Explorer, author and photojournalist Rick Williamson has spent more than a decade exploring primitive jungle tribes around the world. His first-person adventures have been published into two books and many magazine articles. In Cavorting with Cannibals, now available from The Narrative Press, Williamson shares his experiences of living with the tribes of Vanuatu. By embracing and accepting these people, he was allowed to observe and record details of ancient rituals and customs.

Williams explains how he came to live with the tribes: “Whether I liked it or not, it seemed my fate was sealed.

Irrespective of the path I chose to take in life, the trail inevitably collided with another less-travelled road. With the genetics I’d inherited it was inevitable that at some stage I’d be compelled to step off the beaten track and blaze a few trails of my own.

“Ironically, I never knew the full extent of my relatives’ incredibly adventurous travels in the Arctic, Amazon and Australian desert until I became a photojournalist,” Williamson writes. “Although I’m passionate about exploration and photojournalism, never once while I grew up did I ever think that it would become my occupation, but after my first trip to the Solomons, I was totally captivated by anything that was related to the primitive aspect of these unique people’s culture.”