their own land...

40.03

Awan

"I'm the landowner, I have the right to ask him to leave.  If I say leave they'd have to go."

40.14

Joe walks along track

No matter how tenuous the agreement with the Ramo may be,  it's time to start building a new village... just 13 days after the old one was destroyed.

40.28

Chopping bush, Joseph

"We've left the coast now and we've come here.  So we'll have to cut down all this bush.  Up there...and over here.

When we've cleared all the bush we'll make it our camp and this will be the new Warapu."

40.38

Chopping bush

A new Warapu is taking shape on the land that their grandparents gardened ,  behind the canal where they dragged themselves from the swamp,  along the track where they carried their injured and dieing...

41.05

It may not be an ideal plot for seafarer's

But for Community elder Camilus Canuvo it's their first happy day since the disaster struck...

41.22

Camilus

"C:  It'll run down here and down this side too.  M: It'll be a long village.  C Yes.  M: How far to the sea?  C: 2-3 kilometres.  M:  Too far?  C: Yes too far."

41.30

Tents.

Hudson in tent. 

"When I look around I see other men with their wives and their families - it upsets me."

42.01

"Every afternoon when the sun goes down, I think about all the things we used to do before this tragedy. I wasn't with her when she and our children were lost. I  keep thinking about all the good things she used to do her -  until this thing happened to us. Now I've lost her and it hurts to think of her."

42.12

Hudson in tent with girls

Two of Hudsons 5 children,  REGINA and WILMA,  have survived and now he's taken two of his dead brother's children under his care as well

42.47

Walks with girls

There's no orphans tent in this camp - everyone belongs to someone - an Uncle,  a cousin a sister.  Fractured Warapu families are forming again.   But for Hudson,  like hundreds of others here,  he'll never be at peace until he finds out what happened to his children..

43.00

Hudson: "I ‘ve been trying to find their bodies - because I dont want them left in the water.

I want to find their bodies and bury them in the ground.   I've done my best but I havent found them.

When someone dies they should have a decent burial. Thats the right way. They aren't pigs or animals to be left in the water - we must find their bodies and bury them."

43.20

Boat to lagoon

43.59

Lagoon shots. Water rippling.

The lagoon is now sealed off but the authorities have allowed Joseph and Camilus to go back to assess the wreckage for themselves.

44.12

Land. Dog Runs.

Camilus

"My little daughter - she's buried here - Nola - the body of my little girl - she died and is buried here"

44.41

Joe

"This was the big house that belonged to me.

The posts were there.

Everything I owned I kept in that house."

44.48

Camilus

This is the room where I slept with my family.

This is the little room I built for things like plates to keep them all and my bedding and things I kept over there.  The cookhouse was along here

 And these are the bones of people that I kept here - I never got around to burying them. So I put them here to make the house stand strong.

45.00

Joe

"There's a frangipani stump here.

Everything else has been torn away..

the house and everything all gone."

45.42

This place has killed thousands of their people across the generations. But it's the only safe haven the Warapu have ever had - the only place to call their own, the only reason they've survived in a foreign land...and now it's gone.

45.53

Joseph and Camilus

"you put them on up here with decorations - for a Sing Sing.  they belonged to a child"

46.10

As they take the first steps in rebuilding their lives these men have only two real options  - to face the uncertainty of a life as tenants in the bush or the uncertainty of a deadly sea.

46.26

Within 15 minutes of having their feet back on the sand,  Joseph and Camilus begin talking  about coming back.

46.39

Camilus

"(We could build a new village and) level it out and make it look nice.  Then we'd want to come back. Come back to live and fish.

Q What about the wave?

That's the big question. (Because if we're going to live here) if only they could send scientists to find out what's out there that's has ruined us.

46.47

Joe and Cam walk.

"So when we came to this place we lived by the sea.   And to live in the bush is something new for a coastal people."

This fragile strip of land is the most solid thing they possess

47.21

Joe and Cam walk away.

"We are people of the paddle.  Just because the sea hits you,  you can't let go of the paddle.  That'd be wrong"

47.30

Ends

48.13