The Proving Grounds

The author, already adopted by a New Guinea village and tutored in tribal love during an initiation ceremony, now determines to experience the "natural" world in the light of this knowledge - how to worship and hunt in it. He slips away from the village, with its clan ties, and disappears into the forest to gain a practical knowledge of life, its "spirits" and his own powers. The eight-month quest takes the author in and out of relationships with nomads and missionaries, across the central mountain range of remotest New Guinea, over the treacherous Torres Straits and into the midst of the Australian desert, where he lives as a whiteskin among the aboriginies. The book offers rare insights into a closed world. Other books by the author include "Into the Crocodile Nest" and "Hunting the Gugu".
 
The author, already adopted by a New Guinea village and tutored in tribal love during an initiation ceremony, now determines to experience the "natural" world in the light of this knowledge - how to worship and hunt in it. He slips away from the village, with its clan ties, and disappears into the forest to gain a practical knowledge of life, its "spirits" and his own powers. The eight-month quest takes the author in and out of relationships with nomads and missionaries, across the central mountain range of remotest New Guinea, over the treacherous Torres Straits and into the midst of the Australian desert, where he lives as a whiteskin among the aboriginies. The book offers rare insights into a closed world. Other books by the author include "Into the Crocodile Nest" and "Hunting the Gugu".