More than 80 years after World War II, unexploded bombs are still being found near homes, schools and gardens in Solomon Islands. Cleo Fraser, producer of a new documentary on the issue, explains how ordinary daily life in the Pacific nation can turn deadly.
Up to 20 people are killed or injured there each year by unexploded ordnance, or UXO.
The ongoing danger is the focus of our Solomon Islands-New Zealand documentary The War Below: Restoring Hope in the Solomon Islands, a new screening at the Doc Edge Film Festival.
Everyone we've spoken to has said: I can't believe that this is happening, because you'd think, why don't they just go and clean these up?
Guadalcanal (the most populated region in the Solomon Islands) was the site of a major battle during World War II between the Allies and Japan, including some New Zealand soldiers. And when the war finished, they left everything behind.
The War Below, available on YouTube, follows two everyday women whose lives have been changed forever by UXOs, including Lorettalyn Ale, whose husband and son were killed when a bomb exploded at a family BBQ.
Film director Tuki Laumea hopes New Zealand audiences will connect with our shared histories, as well as the injustice of another country having to live with this danger.
"The Solomon Islands was a key battleground in the Pacific Theatre of War – the sacrifice of people in that country meant New Zealand stayed safe," Tuki says. "Now they’re asking us to help them.
"These people live with this every single day. Children go to school and the bombs sit right there under their school."
In August 2024, more than 200 bombs were found at a school in Honiara, the country’s capital.
We were given access to the police stockpile where bombs found in communities are stored before being decommissioned.
My heart was just racing, it was absolutely frightening. It also points to: imagine living there with these everyday because kids are finding them, they’re finding them just going for a walk somewhere.
Just days before we held a community screening of the film in Honiara a bomb exploded, seriously injuring one person.
Bomb Free Solomon Islands
The documentary was created in close collaboration with Bomb Free Solomon Islands, the country’s only registered charity assisting survivors.
Mother and education specialist Maeverlyn Pitanoe, who founded the charity, says a regional solution is needed as Solomon Islands does not have the resources to clear all the bombs. She’s hopeful that with a wider understanding of the issue, other countries will realise their responsibility and contribute to a collective response.
She told TVNZ's Breakfast this week: "I would like to thank you for coming to see this film, a very moving film that I thought everybody should see because of the impact of war on us survivors and victims."
We as filmmakers and Bomb Free Solomon Islands are working towards creating longterm impact through the film – creating awareness, direct support for survivors and through encouraging the Solomon Islands government to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Direct donations to survivors can be made via Givealittle.
The War Below: Restoring Hope in the Solomon Islands is playing at Doc Edge Film Festival in Auckland on June 28 and July 10, and in Wellington on July 21.
It was funded by NZ On Air with support from Pasifika TV, and made by Nine Islands Media, Solomon Islands Local Media Agency, and journalist Dorothy Wickham. Cleo Fraser, of Nine Islands Media, is executive producer for the documentary.
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