Today is International Day of the World’s Indigenous People. Proclaimed by the United Nations, it’s a day on which, as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said, to “celebrate and recognise the stories, cultures and unique identities of indigenous peoples around the world.” The Travel Word is very proud to salute the cultural roots from which we have all sprung, roots that remain robust but require our admiration, care and protection.

Living what some outsiders would consider a feral existence is normal to the children of Yakel, a ‘Kastom’ village on the island of Tanna in the Vanuatu archipelago. The settlement is referred to locally as a Nambas village – the Nambas being the sole item of apparel worn by men, hiding their private parts. This means that the village rejects everything introduced by the Western world. The children will never go to school. Their clothing, food and entertainment will be provided solely by the forest in which they live.

Whakarewarewa Village is a living Maori village located in the thermal region of Rotorua on the North Island of New Zealand. Its doors have been open to tourists since more than a century ago when an 1886 volcanic eruption destroyed the historic pink and white terraces at Lake Tarawera, New Zealand’s first tourist attraction. Whakarewarewa Village today is inhabited by 25 families who go about their daily lives but allow visitors to move amongst them and learn about their customs and culture.