ANTHONY COPPING

In 2002, National Geographic Channels International commissioned the television documentary series Last Voices from Heaven. The series is about Copping himself, following his journey to trace the roots of music backwards through time. Filming started in Vanuatu, moved on to the Solomon Islands, and finally reached the untouched jungle regions of West Papua.

In some places, Copping found that he’d arrived too late. The missionaries had got there before him, banning `ungodly’ sacred music and replacing it with hymn tunes. Missionaries had begun arriving in the South Pacific islands during the 19th century, but are active in the region to this day. Given this, the documentary set out to discover which ancient music, if any, still survived.

Both the Solomon Islands and West Papua were experiencing civil unrest at the time of filming. The most dangerous part of the mission was the final leg in West Papua. The Papua conflict was, and still is, ongoing, with the Free Papua Movement carrying out a low-intensity guerrilla war against Indonesia by targeting its military police and civilians. There are also numerous violent disputes over gold and mineral mining.

Despite its anthropological importance, and Copping’s vociferous insistence, National Geographic were reluctant to allow travel to West Papua. The production company Beyond International was unable to get insurance and in the event, it was granted only because the insurance company mistook the filming location for Papua New Guinea. The film crews frequently pulled out of expeditions because of the danger – and in West Papua, Copping travelled undercover with just one cameraman, working in a locked down country with no permits to travel or film.

Throughout the project, they managed to capture rare footage of musical performances which had never previously been heard or witnessed by outsiders. Some of this music was performed by tribal elders – the last people on earth to remember sacred songs which could be thousands of years old.