THE HERDS will take place between May and September 2025 along a route from West Africa to Norway.

We are currently in conversation with potential partners and researching countries in West Africa and Europe including Congo, Guinea, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Morocco, Spain, France, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

The Herds is created by The Walk Productions, the international team behind "Little Amal", the 12 foot tall puppet of a refugee child who has journeyed through 15 countries. Her award winning journeys have been experienced by more than 2 million people live, and millions more online.

Through the image of Little Amal - a solitary refugee child - we endeavoured to give the refugee crisis a face, a name. The Herds will similarly offer audiences across the world a stark artistic image, overwhelming in grandeur and alarm. The Herds will be a beautiful spectacle of what may happen when eco-systems collapse, and strives to bring a perspective shift to the climate crisis.

By bringing hundreds if not thousands of puppet animals to the doorsteps those living in towns and cities across Europe, we hope to connect Western audiences with the devastation of the climate crisis unfolding in the Global South.

As artists our role is to inspire, to create emotional connections to significant issues, to create a forum to lead real-world change.

We believe that activism through art - the creation of images of great beauty that evoke change and which lodge in the memory - can achieve tremendous impact.

To quantify that impact is hard to do. It occurs in intangible shifts in the consciousness of individuals and groups when they are deeply moved and therefore inspired to ‘do something’.

Our approach is to invite communities to become active agents of change through a collaborative artistic project that celebrates their identity, their experience, their history, their cultural skills and, ultimately, our collective achievements.

The significance of education in tackling climate change cannot be understated. The Herds aim to create a one-of-a-kind educational program that engages the minds and imaginations of young individuals, inspiring them with the belief that anything is achievable when one sets their mind to it.

Yes. We need advice from the wide range of skills the climate science community can provide and are currently seeking connections to inform our work from its earliest stages. We are also looking for new approaches to social media and online networks.

We hope to spark conversations with world-leading scientists, zoologists, politicians and other artists and climate activists.

If you can help please get in touch.

Each of the many hundreds - perhaps thousands of puppets - will be crafted from recycled materials that are accessible within each community.

We want our animals to be zoologically accurate in scale and to convey the wildness and beauty of nature. We want to create animals that are proud, elegant, frightened and ferociously graceful.

The Herds puppets are being designed in South Africa by Ikapa Gazellas Collective and Amir Nizar Zuabi.

The members of Ikapa Gazellas Collective are Craig Leo, Simon Dunckley, Luyanda Nogodlwana, Siphokazi Mpofu and Sipho Ngxola. They came together in 2023 in Cape Town, South Africa and have a background in designing, building and bringing to life some of the world’s most famous puppet creations including Little Amal and the War Horse puppets, both under the leadership of Handspring Puppet Company.

A sustainability and responsible approach will be essential for The Herds. If you can help us develop our sustainability policy please get in touch.

We will be working in partnership with universities, art colleges and other social and community groups in many countries in Africa and Europe.

They will be invited to participate as thinkers, as puppet makers and as animators on the journey.

Each community of student and professional artists will be invited to create puppets that represent a species indigenous to their territory based on templates that are currently in development.

We are currently fundraising for the funds needed to make The Herds happen.

We welcome introductions from trusts, foundations and private individuals who would like to support us. Please contact us to discuss more.