Lost Mummies of Papua New Guinea

Can Papua New Guinea's new generation return to the "old ways" and recreate the skills that once helped mummify their dead ancestors?

Cut off from the rest of the world for thousands of years, to this day Papua New Guinea is a wild and mysterious land of untamed jungle and inaccessible terrain. With the modern world only intruding into this ancient culture in the last century, the isolation of the tribes that live on the island helped give birth to a unique series of customs. And while stories of cannibalism are legendary, less well known is the island's ancient process of mummification. Preserving bodies so their spirits can act as protection for the living, the practice all but died out as missionaries spread Christianity to remote communities in the 1950s.

Producer / Production Details

CreACTION in association with France 5