Kula

For countless generations people of the Pacific have been making epic voyages in open canoes-not for conquest or commerce but to exchange shell ornaments. In a practice known as kula, participants use magic to influence the minds of their exchange partners and to control the movement of shell ornaments around the kula ring, a chain of islands to the east of mainland Papua New Guinea. This is the story of a Trobriand chief, Nalabatau, and his vision of kula.