The Solomon Islands (Part 2) Searching for Serenity, Serendipity & Skull Island

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Some of the tribal men wore headwear decorated with large seashells, some princess-like looking girls wore woven head tiaras fronting large afro hairstyles made with shells and coloured beads. The men had silver bangles dangling from their noses and ear lobes, with painted faces and bodies in groin-covered, tree-bark loincloth garments.

Grass skirts and palm leaves along with feathers adorned, heads, torso belts and bamboo made backpacks on some women and girls. The men were weaponised with spears, wooden daggers, hatchets, stumps of solid wood and other dangerous looking weapons. This was the ethnic annual festival in Auki Town on Malaita Island. It takes place every year in early August in the outer Solomon Islands and brings together 11 tribes… each as unique as the other.

Earlier that morning we had bordered a DHC6 Twin Otter 300 aircraft for the 30 minute ride to Malaita Island – once know as the Florida Islands. The landing was on a grass airstrip just on the outskirts of Auki Township. After a 15 minute Toyota Land Cruiser transfer, we pulled into the BH Family Lodge in a local suburb about 10 minutes from the town centre. Our accommodation was on the lower floor in a three bedroom self-contained apartment that had a cooker, fridge/freezer, microwave, with mounted fans but no air-conditioning. It’s considered one of the best accommodation options when staying in Auki. The only downside was that there were only cold water showers as they were without hot water in the whole building.

After a late breakfast cooked by our host Hazel, we descended on the town centre which had been cordoned off to host the annual Malaita Festival – a five day extravaganza that pulls together tribes from all over the Malaita Islands for demonstrations, dancing, singing and chanting. Each male group performed a different warrior-style dance/demonstration with the last tribe bringing the most squeals and laughter from the local females watching as they showed off their groins and bums by laying down in the dirt and lifting one of their legs in the air…very risqué when wearing just a loincloth. Music is also a mainstay of the festival with what I would describe as Bob Marley style Caribbean-influenced tunes.

Auki is a conglomerate of mainly unpainted concrete buildings housing small grocery stores, a plethora bottle shops and the odd hardware store – there was also one ATM on the outside of the town’s bank, which charges 45 Solomon dollars per transaction (NZ$ 8.50).

Young punk-style dressed youths and old haggard-looking men stood in doorways drinking alcohol through Betel Nut stained teeth (Betel Nut is a stimulant drug, the seed of the fruit of the areca palm – an ornamental tropical palm tree). Kids played and hassled each other as dogs rummaged and sniffed out discarded food. On the main street men and boys hung off the back of flatbed utes or in the rear of larger trucks – jostling for a ride in whatever stand-up space was available.

Our lunch in Auki was in a windowless café (there was little to choose from) down a gritty dirt-rutted backstreet full of festival food stalls and discarded rubbish and jettisoned offcuts and waste; food scraps, empty polystyrene food containers, plastic water bottles and empty beer cans rolled about in the gutter. As per most of our meals to come, lunch consisted of a bowl of mandatory rice, two distinct fish varieties in vegetable broth dishes, thick root-vegetable fries, a mixed cooked vegetable dish along with a couple of SolBrew beers to help quench our thirst.

After lunch we all piled into the Land Cruiser, a few of us standing up holding onto bars above the cab. We turned onto a rutted, muddy-encrusted uphill road the colour and texture of thick honey. Within minutes the track formed rutted, deep water-gouged gullies on either side that had be carved out by overnight rainstorms. We suddenly diverted left onto another steeper downhill, black-mud track where children wandered the slippery slope on each side wearing well-worn school uniforms.

It eventually led to a verdant river valley. At a dead-end we emptied the vehicle and descended on foot down a footpath to a fast-flowing river.

We were encouraged to cross some knee-deep river rapids, which I was reluctant to venture across. Instead I negotiated a rough, overgrown path on the right side of the riverbank until I found a long smooth pool to swim in. It was almost the length of an Olympic pool. In the heat of the day it was cool and soothing and the only other people I saw were a local family frolicking in the shallows on the opposite bank. My fellow travellers were nowhere in sight.

That night the soft tinkle of raindrops on the upper corrugated tin roofs turned to the pounding dollops of hard rainfall, as water began pouring off the roof from overflowing gutters into half empty 44 gallon drums. In my restless state I thought it didn’t bode well for our banana boat ride on our next day excursion to Taflabana Guesthouse on Taflabana Island, a partially man-made coral island that is close to Laulasi Island …otherwise known as Skull Island.

Under grey skies following a 40 minute boat ride from Auki to Langalanga Lagoon we arrived at Taflabana Guesthouse to be greeted by Hilda. The four-bedroom guesthouse and family huts are situated on Taflabana Island, a partially man-made sub-structure made out of coral rocks to form a stable foundation rising about two-feet above the high tide mark. These walled islands are built by loosening coral boulders from underwater sites and transporting them by banana boat to other over water sites. It is here that Hilda’s family has become renowned for their seashell money making.

As the term implies shell money is just that…a form of currency that can be exchanged for food and supplies or bartered for land and even as a dowry brought by a bride to her husband on their marriage. They are also highly prized as gifts to visiting dignitaries. This is possibly the last remaining place in the Solomon Islands where shell money still exists.

There are four different types of shells dived for by men:

• Kakadu: White Shells (shallow water)
• Kurila: Black Shells (shallow water)
• Ke-e: Brown Shells (deep water)
• Romu: Red Shells (much deeper water)

Not surprisingly, the red shells are worth more than the other shallow water shells, and are referred to by Hilda as ‘Red Gold’. The shells are eventually made into wrist bands, necklaces and coils up to eight feet long to use as a gift or even to buy land – these long Red Gold strands, when used as a dowry payment, can be worth somewhere in the region of 10,000 Solomon dollars (about NZ$ 1,950).

Making the shell strands is time consuming and has eight separate components:

• Breaking the shell into small little fingernail sized pieces
• Moulding the shell into a circular shape
• Smoothing the flat sides of the shell
• Drilling small holes in the shells
• Bringing out a colour change to the shells
• Stringing the shells
• Polishing the shells
• Designing the shells into a finished product

Weather in this region, like many island groups is formed when the precipitous mountains lose their peaks in cloud cover and often fade away altogether when they are lashed by storms. From Hilda’s guesthouse we could see rugged coastlines and only just make out high above them mountainous hillsides, apparently well populated, but being heavily forested they concealed many small villages where roads still don’t exist.

Motoring across another inlet we tied up our canoe to the rough coral shoreline of Laulasi Island. Here our group was split in two with the ladies walking with Hilda into the small village, which housed about 10 people. Mike and myself were led by Hilda’s husband, Edwin, into a thicket of dense bush where only men can enter! In stifling heat Edwin pointed out three circular coral-made altars, which were used as a place for various offerings:

• Dani – against heavy rains, high winds, big waves and storms
• Suasia – was for the god of sea and land
• Etea – an altar where pigs were sacrificed for an annual feast

All that was left of the three ancestral homes built in the 1700s were wooden upright house posts that would have once held up to seven tribes who shared them.

However, walking a bit deeper in the bush Edwin opened a thatched door to a hut to reveal about 10 skulls – all former High Priests – his tribal ancestors. When High Priests died, their bodies would be buried up to the neck in the priests’ burial ground on Taflabana Island for seven days. The head was then removed and cleaned and placed on a flat coral altar, where they have remained ever since. This is how this small piece of coral-encrusted, partially man-made land became known as…Skull Island.

After crossing into Langalanga Lagoon we motored up between the mainland and Lalana Island, where we tied up at a small jetty below a gigantic half-finished boat in a zone (or locality) known as Tavuilo. For generations the people of these small villages have been building extraordinary wooden boats with remarkable skills, as they do not use any modern materials in crafting these sturdy sea-going vessels.

Protected under giant canopies these unfinished boats lie dormant, as the skills that started building them is no longer a thriving Solomon Island’s industry. Over decades, a lack of adequate support has cast a shadow across their bustling, boat building trade. Once upon a time, 20-30 years ago these expertly hand-built vessels could be built in about six years to ferry passengers and island commodities between Auki and Honiara. Today, wasting half-finished hulls clutter many island shorelines.

Sadly there is only one sea-faring boat left that operates between Honiara and the Russell Islands, named Lafusi.

In order to maintain their cultural heritage and preserve their history, these people will require substantial government support with both finance and infrastructure, otherwise these islander’s accomplished boatbuilding skills will more than likely disappear under the waves and perish at the bottom of the beautiful lagoons.

The road to Haodaikirio Homestay was not all plain four-wheel driving! Back in Auki we followed the same mountain road that we had taken to the swimming hole the day before. Except instead of turning off, we carried on for another 90-minutes negotiating a thick clay rutted track to rise high onto a ridge where isolated villages exist. Here people are mostly devoid of most modern-day amenities. All we came across was one high school and nearby a kindergarten hut plonked in the middle of nowhere. At one juncture a tree blocked our path, but thankfully, with the aid of chainsaws, it was cleared away in about 30 minutes.

On arrival we were greeted by the homestay owner who, in the middle of the jungle had established a retreat and turned two elevated buildings on his property into tourist accommodation, each holding two double beds. This region is known as the Auki Highlands, where nearby, seven tribal villages of about 100 people survive in relative isolation.

Intrepid tourists who venture this far inland are rewarded with stunning views and multi-day trekking options as bird life thrives in this environment. This is one of the only places in the Solomon Islands where six endemic bird species can be found…an ideal location for bird watching enthusiasts. The Solomon Islands is renowned for their exceptional variety of bird life with over 150 unique species recorded.

After another enthusiastic cultural performance accompanied by a panpipe troupe we were treated to a cooking demonstration of taro root. First the taro bark was cut off by using a sharpened seashell and then split and quartered. Taro types include red, yellow, white and black, and apparently when cooked each one tastes different! It was then mixed with mashed coconut meat (Note: copra, is the dried meat of the coconut from which coconut oil is produced) to form a soggy mixture which is spread and flattened out over large banana leaves, then rolled into strips before being cut into plate-sized portions.

If you are planning a visit to Malaita Island, expect to be culturally delighted and sometimes surprisingly shocked, from experiencing ancestral worship ceremonies and cultural panpipe bands, each one with a different songs and haunting sounds to watching seashell money being made.

Trek the rugged interior near Honiara or venture further afield where you’ll discover lush tropical rainforests, photographic rivers and waterfalls and rarely visited villages where smiling tribe members gleefully greet you.

Just ask your accommodation hosts in Auki to arrange suitable guides and your Solomon Island adventure is certainly going to deliver an eye-opening cultural experience like no other.

It is where you will most certainly find Serenity, Serendipity and Skull Island.