These Lifesize Animal Puppets Are Traveling From Africa to the Arctic Circle to Inspire Climate Action

https://www.vogue.com/article/the-herds-project-animal-puppets-climate-crisis

These Lifesize Animal Puppets Are Traveling From Africa to the Arctic Circle to Inspire Climate Action

BY ANNA CAFOLLA
April 25, 2025

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.

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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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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.

… photos at link … more …