This month and last, we’ve been excited to follow a beautiful cause from a charity close to our hearts – and that of our client The European Nature Trust’s (TENT). The Great Elephant Migration is a unique and heartfelt campaign and a great example of some of the big things that matter to us here at Shine – wildlife advocacy and conservation, creative collaboration and of course, beautiful storytelling…
The project overview
Following the success of its London campaign in 2021, The Elephant Family (USA) has once again reignited the Elephant migration, this time taking the trek across the US.
Having started their journey in Newport, the 100-strong herd of life-sized elephant sculptures are travelling across several states over a year-long period, finishing their journey in Los Angeles. The project aims to raise millions for conservation efforts around the world by partnering each elephant with a conservation NGO in the USA and beyond, each of whose work will directly benefit from the sale of their sculpture. TENT is one of these specially chosen partners, thanks to one of their projects which focuses on saving Italy’s Marsican brown bear from extinction.
While the primary objective of the campaign is to sell these magnificent sculptures to discerning members of the public and raise money for the chosen NGOs, the migration is also a beautiful example of philanthropic storytelling. The campaign shares the story of the co-existence of Asia’s wild elephants with the indigenous communities living alongside them across India, in some of the densest population areas in the world. This speaks to the Elephant Family’s mission to raise awareness around their core purpose of promoting human-wildlife coexistence.
Who creates the elephants?
Each and every elephant from the herd has been intricately crafted by The Coexistence Collective (@coexistence.story) – a community of 200 indigenous Indian artisans from the Bettakurumba, Paniya, Kattunayakan, and Soliga tribes. The Collective has spent the past five years bringing to life every elephant they live alongside in the Nilgiri Hills, resulting in breathtakingly detailed and life-like sculptures made of lantana camara – one of the world’s most invasive weeds. Even more poignantly, it’s this shrub which has a stranglehold on 300,000sq km of India’s protected areas, pushing animals out of their forest homes into urban areas and leading to human-animal conflict and loss of habitat. By removing some of the lantana, the elephants and other wildlife species have more space to roam in their natural home.
The Matriarchs
Alongside a partner NGO, each elephant in the tribe is twinned with a matriarch – a wise, compassionate and influential woman who will use their platform to tell the stories of the elephants and their respective NGOs. These women include well-known figures like HRH Queen Camilla, Cher and Diane von Furstenberg, as well as leading environmentalists, activists, writers and creatives and serves as a clever nod to the elephant families who are led by matriarchs in the wild as they wander the lands.
The TENT partnership
As a partner in the project, our client TENT has an elephant in the herd called Amarena, who represents Italy’s Marsican brown bear, of which just 60 remain. This inspiring initiative to save the endangered bears initially started between NGO Salviamo L’Orso and TENT, further evolving into a collaboration with pasta brand Dell’Ugo – whom we supported with a campaign theme and key visuals, plus messaging, web content and social assets.
During the year-long elephant trek, Amarena will help tell the story of the critically at risk brown bear – through the exhibition and press, and through the elephant matriarchy who will broadcast the stories of the partner NGOs. Proceeds from the sale of Amarena (there are 10 sculptures available of her), will be given to TENT to help save the bear from extinction.
Want to hear more about this heartwarming campaign? You can follow the elephants on their pilgrimage over on Instagram @greatelephantmigration or on the site, or discover more about TENT’s involvement with the campaign.
As the project unfolds, we’re excited to play our part in supporting the cause and those involved, so watch out for our next blog on the Great Elephant Migration in the coming weeks….
Find out how you can support The Great Elephant Migration.
Image credits: Saipreeth S. Thattari