On September 2026, Notch JOINED St. Ann's Warehouse and The Walk Productions for Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi.
A once-in-a-generation spectacle
On September 18th and 19th, a vast herd of life-sized Buffalo puppets ran wild wild through the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan - serving as a bold, beautiful act of resistance, resilience and celebration.
For many of our First Nations partners, the return of the buffalo symbolized the beginning of a new cycle in time.
READ MORE IN New York Times:
“It’s not every day you get to be part of an entire herd of bison and charge through the streets of New York and bring awareness to, you know, the meaning of it all,” South African puppeteer Craig Leo said. “So it happens once in your life.”
MEET THE TEAM
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Dina Vovsi
Coordinator
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Erin Gwydir
Coordinator
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Kat Guerrero
Coordinator
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Paulina Lule Bugembe-Kuwahara
Coordinator
MEET THE PUPPETEERS
Wild Home takes an odyssey across America, collaborating with First Nations communities and rural towns as a means of exploring and deepening conversation around climate change, land sovereignty and the industrialization of public lands at a grassroots level and on a national, policymaker scale.
Ohio River Valley & Appalachia
Wild Home presented in the Ohio River Valley in August of 2021 and will be presenting the plays again at the Appalachia Studies conference in West Virginia in March, 2022. Check out this video about the project.
Alaska: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Wild Home is also collaborating with SILA (Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic), working with Native Alaskan communities in the North Slope to tell stories of Indigenous sovereignty of the land, sea, self and community to support cultural wellness.
Colorado: The North Fork Valley
In April 2019, Wild Home partnered with the community of the North Fork of the Gunnison region of Colorado to present original plays in a free event with food, drink, live music and a panel discussion featuring local organizations: Citizens for a Healthy Community, North Fork Valley Creative Coalition, Western Slope Conservation Center, Colorado Farm and Food Alliance.
VIDEO COMiNG SOON
WASHINGTON D.C.
In September, Wild Home communities from across the country (Alaska, Colorado, Appalachia) came together to share their experiences of climate injustice in Washington, D.C. and directly with their policymakers.
Sovereignty
Stories
A Iñuit story telling project about culture, the past, and the present. Through a decentralized power structure, and with input from many advisors, artists, cultural workers, local organizations, the ICAS tribal government, and other North Slope Iñuit community members, Sovereignty Stories supports storytelling projects that uplift Native Alaskan environmental stewardship and cultural wellness.
Projects include short videos of ancient Iñuit folk tales about indigenous sovereignty of the land, sea, and self, a documentary video about the ANWAR, Iñupiat language resources, virtual and in person community events, podcasts, youth workshops, and more.
Sovereignty stories programs
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Qiñiqtuuraaq Atuun
Imagine by John Lennon translated into Inupiatun
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The Nuyakpalik Unipkaak production
The mermaid story
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We Will Not Harbor the Monster (We Will Rise)
An Original Song
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Alyssa’s Transformation
An Original Story
Play History
WILD HOME FEATURED IN AMERICAN THEATERE MAGAZINE
“[…] Not only is Wild Home creating a scalable community of activists, it is also making activism more fun, and therefore more sustainable. […] The community-responsive model makes it possible to see and hear the people living on the front lines of the fight for a more just and sustainable future—and in that specificity, to see the steps we all can take to join the work.”
Wild Home is engaging with communities around the The Wayne National Forest and in the Ohio River Valley, the Appalachian trail in Virginia, Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, The Grand Canyon in Arizona, the Mojave Trails National Monument in California, Mount St. Helens in Washington, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, Badger-Two Medicine and Paradise Valley in Montana, Northern Red Desert in Wyoming, Owyhee Desert Sagebrush in Nevada, Chaco Canyon and Carlsbad Caves and Rivers in New Mexico. If you are a resident of these areas, please don't hesitate to connect with us: info@notchtheatre.org. And to learn more about the issues facing these communities, visit The Wilderness Society.
Wild Home was featured in HowlRound's Theatre in the Age of Climate Change series on Broadway World. Wild Home is the recipient of a Taft-Nicholson Center for the Arts and Humanities residency at the University of Utah, an NEA ArtWorks grant, an NEA Our Town Grant and is made possible by Drew McCoy and Amy Aquino, the Common Sense Fund, the JKW Foundation, and the Network of Ensemble Theaters, supported by lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Resources
WILD HOME INFO PACKET
The hidden consequences of new mexico’s latest oil boom
What remains of bears ears
Lost lands? the american wilderness at risk in the
trump era
Download the wilderness society’s report
Howl Round’s Theatre in the age of climate change series featuring wild home
Can Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Wilderness Be Saved From Mining?
Indigenous matriarchs stand together in dark times:
Download the wilderness society’s too wild to drill
info packet
Broadway world featuring wild home
Public lands top rep. debra haalands agenda
Learn more about the history of this fight and to hear the wilderness society’s call to action
