Custodianship and Care: Lessons from an Indigenous Princess

Restoring bio-cultural spaces through custodianship as an indigenous concept of care. Princess Vlei, a conservation area, and heritage site has become a space for implementing and teaching custodianship after mass protest action by local communities due to the threat of development. Denisha Anand is a researcher and intersectional environmentalist currently employed as the biodiversity restoration project manager of a 109ha wetland system in Cape Town.

A progressive environmental educator and advocate for restoration and rehabilitation of neglected biodiversity areas associated with BIPOC, she is completing a Masters Degree in environmental humanities, with a focus on intergenerational plant-human practice and intimacies, at the University of the Western Cape. Her talk on the TEDxCapeTown stage brings to light a thought-provoking idea that our custodianship allows us to reclaim natural and cultural heritage through simple acts of care. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community