After the great success of the elephant puppet walk at the Boschendal Plum Harvest Festival in 2021, we will be celebrating this year’s festival with giant puppets to raise awareness of the living waters and aquatic life of our planet.  

The puppet walk will begin at the Werf area, proceeding through the main grounds and ending with a short performance in front of the new Norval Art Gallery (Boschendal Manor House). The walk features giant puppets created by the CHR’s award-winning Artists in Residence Ukwanda Puppets and Designs Art Collective, performed by puppeteers from Net vir Pret in Barrydale. The performance seeks to bring awareness to the rivers and waters in the immediate area and to water sustainability, aiming to inspire a new generation of eco-warriors.

The three giant puppets for this year’s performance were originally created for the Barrydale Giant Puppet Parade and Performance in the Klein Karoo, a decade-long partnership between the CHR, the Handspring Puppet Trust, and Net vir Pret. The parade draws puppeteers, musicians, performers, and publics both local and international to work with local youths to celebrate and explore powerful issues of community, conservation, ecology, and culture through the art of puppetry. The main puppets leading the 2022 Boschendal Walk, River and Redfin, were created by Ukwanda for the 2018 Barrydale performance, which celebrated and reclaimed the power and mythologies of the local Klein Huis Rivier that runs through the Tradouw valley, raising awareness of the plight of the highly endangered Redfin Minnow, a unique fynbos fish that is only found in Barrydale. 

The performance at the 2022 Plum Harvest Festival will be preceded by two days of puppetry making workshops with children from the valley facilitated by Ukwanda and Aja Marneweck of the CHR, and by Herman Witbooi and Clarisa Jonas of Net vir Pret. With their new puppets held aloft, the children will walk with the giants on Sunday.

This event is made possible through the generous support of the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) and our ongoing partnership with Boschendal.

Sunday, 1 May 2022, 11:00AM