Living with Elephants

For a month in August 2019, I stayed with the incredible team at the elephant orphan release facility in Kafue NP. Here I witnessed first hand what it is to protect and re-wild Zambia’s rescued elephants.

While continuing my ‘daily sketch campaign’ from a tent at the elephant's last ‘human created’ home before their imminent adventure back into the wild, I re-connected with the essence of what it means to engage and support with the people on the ground in wild spaces.

There is deep humility and grace in places like this. Bowled over by the attitudes of success that I find in every chain of command, and the boldness of visionary endeavors by the few who steer her ship. Conservation in Africa is notoriously hardcore in every way. With very little funding and ruthless corruption on every level, the backbreaking jobs necessary to alleviate even the simplest of ecosystems and human-wildlife conflict zones, is no small challenge. Africa today has never had so much pressure to see her wild spaces remain healthy and untouched by human interference.

Being with the Elephant Orphanage Project and especially spending time with the team enabled me to see what it takes to raise elephants. It takes courage, focus, passion and funding. It was important for me to see what art could do as part of the story in these places.

A huge part of any successful conservation model is the education and collaboration between local communities in these rural and wild areas. Huge populations of people live and try and make a modest living on the outskirts of almost all Parks in Africa. What used to be homelands of both peoples and animals, have over time have merged, shrunk, or relocated entirely in light of growing populations of humans, under unstable political conditions. the Human/Wildlife conflict is a real problem. This page on Game Ranger Internationals site tells us about the issues they face, and the ways we can help. Britius Munkombwe single handedly started a radio station for community outreach about wildlife issues from scratch. Now, in the local areas around the release facility he speaks to 70,000 people weekly. An astoundingly impressive impact on current affairs in the national parks and community areas.