Wagtale

05/06/2025

🌍 Happy World Environment Day 🐧

Wagtale spent the morning in Stony Point, Betty’s Bay, showing our recent penguin film we did with , , and .

Although there are positive developments constantly happening, the plight of the African Penguin is dire, and projections for total extinction are terrifyingly soon.

06/02/2025

Extremely excited to share a project that's very close to our hearts at Wagtale.

We made this film about the origins of modern humans on the southern cape coast of South Africa.

Made in collaboration with Grootbos Private Nature Reserve and scientists from the African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, this film showcases their work in "reconstructing the Quaternary palaeo-landscape and seascape (“palaeoscape”) of the south and southeast coasts. This reconstruction will enable the development of testable hypotheses on the selective regimes that shaped the region’s biota, including modern humans. No region anywhere else in the world offers such an opportunity."

A special thanks to Dr Curtis W. Marean (Paleoanthropologist), Dr Hayley C. Cawthra (FGSSA, PR.SCI.NAT. Chief Scientist), Prof Richard Cowling (Botanist), Dr Jan C. De Vynck (Human Behavioural Ecology), Dr Robert Anderson (Marine Biologist), Dr Charles Helm (Paleontology and Ichnology) and Grootbos conservation manager Sean Privett (Botanist) for sharing this story with us.

We hope you enjoy it and learn something about how absolutely special the southern tip of Africa is.

Watch the full film here: https://www.wagtale.co.za/ourfirsthome

13/01/2025

A new year and a new story!

We had the incredible opportunity last year to make videos with FocusOnlineTravel for Kings Camp Lodge, based in the northern corner of Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, adjacent to Kruger National Park.

Experience their untamed wilderness and unbridled luxury.

19/09/2024

Meet master tracker /Ui /Kxunta and his student Tsamma Bo

/Ui is a master tracker living in Nyae Nyae. He is one of the best known trackers and hunters in the Nyae Nyae conservancy, and is world renowned for his tracking knowledge.

/Ui is especially concerned about the transfer of tracking skills from the elders to the youth, which has been in steady decline.

“Every boy was supposed to be a hunter, they must learn how to hunt. By learning from their father, their uncles and brothers, they must become hunters! But all I see these days is the youth drinking a lot of alcohol.

“I spent three years teaching my nephew Tsamma how to hunt and track, and now when I join him in the bush, he’s extremely good at tracking and hunting! If he keeps going out everyday, he will become a master at tracking and hunting.”

Watch “The Healers and Hunters of Nyae Nyae” to find out more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1nPHBJRR0s

16/09/2024

Meet G/aqo Kaegce and his student Kxao Kha//’an

G/aqo is the last remaining Ju/’hoansi healer in the Tsumkwe area. Kxao is his student, and one of the only youth training to be a healer.

G/aqo tells us why the continuity is essential:

“All the other healers died, so now I am the only healer left. For now I’ll continue with healing people and teaching the younger generation, because I am getting old now.

“To be a healer is very important, the people need a healer because there are spiritual illnesses that the western doctors can’t heal.

“When the women sing and clap loudly, then I go into trance, and the ancestors tell me what’s coming.

“When the spiritual energies are low and the people are spiritually closed, I’m the only one who can see through it and open them up to their ancestors again.”

Watch “The Healers and Hunters of Nyae Nyae” on our website to find out more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1nPHBJRR0s

11/09/2024

Meet ǂOma Leon Tsamkxao

Leon lives in Nyae Nyae Conservancy, eastern Namibia, in a San run wilderness area managed by the Ju/’hoansi communities who have lived there for thousands of years.

His father, Tsamkxao ǂOma, otherwise known as Chief Bobo, is the Chief of the Ju/’hoansi and a revered elder in the community.

Leon tells us: “This is the only conservancy whereby the members of the conservancy can still hunt, but only the traditional way. When they use their bows and arrows.”

But things are changing very quickly for the Ju/’hoansi of Nyae Nyae.

Leon explains: “In the past it was like, people were almost hunting every day, and the healing system was very strong because at that stage we were having a lot of healers. And when somebody is sick, the healers all come together to heal the person. And the hunting was so good!

"Slowly, in the eighties, nineties, after independence, everything has changed.”

Today, tragically, there is only one healer left in Nyae Nyae, with the transfer of traditional knowledge and culture in a steady decline.

Watch “The Healers and Hunters of Nyae Nyae” to find out more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1nPHBJRR0s

Want to visit Nyae Nyae? Leon is also a tour guide, so be sure to get in touch with him!

09/09/2024

Feel like watching some local documentaries?

Browse our website and see if any catch your fancy...

Documentary Films help us shed a light on the world and how it works. We believe that good documentary films create real world impact, giving meaning to the world around us. Whether character- or issue-based, we strive to craft a well-told, emotive and cinematic story, with a touch of the cosmic.

03/04/2024

We're very proud to release our latest documentary for CGTN Africa's Faces of Africa series, in collaboration with StoryScope.

The film chronicles the last Ju/'hoansi hunters and healers of the Nyae Nyae Conservancy in Namibia (the only conservancy that still allows San to hunt on their land), and explores how these elders attempt to transfer their ancient knowledge to the few youth still interested in their culture.

We'd like to dedicate this film to an amazing director and mentor to us at Wagtale, Richard Wicksteed, whose untimely passing has left us extremely shocked and saddened.

We first visited Nyae Nyae whilst working on a project with Richard, and so wish he was able to see this film.

Since the 1970s, the San or Ju/’hoansi people have been displaced from their ancestral land in Namibia by imperial governments. Now living under conservancie...