Foreign Correspondent: July 5

This week Foreign Correspondent looks at the legacy of Sir Edmund Hilary and a rift with his son, daughter and many old mountaineering mates on one side and his widow June and her family and friends on the other.

The episode promises some of the most spectacular scenery captured by Foreign Correspondent cameras.

It’s a stunning setting for any family get together. Up high in the Himalayas, the sky cloudless, the air crisp and bracing – if a little thin – and a big celebration is finally coming together. Only this family isn’t any old family and it’s not exactly shaping as a seamless, comfortable get together.

In fact it’s probably going to be pretty prickly for some.

Sir Edmund Hillary’s son Peter is here along with an ebullient band of his old mountaineering cohorts like Everest team member George Band, protégé Mike Gill and fellow climber John McKinnon.

And Sir Edmund’s widow Lady June Hillary is here as well with some of her friends and family.

And so the 50th anniversary of the Khumjung school – the very first of what became an extensive series of education, community and health projects established by Sir Edmund’s Himalayan Trust – is underway with both camps keeping a dignified distance.

Foreign Correspondent’s Eric Campbell is there as well and very soon he’s asking some obvious questions.

First to the son:

CAMPBELL: “Do you and June talk anymore?”
PETER HILLARY: “No, I mean look, I I’ve tried but she doesn’t want to talk.”

And then to the son’s step- mother:

CAMPBELL: ”It’s fairly obvious today there is something of a rift between you and Peter Hillary.”
LADY JUNE HILLARY: ”I don’t want to discuss that. No. Peter Hillary has created a rift between him and me.”

The family rift may be inconsequential – nobody’s business – but for the fact that Lady June is the custodian of Sir Edmund’s legacy here. She now heads the New Zealand based charity he formed and – convinced she has her late husband’s imprimatur – she’s doing thing’s her way.

And as Lady June’s influence over the charity has grown, that of Peter Hillary and many of Sir Edmund’s closest climbing colleagues has faded. Peter Hillary is now with Australian Himalayan Foundation and there’s a deep difference of opinion between the two groups about the biggest and most pressing priorities for assistance and developmental aid.

The Shadow of Everest is an enthralling and revealing exploration of one man’s emphatic and indelible stamp on history and how the future may write the epilogue.

It airs 8pm Tuesday on ABC1.