Kiunga, Papua;
1969

NBC sent a film crew into West Irian, just over the border from here, to penetrate beautiful, mysterious Valley X, so isolated its inhabitants have no memory of other humans. In fact, the filmmakers went into an area where some years before they themselves had filmed "The Sky Above, the Mud Below." The area is remote, but hardly unexplored. Moreover, it hasn't escaped the turmoil of West Irian's independence movement. A number of leaders in this movement, pursued by Indonesian troops, tried to escape across the mountain border, and there have been reports - how true, I don't know - of atrocities, including the killing of local villagers.

The filmmakers parachuted in, though they could have walked in or taken one of the available helicopters. Once down, they filmed the villagers' wonder & astonishment at the appearance of strangers with strange gadgets. In fact, the villagers' reaction was mainly one of displeasure - they wanted the filmmakers (and the Indonesian paratroopers accompanying them) to leave.

On their way out, by inflated boats via a mountain river, they lost everything - equipment, boats, film - save the radio with which they summoned a nearby helicopter. The pilot tells me they plan to replace their equipment & parachute back into beautiful, mysterious Valley X, there to film the wonder & astonishment, etc. (They did.)

All this is good fun until one realizes that some day New Guineans will know their heritage through such films and Americans will know the rest of the world through such fantasies.

We use media to destroy cultures, but we first use media to create a false record of what we are about to destroy.