by Kiersten Cluster, BFC Buffalo Backbone Herd Bull
The Great Elephant Migration, en route to the Blackfeet Nation, Browning, Montana, is a traveling art exhibit consisting of 100 elephant sculptures created by indigenous artists living in the Nilgiri Hills in Southern India.
In this forested region, “150 elephants share space with a quarter of a million people. Humans and elephants share the same land, food and water, but still find ways to live alongside each other relatively peacefully.”
Most of the elephant sculptures in the traveling exhibit are modeled on actual Asian elephants living in the Nilgiri Hills region. Two of the elephants represent orphans at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya, the only two African elephants in the sculpted herd.
The elephants are made from Lantana, the second most widespread invasive species in the world. Lantana has taken over 40% of the forested areas of India, displacing native vegetation, the essential food for wild elephants. As a result, these elephants are increasingly pushed out of their natural habitats into agricultural and urban areas in search of food.
The project holds the message of “sharing space” and is raising awareness and funds for coexistence projects and to protect migratory species. The underlying philosophy, as stated on the Great Elephant Migration website, is “Humans are part of a larger web of life, where everything is interconnected.”
The Buffalo/Elephant Connection
Although they inhabit different continents, buffalo (also known as bison) have much in common with elephants.
Both are herbivores, keystone species, gardeners of the land and keepers of the ecosystems they inhabit. If allowed to practice their natural migratory lifeways, their footsteps till the soil while their droppings spread nutrients and seeds allowing the Earth to regenerate. They are matriarchal, gentle, powerful beings of earth, yet both species are being pushed into smaller and smaller spaces that cannot possibly contain their enormous spirits. And both, along with so many others, face the threat of extinction due to human activity and loss of habitat.
The themes of interconnection and co-existence are foundational to the work of the Buffalo Field Campaign as this dedicated group stands in alliance with and seeks to protect the last wild buffalo herd living in and around Yellowstone National Park. As with elephants, buffalo are losing the vast habitat and migration routes necessary for their continued existence. The Buffalo Field Campaign works tirelessly to protect the buffalo’s right to roam free across their native homelands.
Shared Stories
The collaboration of the Great Elephant Migration exhibit and the Buffalo Field Campaign brings together the stories of buffalo and elephant. These two magnificent species, who know how to live in right relationship with Earth and all who call her home, are models of co-existence and sustainability. We need to step aside and give them space for their sacred work. It is time to listen to the wisdom of Buffalo and Elephant and learn from them how to preserve and share our one, beautiful planet.
Please join the Blackfeet Nation and The Buffalo Field Campaign as they welcome the Great Elephant Migration to Montana in June 2025 by sharing our stories, posts, and emails!
To learn more, please visit the Great Elephant Migration website:
The Great Elephant Migration | A Coexistence Story
