We’ve been on this planet for thousands of years, each civilisation adding to a constant flow of ideas. But over time, much of this has been lost. Which is why traditional healer Sisonke Papu is curating and showcasing the creativity inherent to his home province. “Although the Eastern Cape has contributed to the development of South Africa, art created within this space is forgotten,” he says. His goal is to make these culturally significant products accessible to the rest of the world.
Papu is the founder of ISPILI Network, a platform for emerging artists. Sharing their work in the form of magazines, podcasts, and documentaries manifests as a cosmology of concepts and information. “I’m dedicated to shifting the creative energy of the Eastern Cape by cultivating spaces for collaboration and collective healing,” Papu says. In doing so, he’s building a foundation that connects people to their roots, indigenous knowledge, and modern society. “Tapping into ancient ways of depositing one’s own presence into the world will allow us to come up with new possibilities of how we can imagine who we are,” Papu says.
This collective network has created a window of opportunity for artists to open and others to peer into. Papu hopes it’ll encourage local creatives to establish themselves in the Eastern Cape instead of branching out to bigger cities, as they can now showcase their work and be proud of who they are. “The light that resides in one person or culture is the same light that another is transmitting, just in a different variation,” he explains. “We want people to see themselves and the beauty they possess.”
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