Will Millard
For as long as I can remember I have been obsessed by water. I grew up in a tiny village called Upwell found in the middle of the Fens; a vast expanse of farmland drained by man-made dykes and creeks that stretch flat to the horizon like an immense patchwork quilt. Barely a day would pass that I wasn’t outside fishing, foraging, building rafts or exploring with my friends. It might seem a long way from the white sands and turquoise oceans of the South Seas, but a childhood spent exploring the waterways on my doorstep provided all the inspiration I needed to push on into those tropical climes that have filled my adult life so far.
After University at Leeds I moved to Indonesia for the first time. I had travelled right across Southeast Asia and spent a year studying South Asian culture and Society at the National University of Singapore, but it was Indonesia, with its pristine coasts, jungles and exceptional diversity, that absolutely captured my imagination. I was taking my first steps into the world of journalism and exploration at the time, so taking a Teaching position in just about the most inaccessible province in the whole country seemed as good a place as any to get started. West Papua, formerly Irian Jaya, became my passion, and was the place I learned to speak enough of the Indonesian language to get by. Throughout my twenties I returned to the province on long expeditions aiming to explore the multitude of intertribal trade routes that weaved through West Papua’s forests. The more experienced I became, and the more the landscape of the South Pacific modernised around me, the more I realised that the region’s traditional communities were taking something vital with them to the grave: a shared understanding of how to survive and thrive on the very edge of existence, skills that were fast disappearing without record.
I started working in television initially to provide funds for my expeditions, but after Indus Films loaned me cameras to shoot a project in 2009 I came to realise it was possible to marry my passion for isolated peoples with a career in film-making. It was a natural fit to make ‘Hunters of the South Seas’ with my friends in Cardiff, one that I think adds to the genuine warmth and openness we captured on film with the communities that kindly allowed us to follow them.
Before ‘Hunters of the South Seas’ I made a series for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 on a first-descent of the river that borders Sierra Leone and Liberia, and broadcast about Papua for the World Service’s ‘From Our Own Correspondent’. As well as writing regularly for various adventure publications I also take talks to audiences around the UK, but in my real life I fish the River Taff and the lakes of South Glamorgan with a level of intensity and discipline I only wish I could apply to my work. Away from the South Seas, I live in a quiet street in Cardiff with my partner, our cat and more fish than I can reasonably look after.
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