The Lau of Malaita

United Kingdom, 1987

Film
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Episode number 4 of Series “Disappearing world”.
Episode 4 of this five part series looks at the story of the people of the Lau Lagoon. 600 years ago in the Solomon Islands, the Lau people abandoned the hills of Malaita to start a new life, incredibly, by constructing small coral islands in the idyllic Pacific lagoon below. Today most of the 60 island communities in the Lau Lagoon have come under Christian missionary influence which has transformed their entire system of beliefs and values and replaced the original “life of custom”. This program shows the villagers taking positive steps to revive their dying traditions.

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Credits

producer/director

Leslie Woodhead

production company

Granada Television International

Duration

00:52:00:00

Production places
United Kingdom
Production dates
1987

Appears in

Disappearing world

Group of items

Disappearing world

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Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

302170

Language

English

Audience classification

G

Subject categories

Anthropology, Ethnology, Exploration & Travel → Solomon Islands

Anthropology, Ethnology, Exploration & Travel → Travel

Documentary

Documentary → Documentary films - Great Britain

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Christianity

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Society, Primitive

History → Society, Primitive

Places → Solomon Islands

Short films

Short films → Short films - Great Britain

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Colour

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/81104--the-lau-of-malaita/ |title=The Lau of Malaita |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=17 May 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}