Green Man You Owe Me: Surprises using puppetry with rural children in environmental education

Abstract

Wakkerstroom, Mpumalanga, is a rural South African village, set against the backdrop of a wetland, grasslands and rolling hills (Mpumalanga Information Directory, nd). Sadly, children that live here appear to have little concept of the beauty that surrounds them, and do not care for the natural environment. The reasons for this are that they are not exposed to the natural environment other than for available resources, parents are absent due to work commitments or have passed away, and most children here cannot swim, meaning visiting the wetland is dangerous. There are also no parks where they can play. Th eir view of the environment is litter-infested roads and streams, and informal dumps.

This article explores a single moment of clarity during an intervention using a puppet, that occurred during a programme in 2023 which aimed to reintroduce a group of 31 children between the ages of 11 to 15 from The Clay Educentre to the wonders of nature, using the arts, refl ective practice, and immersion into the natural environment. Here I argue that puppetry, in informal environmental education, with reflective practice, has the capacity to be more transformative than other art forms, such as drawing, drama and dance.

Keywords: applied arts, reflexivity, stop moment, environmental education