/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ukwanda-puppets-01.jpg "Puppetry designer Hansie Visagie working on a penguin prototype at Iyatsiba Lab. Photo: Shelley Christians/UWC")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ukwanda-puppets-02.jpg "A close-up of a baboon’s face reveals how layers of cardboard are skilfully used to create a textured, lifelike appearance. Photo: Shelley Christians/UWC")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ukwanda-puppets-03.jpg "In the workshop, the shadow of a horse falls across the wall as the team works nearby. Photo: Shelley Christians/UWC")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ukwanda-puppets-04.jpg "Puppetry Technical Designer Tundra Dunckley adds the finishing touches to a kudu at Iyatsiba Lab. Photo: Shelley Christians/UWC")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ukwanda-puppets-05.jpg "Puppetry Designer Sipho Ngxola smiles while working at the CHR’s Iyatsiba Lab. Photo: Shelley Christians/UWC")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ukwanda-puppets-06.jpg "Puppetry designer Siphokazi Mpofu assembles the puppet, carefully fitting together pieces marked with coded labels that indicate how they connect. Photo: Shelley Christians/UWC")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ukwanda-puppets-07.jpg "A close-up of a monkey’s face reveals how the coded labels come together to form its structure. Photo: Shelley Christians/UWC")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ukwanda-puppets-08.jpg "An animal's face peers through the ribcage of another puppet in the workshop, framed by makeshift bones and shadows. Photo: Shelley Christians/UWC")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ukwanda-puppets-09.jpg "A view through a glass window of the Iyatsiba Lab from the entrance of the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) building. Photo: Shelley Christians/UWC")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ukwanda-puppets-10.jpg "At Iyatsiba Lab, puppetry designers Hansie Visagie and Craig Leo explore the design and movement of a prototype penguin. Photo: Shelley Christians/UWC")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ukwanda-puppets-11.jpg "A vervet monkey peeks out behind a wall at the entrance to the workshop. Photo: Shelley Christians/UWC")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ukwanda-puppets-12.jpg "Puppetry designer Sipho Ngxola and puppeteer Yvonne Msembenzi warm up before rehearsals begin. Photo: Shelley Christians/UWC")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ukwanda-puppets-14.jpg "Yvonne Msebenzi and Siphokazi Mpofu. Photo: Shelley Christians/UWC")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ukwanda-puppets-15.jpg "Artistic Director of THE HERDS Amir Nizar Zuabi watches during rehearsals. Photo: Shelley Christians/UWC")
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PHOTO ESSAY
The Herds: Ukwanda puppets to journey the globe for climate action
Ukwanda Puppets & Design Art Collective and the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape have partnered together with The Walk Productions to present The Herds, a public art and climate action project that will see life-size puppet animals travel a 20,000km route from the Congo Basin to the Arctic Circle, symbolising their flight from climate disaster.
Puppetry designers Craig Leo and Siphokazi Mpofu refine the jumping motion with a hyena puppet after researching how they move. Image: Shelley Christians/UWC