Along the Sepik" is set on the Upper Sepik River in New Guinea. Filmed in 1963 and narrated by Des Martin, Patrol Officer/Kiap and Assistant District Officer for the Ambunti District, "Along the Sepik" records the day-to-day experiences of a "Kiap" (a one-man representative of the Australian government in regional areas) Barry Downes as he patrols an area that in 1963 had only recently been brought under control from headhunters.
As well as being a record of the role of the colonial administration, "Along the Sepik" offers insights into some tribal communities' cultures through depictions of their spirit houses and traditional 'sing sing' ceremonies. It also reminds me of my best friend, Noel Butler, who for more than two decades lived in the Sepik District just outside Wewak, and who would have lived out his days there, had not the country's sudden Independence in 1975 forced him to return to Australia.
The Sepik River is one of the most extraordinary places on earth – some environmentalists call it the second Amazon - which few outsiders ever get to see, and yet it's right on Australia’s northern doorstep. Noel loved this place, and so did I when I visited on several occasions, and it's no surprise that he never quite succeeded to settle back into Australia because, as he put it, after a lifetime spent there, "my spiritual home will always be New Guinea" (although I doubt he would have liked what is going on there today as the days of the unspoilt Sepik are numbered).
I have been sharing Noel's struggles, and while his are over - he died in 1995 - I, too, still think almost every day about those many faraway places in which I lived and worked. The years spent there have left me unsuited in many respects for life in the deep south. I feel suspended between my past life in the islands and my present life in mainstream Australia, and I still seek a place where I can feel truly content.
"Über den Himmel Wolken ziehen, über die Felder geht der Wind, ... irgendwo über den Bergen muss meine ferne Heimat sein." [Hermann Hesse]
P.S. It'd be amiss of me not to include "Walk into Paradise", an adventure movie filmed on and along the Sepik River, and starring Chips Rafferty. To watch this hour-and-a-half-long movie on YouTube, click here.
