By Dawn
In September, I volunteered with The Great Elephant Migration, a traveling exhibition of 100 life-size elephant sculptures made in Southern India. The elephants were crafted from Lantana, an invasive shrub that looks similar to bamboo, and the exhibition’s purpose was threefold: to promote the ideal of human/wildlife coexistence, to provide work for the artists, and to remove Lantana.
I knew that “the herd” had first spent two months in Newport, Rhode Island, on and around the grounds of Salve Regina University. By luck, I had the chance to chat about the exhibit with Dr. Linda Forsberg, the university’s Assistant Director of Retreats and Discernment, on Universal Brotherhood Day at Vedanta Society of Providence.
Two days later, my first shift began in New York. The herd had arrived via flatbed truck, leaving those hallowed grounds for a densely populated part of Manhattan known as the meatpacking district. (No meatpacking occurs there anymore; the neighborhood is congested with high-end retail.) After being issued a green vest and a nametag identifying me as an “Elephant Guardian,” I was sent to interact with some of the hundreds of people milling around. Many had planned their visit; others had stumbled, delighted, onto to the sight of elephants dominating the plaza, peeking out from behind urban planters, merrily tearing the fabric of expectation. The atmosphere was giddy. There were babies in strollers and old people in walkers, people of all races, in every manner of dress, plus a couple of unimpressed dogs. For hours, I answered questions, snapped group photos, listened and observed.
