Reviving Communities through Storytelling & Creative Action

The Heroes Project, a collaboration between Natural Justice and the Law+Environment+Design Laboratory, aims to heal collective historical trauma in Khoi-San youth in South Africa. By creating graphic narratives based on Joseph Campbell's 'hero's journey' and Khoi-San mythology, the project seeks to provide positive role models and reconnect youth with their cultural identity. The initiative combines legal support with creative interventions, utilizing workshops in the Cape Flats to gather real-life stories and develop characters based on Jungian archetypes and spiritually significant animals.

• The Khoi-San people of South Africa have suffered 'cultural genocide' and 'collective historical trauma' due to colonialism and Apartheid, resulting in the loss of social and spiritual institutions.
• Collective trauma among Khoi-San youth manifests as endemic substance abuse, violence, and fetal alcohol syndrome, with the community accounting for 60-80% of the prison population.
• Legal and material victories, such as land restitution and benefit-sharing agreements for traditional knowledge of rooibos, hoodia, and sceletium plants, have been insufficient to heal the community's psychological trauma.
• The Heroes Project utilizes a 'monomyth' structure based on Joseph Campbell's 'hero's journey' to create graphic narratives that contemporize folklore and mythology for youth.
• Project characters are developed by overlaying five spiritually significant animals from Khoi-San stories—the lion, jackal, baboon, eland, and mantis—onto Jungian archetypes such as the king, lover, wizard, and warrior.
• The project's methodology involves participatory workshops in the Cape Flats using theatre games, shadow puppetry, and beat boxing to collect real stories from youth for the narratives.

APA

Sateesh, D., Bavikatte, K., Choudhury, A., & Jansen, L. (n.d.). Reviving Communities through Storytelling & Creative Action. Natural Justice. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Cumulus-Johannesburg-Conference-Paper-Template.pdf

Chicago

Sateesh, Deepta, Kabir Bavikatte, Abhishek Choudhury, and Lesle Jansen. Reviving Communities through Storytelling & Creative Action. Natural Justice, n.d. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Cumulus-Johannesburg-Conference-Paper-Template.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Sateesh |first1=Deepta |last2=Bavikatte |first2=Kabir |last3=Choudhury |first3=Abhishek |last4=Jansen |first4=Lesle |title=Reviving Communities through Storytelling & Creative Action |publisher=Natural Justice |url=https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Cumulus-Johannesburg-Conference-Paper-Template.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{sateeshndreviving, author = {Sateesh, Deepta and Bavikatte, Kabir and Choudhury, Abhishek and Jansen, Lesle}, title = {{Reviving Communities through Storytelling \& Creative Action}}, institution = {Natural Justice}, url = {https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Cumulus-Johannesburg-Conference-Paper-Template.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }