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Meet The Herds: Wildebeests, zebras, gorillas, giraffes, and baboons are among hundreds of lifesize wooden animal puppets making their way across 10 countries, from Africa to the Arctic Circle, to call attention to the climate crisis.
The continent-traversing project is a public arts initiative known as The Herds. It’s the second project of its kind from The Walk Productions team, who also created the traveling performance artwork Little Amal—the 3.5 meter part animatronic puppet of a Syrian girl that walked from the Turkish-Syrian border and passed through 17 countries to reach the UK. Little Amal’s journey represented a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl who travels alone across Europe to find her mother, and called attention to the refugee crisis. The project raised over $1 million, and was met by dignitaries including the late Pope Francis.
The Herds will travel 12,400 miles and visit 20 cities across four months to “flee climate disaster,” with the group making their way from the Congo Basin through Nigeria, Senegal, Morocco, France, the UK, and Norway, among other countries, and finishing in the Arctic Circle in August.
The mission is to raise awareness about the environmental crisis, degradation of animal habitats and ecosystems, and migration due to climate change.
The first cohort of animal puppets was developed by Luyanda Nogodlwana, Siphokazi Mpofu, and Sipho Ngxola of the award-winning Ukwanda Puppetry and Designs Art Collective in Cape Town, and made using recycled materials. Students at Wimbledon College of Arts in the UK have also helped to build the first animals. And as The Guardian reports, Ukwanda has provided protoypes for local volunteers so they can be taught how to make their own animals.
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Along the way, more puppet species characteristic of the countries they visit will join the group. By the time the project reaches Norway, 150 more puppets will have been recruited.
In each new city too, events and performances will respond as the herds move. Artists and climate activists from all over the world will be involved in these events in each city The Herds passes through, with pieces that speak to specific climate concerns of the region. In Madrid, they will address floods in collaboration with Compañía Nacional de Danza (The Spanish National Dance Company). In Arles, acclaimed company Gratte Ciel will present a visual aerial performance. Paris will see the group at the Palais Royale with celebrated video projection artist Étienne Giol creating an eerie night spectacle, while in Copenhagen, visitors will be invited to camp overnight with the animals. Local community groups are encouraged to collaborate and launch their own events.
The project’s co-founder, the Palestinian playwright and director Amir Nizar Zuabi, told the BBC that the initiative “offers audiences across the world a stark artistic image, overwhelming in grandeur and alarm.” It also “strives to bring a perspective shift to the climate crisis,” he added.
“The idea is that we’re migrating with an ever evolving, growing group of animals,” he also told The Guardian.
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“The Herds helps us visualise the urgency of the climate and biodiversity crisis, and allows audience members to feel a deep sense of connection to this planet and the beings that inhabit it,” climate activist Tori Tsui said.
The Herds began in Kinshasa’s Botanical Gardens earlier this month, and has already been to Lagos and Dakar. The intention was always to begin the project in the global south, to focus attention on the people there who are most affected by the climate crisis.
The non-profit has put out a call-out for volunteers in some of the cities The Herds will visit to join up as puppeteers. No prior experience of puppetry is necessary, but an interest in dance or physical performance is preferred.
