Collaboration was the order of the day as Yenza, the rhino, was unveiled on the ground floor lobby of the Durban Art Gallery on the Thursday last week.
Decorating Yenza is a great success story for the recently-invigorated ‘eThekwini Community Foundation’ (eCF). Yenza – a nearly life-size rhino sculpture – forms part of the fabulous, awareness-creating Rhino Parade, pioneered by Wildlands Conservation Trust.
The eCF is a proactive, results-driven, forward-thinking, not-for-profit public benefit organisation strategically aligned to the eThekwini Municipality whose mission is interfacing people – projects – the planet.
The Rhino Parade is an innovative campaign based on the internationally renowned Cow Parade concept, aimed at profiling the plight of South Africa’s Rhino whilst raising funds to support Wildlands’ rhino conservation efforts. The Wildlands Conservation Trust is an active, strategic partner of the eCF.
The eThekwini Municipality is adding a unique rhino to the Durban parade. Fondly named “Yenza” (isiZulu for a term similar to “just do it”) the Rhino was housed and decorated in the KZNSA Gallery garden. The crafters have been working together for less than a month to give Yenza an extreme make-over. Artists working with recycled waste, who are deeply engaged in uplifting the skills of community-based crafters and who are absolutely passionate about saving our rhino, worked with local craft collectives to put on the Rhino’s finery.
Yenza has now moved to her new home: the lobby at the Durban Art Gallery. However Yenza will be out and about during Heritage Month: as part of the city’s busy ‘Celebrate Durban’ heritage season, she will be on the Durban beachfront on the 22 September taking part in the myriad festivities there – including the “walk a mile” (an initiative of the Waterberry Trust), on International Rhino Day.
“Durban is blessed with an amazing creative community”, says Kathryn Kure, “which we need to support and celebrate; it was a joy to behold the collaboration that occurred, the networks and friendships that formed and the skills that were developed. Yenza is about social cohesion in practise”.
The crafters who worked on her are: Wendy Chatterton and the Ukhamba Crafters from Hammarsdale; Dawn Haddon and the Sydenham Community Resources Centre; Robin Opperman and Jackie Sewpersad from Umcebo Design who work closely with the team from Refugee Social Services (crafters from the Great Lakes region); The Ubunye Crafters from Mzimela with Debbie Eustice; Jutka Devenyi and the team from HIV911; Magda van der Vloed and her crafters from Zimbabwe and KZN, and Paula Thompson and the crafters from the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust, which covers the Valley of a 1000 Hills.
At the unveiling ceremony, each crafter presented a testimony. Each participant praised the vision of the project and its partners, saying that prior to Yenza, each crafter considered the other to be competition – but after working on this project all together, each one understood in real terms the tremendous power of collaboration – in terms of sharing artistic ideas; increasing capacity and product volume; pooling resources; minimising competition and strengthening business.
Yenza is a ¾ life-size female rhino – measuring 2.5 m long by 1.4m high by 1m wide, she is totally environmentally friendly, being made from a water-based resin. The rhino was originated by Peter Hall, and then cast following a mould-making process by Kim Goodwin at the hugely respected Goodwin Foundry in Lidgetton.
The Rhino poaching pressure has continued to build. The Wildlands response to this onslaught is structured around three complementary strategies, that are funded through campaigns such as the Rhino Parade: supporting the establishment of a network of NGO’s working together to stop the poaching (Project Rhino KZN www.projectrhinokzn.org); Project Rhino Tracker – Piloting innovative GSM based tracking technology and Project Rhino Aerial Support – Complimentary helicopter surveillance and Project Rhino Investigations & Prosecutions Support.
“Today celebrates a unique partnership that has brought together the eThekwini Municipality, eThekwini Community Foundation, the Wildands Conservation Trust and the Durban arts and craft community behind one of the most pressing issues in South Africa – the loss of our Natural Heritage. This is graphically represented by the ongoing onslaught on our Rhino, with over 370 having been poached this year alone. Rhino poaching is simply the tip of the iceberg. We need to stand up and fight for our natural heritage, as it this heritage which shapes and supports us,” says Wildlands CEO, Dr Andrew Venter.
“What drew us into this project with eCF was the fact that they were determined that the broader community be represented through the many crafters who have helped shape this beautiful sculpture. In the process, this great team of visionaries have shaped YENZA into an Ambassador for all of us, embodying the spirit of uBuntu Earth,” he said.
WILDTRUST (registered as the Wildlands Conservation Trust - IT No: 4329/1991/PMB)