For Dutch national television, presenter Filemon Wesselink left the Western rat race for the Trobriand Islands, where yams are wealth and tradition still sets the rhythm of life.
In Filemon buiten Westen, broadcast by BNNVARA on NPO 3 in 2018, presenter Filemon Wesselink spends time with communities that live outside the Western way of life. The Papua New Guinea episode, first broadcast on 18 October 2018, takes him to the Trobriand Islands.
There he looks at the place of tradition in daily life: he plays in a cricket match, learns how banana leaves are used as money, and helps build a yam house.
Islands of the yam
In the Trobriands, yam houses are filled with yams for months of the year and show a family’s wealth and status. The islands became famous among anthropologists through Bronisław Malinowski’s studies of the kula, the ceremonial exchange of shell valuables between islands.
The film
| Programme | Filemon buiten Westen, episode “Papoea-Nieuw-Guinea” |
| Broadcaster | BNNVARA / NPO 3 (18 October 2018) |
| Presenter | Filemon Wesselink |
| Our role | Fixing & logistics |
Filming in the Trobriands or Milne Bay?
Boats, small planes and village agreements: we organise it.