- Hi, I'm Les Stroud, the host and director of "Beyond Survival."

Within the scope of filming the series, I circled the globe eight times in 10 months, I was never not jet lagged, to embed myself with cultures who live close to the earth or engaged in practices meant to keep their connection to the earth strong.

In this episode, I visited the Hewa of Papua New Guinea and they enabled me to take part in a ceremony called Cumoutin, which had not been photographed nor filmed before, nor since.

This is the Hewa.

(piercing tone) This is the skeleton of a Hewa man, a father, I'm here with his son.

And today we've performed a Cumoutin ceremony and brought the bones out of the ground.

Touching bodies, decomposing, cause a lot of disease, so I'm gonna show what happens when we get down further.

I'm Les Stroud and I'm in New Guinea to seek out the true masters of survival.

Some of the last indigenous people from around the world, before they're gone, before the past is lost, before their world vanishes.

I can learn their ways.

(driving action music) (haunting sitar music) New Guinea is an island located 150 kilometers from the northern tip of Australia in an area known as Oceania located in the south Pacific Ocean.

More than 700 ethnic groups call the island home and of the world's 6,000 languages over 1,000 of them can be found in New Guinea.

I'm here to learn from the Hewa tribe.

Thought to be ruthless cannibals, the Hewa were known for adorning their huts with the skulls of dead family members.

The act of preserving these skulls is a Hewa ancestral honoring practice known as the Cumoutin.

I've been given special permission to be involved in one of these ceremonies.

It's never been photographed.

It's never been filmed.

And this will be the first time an outsider will even witness it.

(pounding music) (men grunting rhythmically) Deep in the rainforest, the Hewa will push me beyond survival like never before.

(pensive music) The Hewa occupy the largest inland wilderness in Papua, New Guinea.

Their extreme remoteness makes for incredible isolation.

Missionaries didn't cut the first airstrip into the area until 1992.

Besides a few anthropologist and missionaries, mining company employees from far up river have been the Hewa's only visitors.

Gotta remember, these people have visits from airplanes maybe twice a year and be a doctor or an anthropologist and that's about it.

So for me to be here, there's kids who've never seen white people before, there's kids who've never seen technology before.

It's a big deal for them.

There are no roads, so I'm leaving the landing strip cleared by machete, led by the Hewa tribesmen who have agreed to allow me to participate in the secret Cumoutin ceremony.

(tense music) Reaching the riverbank, we set to work making a raft.

The Hewa ride the current of the water to speed up travel time.

Gathering driftwood and felled logs, I lend my own logging skills to construct a crude wooden raft, big enough to carry myself and two guides.

(machete scraping) Bits of cloth from tree fibers hold the raft together.

We won't even really sit on it.

We lie down and ride, half submerged in the water, pushed along by the current.

Of course, the materials are all natural and come straight from the jungle.

(logs thudding hollowly) (men speaking in foreign language) Raft's in the water, so here goes nothing.

(upbeat inquisitive music) The raft is efficient for getting us downstream fast and we have to hold on tight.

Drowning would be easy in this fast-moving muddy water.

Rafts will be used often to cross the big rivers, rivers that are too big to cross with the typical vine or rope bridge.

After a few miles, we reach a better spot for accessing the jungle.

Just getting to the village for whatever reason, involves this kind of a hike all the time.

The hard part starts now, there are still hours of hiking ahead, before I reached the promised ceremonial site.

Face to face with my nemesis.

This is the wild betel nut tree.

Yeah, chewing betel nut, not my favorite occupation.

This is Kaypiyak, my guide, and no one really knows how old he is but most of his life has been a near stone age existence.

He knows little of the outside world.

(mysterious music) We're now outside the village a little bit with some of the Hewa, who completely dressed up and are about to take part in a Cumoutin ceremony, where they raise the bones of the dead, out of the ground after so many years and place them in a small hut of honor.

For Kaypiyak, the moment is met with overwhelming sadness.

No one has been looking after the grave of his wife and it's begun to fall apart.

The purpose of the Cumoutin is to ensure that the spirit of the dead can pass safely into the afterlife.

The Hewa wait at least four years for the body to decompose, before gathering to perform the ceremony.

This is the true final resting place for the bones of the deceased.

To the Hewa, the Cumoutin is an honoring to the dead.

A way of saying goodbye once and for all.

They mourn their passing tribe member and yet seem happy to release the soul into the next world.

It can be downright ghoulish by Western standards.

The missionaries were quick to forbid the practice.

The church thought it had successfully stamped out the Cumoutin ceremony.

Well, they thought wrong.

The Hewa have continued to perform the Cumoutin in secret.

No outsider has seen or let alone participated in the Cumoutin ceremony, until now.

This red is from the (speaking foreign language) plant and it means blood.

Black indicates fire, and the design itself indicates people.

These symbols act as a form of communication from one tribe to another should anyone walking through the jungle stumble upon the altar of unearthed bones.

(upbeat rhythmic music) Fire is the most powerful tool in the Hewa toolkit.

In this ceremony to honor their ancestors, fire is the symbol of home and the time spent around the hearth.

Fire feeds, comforts and sustains, so it's appropriate that fire should accompany the ancestors' release into the spirit world.

(Hewa chatting in foreign language) So that's just two stones, two pieces of rock and a little bit of tree bark and fire.

That's brilliant.

With the fire successfully started, we're ready to raise the bones.

But before we can, another group of family members arrive, and it's clear they're not happy.

This is the other side of the family and they haven't been consulted about exhuming their relative.

They demand we stop the Cumoutin ceremony immediately.

Demands here are emphasized with machetes.

It seems to be some kind of problem going on here right now and an argument of sorts.

(Hewa arguing in foreign language) Some of the townspeople don't seem happy about something.

It could be we're on certain land, or it could simply be that they don't want the Cumoutin to happen at all.

I don't really know.

Here they don't seem to be too freaked.

They're sort of carrying on with the work.

(Hewa speaking animatedly in foreign language) With the body painting and the building and the decorating of the altar all done, it's a long way to go to stop now, but in this jungle where each man carries a machete, disputes are taken seriously.

So before tempers get too hot, we have to give in to the danger.

At this point, there's no way we can continue this Cumoutin ceremony.

So the brother's side of the family has shown up and they are not pleased at all that this was happening.

Not only was it kind of strange and secretive doing this because of the church involvement, but now just even the other villagers have to be involved in certain ways.

So we may have to go up into the mountains to get this to happen.

Deep in Hewa territory I'm trekking through the New Guinea jungle, headed towards a couple of huts high in the mountain ranges.

I'm hoping to connect with another family, so I can participate in the controversial Cumoutin ceremony.

Here we go.

(rain spattering) It is the jungle, so here comes the rain.

Generally speaking, just like any jungle, we're just moving into the wet season here.

When the rain comes, it could start at three and then end at three.

12 hours of solid downpour, they very rarely move sideways here.

It's just straight down like a wall.

Ooh, it's bucketing down.

I'm gonna put this camera away before it gets soaked.

Getting bitten by ants all at the same time.

I got to shut this camera down.

As with all jungle existence, hunting and gathering never stop.

Even on this trip out to the new Cumoutin ceremony, we'll stop to hunt and gather along the way.

If they don't, they don't eat.

(bright drum music) Fruit's not ready, but there's fruit way up there.

He's gonna go for the fruit.

There he goes.

That's the true definition of hunting and gathering.

They never stop gathering while they hunt and they never stop hunting while they gather.

That's the only way you're gonna survive out here, is keeping your eyes open.

(vibrant drumming music continues) All that work and it's not ripe yet, but they know where the tree is.

They know it's got lots of fruit, So when it happens no doubt they'll come and harvest again.

These guys have domesticated pigs that they use.

There's also wild pigs rolling around here too.

There goes the dog (dog yipping) and there's the pig.

(pig snorting) This pig's got a notch in its ear so they know that belongs to somebody, so they're not gonna touch it.

Otherwise they would've gone for it.

(all chatting in foreign language) This is some wild pig food, keeps the (speaking foreign language), wild pig happy.

Matches are still a rare commodity here in the deep jungle.

The traditional skills of starting a fire with a vine are still a necessity.

There's not a lot to grab onto there.

When I did this one time before, I had a much longer vine.

I was able to get some more room to it.

But there it goes, look at that.

(vine rubbing) Hey.

So for these guys, matches are premium.

When someone like I come into the village, leave the matches, that's cool, but sooner or later, I think those matches run out.

(chuckles) First thing he does is light a smoke.

And they all, even the young ones have gotta know how to do this.

(Hewa speaking in foreign language) So we're going to just keep a little fire going here and settle ourselves down and start hunting from here.

We're way up, way, way, way up the mountain.

This is where the forest habitat starts to change.

And so this gets to be a little more game possibilities up here, especially birds.

You want to try film?

Use the camera?

- [Man] Take picture?

(men speaking in foreign language) You see us both?

(speaking foreign language) and hold still.

Good.

That's good.

All right.

(bright drumming music) (Les groans) (men speaking in foreign language) (string twanging) (men laughing) That was as lame as it gets.

- Yes, yes, yes.

Yeah, yeah.

(man speaking in foreign language) This is a hard bow to use, holy mackerel.

Good?

- Yeah, good.

(string twanging) (all speaking foreign language) Give me something to shoot at.

(men cheering) Okay, okay now we'll go hunt.

We've had our break and we're gonna head out hunting.

We've got three different types of arrows.

This is made out of metal and is for wild pig.

This one here, hopefully we'll be using this for birds.

You can see all the...

So they're using everything to make these arrows.

This is actually the toenail of a cassowary, big bird.

The last one, they still carry around.

(hypnotic music) That's for human beings.

That's for man.

So if they have trouble, that's a long arrow.

Not all actions taken in the jungle are based on physical survival.

Some are for the emotions alone.

(laughs) Okay, so the flower is for his lady friend, just found that out.

(men speaking in foreign language) Same everywhere.

Gotta to bring home a flower.

I was thinking it was like for poison or they could eat it, or have something to do with hunting and he was just picking it for his lady.

(droning music) We've been trekking for hours surviving off the land means never resting.

We all have little food in our pockets.

So hunting means eating.

And just more tiny little signs of where they should be hunting, drop seeds.

Pretty sure that the main thing that they're looking for right now is either wild pig or cassowary, the big bird.

So we're just still pushing on, going through.

The dogs are running out ahead of us.

See if they can scare up the game.

And so as soon as the dogs scare up the game, we're gonna have to run through this stuff.

(bird calling) It's matching here.

(vegetation rustling) (Hewa man whistling) If they can get it, they will.

It's just a bird, but it puts them right on the alert and ready when good game is this far apart, you gotta be ready, 'cause you're only gonna get one chance.

(men chatting in foreign language) Again, we stopped because they're just watching the birds.

It's all about watching the birds, watching where the nuts, seeds are, berries and eventually this little dog will kick into action.

(hunter imitating birdcall) They got a bird spotted in the tree here.

We're just trying to bring him close.

(hunter continuing to imitate birdcall) That's going to shoot this thing straight up.

(bow rattling) Nothing, straight up and straight down again.

I know there's another place where I've watched the indigenous peoples hunt like that and they've had it where the arrow has come right back down, right at them.

In fact, one guy lost an eye doing it.

And then years later, lost a second eye doing the same thing.

So we kind of jumped out of the way there.

No bird on that shot.

Good shot, though.

Real close.

I'm with the Hewa people of New Guinea, headed towards a remote village high in the jungle mountains, and I'm hoping to participate in the controversial Cumoutin ceremony, exhuming the graves of the dead.

(Les groaning) Son of a, ants are biting.

Ants falling into, an ant next here and there.

Biting, big fat red ants.

Look at that little sucker.

See?

Look he's biting, biting, biting.

Trying to bite into my shirt.

(grunting) Okay.

That was crazy.

I had to kind of rush through an area because of the ants had a house, big, massive mound was all ants and every time we went through, even the Hewa were running because they were at knee height with the leaves and they were just getting all over us and they knocked the tree, had ants falling down, ow, on my head as they're crawling out here.

Big red ants.

The New Guinea mountain jungle, apart from the ants, is fairly safe.

It doesn't have the variety of a jungle like the Amazon, but it's exactly that characteristic that makes it such a tough ecosystem to survive in.

Gardening's the only way to eke out an existence here.

So this is his garden area, all of this area though here is a garden.

And this is how it all starts, just like this.

You got to come up here and chop down by hand one tree at a time, including these big ones.

It's not quite ready for burning yet, but it is ready for chopping, so I'm gonna give him a hand.

The Hewa have turned to gardening as a way of ensuring their survival.

They prefer to cut secondary forest for gardens, they'll continue to make gardens on the same land, once an area has been cleared.

- [Man] Oh, come on.

(tree crashing) (Les whooping) Okay, next one.

- Next one.

(tree crashing) Just another 400 trees to go.

(men grunting rhythmically) (wood squealing) This is the way Steven's gotta finish this entire area.

Who knows how far he's gonna end up.

Obviously it's a few acres that he wants to clear and it's basically him, maybe a brother, a friend with a pair of axes.

Reality is that hunting is not enough here.

If they don't garden, then they won't survive.

(man speaking foreign language) Kinai Mountain.

They say this mountain belongs to the Hewa.

That's a big, beautiful mountain up there.

(tense music) I see his garden's coming along well.

He got potatoes, squash, banana, a lot of different vegetables he's growing here.

This is what they've got to do if they're gonna survive at all out here.

The Hewa refer to the burning of a clearing as cooking the garden.

It's the final step before planting enough vegetables to feed their family.

(water trickling) (Les slurping) Oh, that's good.

(tense music continues) The tiny jungle path leads us away from the gardens and straight into a small collection of huts high in the mountains.

A village halfway up the mountain with the "King Kong" cliffs in the background.

If I'm lucky, we're one step closer to seeing a full Cumoutin ceremony take place.

I just had a chance to cool down.

We're at this house, which is way up in the mountains.

So I'm gonna head in.

This is nice, wow.

Gotta check out the floor though, look at this.

You could tell some serious time was put into making this hut.

It's huge, for one thing.

And I mean, floor is woven.

The walls are all woven.

It's beautiful, beautiful craftsmanship.

There's one hut way up high in the mountain, no access to it but walking through incredibly arduous trails and a whole family just living here.

Eking out an existence, survival, with a little bit of gardening and a little bit of hunting and a little bit of gathering and that's about it.

(children speaking in foreign language) Surrounded by disease, the Hewa develop a close relationship with death.

Life expectancy here in the mountains is only 32 years of age.

It's pretty much chill out time in the cabin.

Everybody's around the borders over by the fires.

The men and the boys are all over on one side, the women and children are all over on this side.

They keep separation between married and unmarried women and the man and the unmarried men.

They've got a way that they keep separation there.

I'm not sure why.

It's a competition factor and keeping everything running smoothly, but they're feeding me kaukau, like a potato, like a sweet potato.

It's really good.

This is good.

(crickets chirping) It's the middle of the night.

The night has just been a series of tortured coughs, hacking, wheezing, sniffling.

You gotta figure that virtually everybody in this hut has malaria.

Kids, seniors, adults, they've all got malaria.

Agonizing skin ailments.

They're all covered in lots of flakes of dry skin and scabs and pus.

And every once in a while, a baby will wake up, just being a baby and other times kids will wake up, but you can't their moans are moans of pain, not just a kid waking up at night.

It's a long, torturous night here.

(child coughing) (mysterious drumming music) (water sloshing) (air whooshing) (bright music)