Bilibil people

The island was too small to produce enough food for the inhabitants, and the trade therefore was an essential element of their life.

Inland people meet the Bilibils at a pre-arranged place, and pots are exchanged for taro and yams from the mountains.

They built large two-masted canoes which they would use to travel hundreds of kilometres along the coast to trade with other villages.

Tools for boat building were made from wood, pig's bone, sharpened bamboo and stone.

In 1978, it had been 40 years since a traditional canoe had been built by the Bilibil people, and the skills for building these boats had been almost lost.

Four elderly men taught the others how to build a canoe using local trees for the hull, the outrigger and the supports.