Advertising Missionaries

[00:00:01.97] Ready. One. Two. Three.

[00:00:04.95] (SINGING) Up and down. Round and round. That's the way to brush your teeth. With the Colgate, Colgate dental glue. That's the way to brush your teeth.

[00:00:40.61] [OPENING MUSIC]

[00:01:19.08] Elijah Bennet leads a troupe of actors in Papua New Guinea who are taking their performances to the most remote regions of the country.

[00:01:36.05] Elijah plays the role of a middle class father, and Tina Repa plays a neurotic mother-- parents of a dysfunctional, middle-class stage family.

[00:01:47.69] Their highly entertaining performances also include Robert, who plays the child, and Peter, who plays the role of uncle.

[00:02:03.86] In areas where radio and television are yet to reach, they use the stage to spread the gospel of the new way of life.

[00:03:30.55] We are just like missionaries. Missionaries of lifestyle, and missionaries of the good products that we bring and present to them.

[00:03:40.63] It feels like we are the pioneers, you see. We are the pioneers to the people in the really, really remote areas of Papua New Guinea.

[00:03:55.22] In the remote highlands lies the tranquil valley of Yaluba A valley yet to be visited by Elijah and his prophets of the consumer revolution.

[00:04:25.06] Aluago and his family belong to the Huli tribe, a group famous for making elaborate wigs from their own hair.

[00:05:05.37] The people of the Yaluba Valley practice the world's oldest form of subsistence agriculture. They have worked the soil for 9,000 years, growing sweet potatoes. It's been a staple diet, sustaining large families in good health, as well as large numbers of the all-important pig-- their main source of wealth.

[00:05:58.86] Here in Port Moresby, the capital and only major city in the country, the decisions are made about where Elizah's troupe goes, and the products they promote.

[00:06:10.03] At the HRD Advertising Agency, Andrew Rose turns the briefs of his clients into scripts for Elizah's troupe which they call walk-about marketing. It's one way to capitalize on the growing cash economy.

[00:06:26.26] There are more and more commercial opportunities in P&G. We want to follow development. We want to be the leading edge of it, and be the first contact for people with Western commercial goods, if you like. So wherever the road goes, we try and go with it.

[00:06:51.35] I think the fact that walk-about is still in existence after all this time speaks volumes. These major multinationals, they don't just get their money away. The fact that they continue to use us after 10 years means that it's working, it's getting the message across.

[00:08:02.50] Elizah spends one week at home with his family for every three weeks he spends touring with the troupe He has a wife, two children, and a large extended family to support.

[00:08:18.79] Me and my family, we are very, very happy at this moment because the company has given us a very big house to live in. In fact, we are living in luxury. I am really saving up to give my children a better education because I believe Papua New Guinea is really changing rapidly. If I do not give them the best education, in the future they won't be able to fit in the modern society.

[00:09:19.21] Elizah and his team are leaving on a journey that will take them into new territory.

[00:09:33.31] When we are on the road, we fear Raskolism. We fear travel fights up in the highlands. It is a very, very dangerous job to us. We keep doing it because it's the money that we earn. So the family and everybody benefits out of it. So no matter if it is very, very dangerous to us, but we keep on doing it.

[00:10:00.00] Their tour will take them for the coast up into the highlands, where more than half the population lives.

[00:10:08.66] [SINGING]

[00:10:29.45] We fit in nicely because we've been traveling for years together, and it is like the extra family to us.

[00:10:38.62] Sometimes we do have arguments and fight, but we cool off and then we come back again. We are happy. Everybody's happy. And then we continue to do our work.

[00:10:49.51] [SINGING]

[00:10:58.31] When we are traveling around, these boys, they treat me very special, and they treat me as their queen. They look after me. They give me security. And we all work together as one team.

[00:11:15.28] As part of the agency's thrust into more remote areas, this journey will take them deeper into the highlands than they've ever been before. To the Yaluba Valley, Aluago's home.

[00:11:34.03] In traditional Huli society, men and women have very little to do with each other. They tend their own fields, and live separately.

[00:12:29.11] Aluago lives with his father, uncles, sons, and nephews. The young boys move from living with the women into the men's hut at about six years old.

[00:14:31.04] On the other side of the valley, the women have slaughtered a pig.

[00:14:38.02] Aluago's wife, Tinteva, lives with the other women and the small children. The women meet their husbands in the fields during the day, which is the only time they have sexual relations.

[00:15:28.12] Unlike the Huli, the theater troupe live together when they're on the road. On this occasion, in a mission guest house.

[00:15:37.49] Off stage, I'm sort of like their mother. I cook for them. I look after them. I do everything for them. When they need anything, I'm always there for them.

[00:15:54.13] Like most people in Papua New Guinea, the theater troupe have embraced Christianity, which has assisted with their adoption of Western culture.

[00:16:13.67] [SINGING]

[00:16:21.12] As a child, I grew up in western side. I don't really know much about our tradition because I wasn't really brought up in traditional ways.

[00:16:41.22] I'm trying to tell Papua New Guineans to live a luxury life. The more we get into the remote area, the village people see how we are dressed up, and the presentation of ourselves. That's an example to them in living the luxury life.

[00:17:01.13] [SINGING]

[00:18:03.51] When I reach Mount Hagen, a highland town notorious for its violence, the troupe performs a play about alcohol abuse, sponsored by the health department. They mostly advertise products, but a small percentage of their work is for social education.

[00:18:50.84] Alcohol is the Western product which causes the most chaos in Papua New Guinea.

[00:18:59.52] But Elizah's message to his countrymen about living the luxury life reinforces the drift into the towns by people seeking their fortune. It's a dream that's rarely realized. The inevitable inequality becomes a source of social tension.

[00:19:55.34] There's a travel fight, and people are starting to fight soon, so when we got over there, they didn't want us to ask the police what's going on. They just want us to pass by.

[00:20:13.30] This five started over a broken windscreen and escalated. It will finish only when adequate compensation has been negotiated.

[00:20:24.01] We are very, very scared at the moment, so we're just thinking of putting off the show just for a day.

[00:20:32.83] This is my first time to see such things like that, and I'm very scared because the faith of the people, the weapons they're carrying. It's very scary to me.

[00:20:42.93] We might be killed. The truck might be damaged. So we just look around first. What's going to happen to us. At the moment, I think the police-- the situation is tense.

[00:20:58.88] I had somebody tell me that maybe they killed one man already, and maybe three injured. Really bad. Just today. One is dead already. So it's really tense here now.

[00:21:10.96] Tribal fights in the highlands are common. Homemade shotguns are replacing the bow and arrow, and the death toll is rising.

[00:21:32.40] In the valley of Yaluba there are few shotguns yet. So for now, Aluago teaches his nephew the traditional way to hunt.

[00:21:50.60] Trying to find a dietary variation to the monotony of sweet potato and pork requires a high degree of skill.

[00:23:42.18] The campaign to change the diet of highlanders takes many forms.

[00:24:20.60] The theater troupe passed through numerous police checkpoints, set up to stop contraband goods which escalate the breakdown of law and order.

[00:24:58.64] The police are battling to control an upsurge of highway robbery by gangs known as Raskols. They choose the point of a gun as a way to survive.

[00:25:11.21] As the theater troupe heads further into the highlands, they take a police escort along a section of road notorious for Raskol attacks.

[00:25:21.59] Elizah has been stopped and stripped of all his possessions eight times in as many years.

[00:25:35.91] Their next stop is the frontier town of Tari, where they arrive in time for the weekly market.

[00:25:56.39] Here, the old style missionaries of Christ are already installed.

[00:26:01.23] [SINGING]

[00:26:23.79] The theater troupe wait until the Christian show is over before commencing theirs. One aimed at conscripting souls away from the staple, sweet potato.

[00:27:58.32] Their message about moving away from the traditional diet receives enthusiastic support, but not everyone is impressed with the sales pitch to buy foreign-made products.

[00:30:09.14] Aluago is a prolific maker of wigs. And art he learned from his uncle, a famous wig maker in the valley.

[00:31:20.59] In an Echo, the cargo carts of yesteryear, advertising executive Andrew Rose flies in from Port Moresby, with a pep talk on pushing their products further into remote areas.

[00:31:53.66] All right.

[00:31:56.35] Hello, Andy.

[00:31:57.66] How's it all going?

[00:31:59.23] Welcome. Welcome.

[00:32:05.09] Lots of sailing. Lots of sunshine.

[00:32:07.21] Welcome to the mountain area.

[00:32:09.35] Yeah, yeah. Everything been all right? Good journey? No malaria or anything?

[00:32:15.85] A bit of flu with Tina and Peter.

[00:32:20.15] Lorry running all right?

[00:32:21.31] Yes.

[00:32:22.08] No trouble?

[00:32:22.75] However, the road is a bit rough.

[00:32:23.98] Yeah.

[00:32:25.70] Well, I've got news for you. It's going to get rougher than that. We want you to go further. Basically, as far as the road goes. As far as you can get.

[00:32:33.84] I'm a little bit worried about the truck if we are going further out. I don't think the truck can make it.

[00:32:40.11] Yes. We will need--

[00:32:42.59] Well, what we'll do, we'll organize the transport. Don't worry about that. We'll get you 4-wheel drives, or something.

[00:32:47.95] That will be all right.

[00:32:49.53] I know the road's bad out there. We'll sort out the transport, don't worry about that. It's just expanding it another day or two. OK? Will you be happy with that, with the new transport?

[00:33:01.77] Oh, yes. Yes. Very much.

[00:33:04.66] It'll give you a change of scenery, and new people.

[00:33:07.13] Instead of just big truck bumping up and down.

[00:33:09.98] You will make some new people laugh. And also make them buy some products.

[00:33:34.91] The theater troupe went without a police escort, assuming this remote area would be free from Raskols.

[00:33:44.08] As Robert explains, they made a narrow escape from a gang armed with shot guns.

[00:33:49.62] We were down there. That's where I stopped. We came up there. And then two people, they came here. They were hiding. Maybe they were hiding here, because you can see the foot path here.

[00:34:03.74] So they came up when we were coming up. They put this log-- really heavy-- across the road here. Then we started racing from that. And they were chasing us. Six of them. So it was truly lucky. And they got two guns, plus bush knives, and they were running down, but we raced all the way. It was lucky that Eli didn't panic. He keep on racing down.

[00:34:28.18] When we look at the general law and order situation here, it's pretty bad. Criminal after criminal. Something bad. In terms of police, we have to bust people up. We sometimes, we just broke the bone, whatever, whenever the situation gets out of hand. So you've got no hope. So all you have to do is just hit them harder. Destroy the property and some of other things.

[00:35:25.88] Aluago and Tinteva take some sweet potato to the weekly market to sell, so they too can become part of the growing cash economy.

[00:36:12.65] The trek to Aluago's valley is atrocious, with many bridges having to be rebuilt along the way.

[00:36:26.23] We are the ones who are really witnessing the changes in the remote area of Papua New Guinea because we go further than the government. And I feel so great because I'm the one who's really introducing these new things in people's lives.

[00:37:15.70] The Yaluba Valley rarely sees a vehicle. Only one or two make it through per year.

[00:37:45.49] Eventually they get to Kina for their produce, but there isn't much to spend the money on.

[00:38:20.71] Meanwhile, the theater troupe arrive at the market in time to set up for a show.

[00:38:30.80] Amongst their performances, they intend to do a piece about family planning.

[00:38:39.46] Knowing the cultural sensitivities in remote areas, Elizah lets the village know what they're about to do.

[00:38:49.81] The elders decide to examine the script.

[00:39:15.02] The elders are afraid the message of the play will disturb the delicate balance between men and women.

[00:40:59.10] If the people want us to do it not in a show but private, then we can always do it with girls on the other side, and boys on the other side. But I think it's a good thing to do. It seems that this [INAUDIBLE] it looks like the population is growing. And people in the rural area should know about these things.

[00:41:58.82] Aluago breaks his holy tradition for Tina, and eats something from the hand of a woman.

[00:42:31.81] As a missionary of advertising, we've seen good results already. You take example like Mortein. Mortein, the sales was average. But when we started to advertise Mortein, the results rocketed up. And personally, I feel good because I know I'm really doing my job properly.

[00:44:03.61] Despite Elizah's fears about upsetting the men in the valley, Tina insists on telling the married women about contraception.

[00:45:45.89] The ladies said we should try to stop to have more children. We should try to show the men that we ladies need space. We should make the men know that by having more children, we become very old quickly.

[00:46:05.25] In the face of the new culture, it will be a difficult task for Aluago and the men in the valley to keep the traditional separation between the sexes.

[00:46:21.84] These elaborate preparations for Sing-sing are one way that men can still reinforce their identity.

[00:46:35.28] For Aluago, it's a demonstration of his success in preserving the wig-making traditions of his clan against the influence of the missionaries.

[00:47:03.17] A Sing-sing was traditionally used to celebrate the revenge killing of an enemy clansman.

[00:47:12.49] Now it's used to welcome visitors.

[00:47:53.67] We feel just part of it. Great.

[00:47:57.62] This is my first time to see those traditional people dancing. I really enjoy myself, but one thing. I came late, and I have no paint.

[00:48:05.21] And I'm really enjoying it, too, just to see the men with the headdress on. They look really outstanding.

[00:48:16.75] It looks as though Papua New Guineans are losing all tradition because there are other things the style of the white man. It's good in some ways, and bad in some ways.

[00:48:30.15] Our customary tradition is fading away.

[00:48:43.17] The people of the Yaluba Valley seem to welcome the good news of the cash economy brought by the new missionaries.

[00:49:05.59] The road to Yaluba is being improved. Soon more than just the adventurous will make it here in their motor cars. More salesmen spreading the new religion.

[00:50:09.36] We are just like an instrument, you see, for the manufacturers and the government that is using us to voice out their messages and products across to the people.

[00:50:20.06] Truly, we introduce these products to the people, but if they cannot afford it, things might turn wrong.

[00:50:29.17] I am doing it as a job, or as a mission. That guiltiness, it doesn't belong to me. That guiltiness belongs to the people who we represent.

[00:50:43.47] [SINGING]