A Singer Raises Her Voice for Elephants

January Thompson September 6, 2013

About the Author

January is a singer, composer, producer, and performer known for her varied use of classical and modern instrumentation. Her music blends philosophic poetry, sonic texture, and soulful impulse. January is also a passionate wildlife advocate and uses her voice and talents for conservation. Visit… More

Singer January Thompson wearing an AWF ThreadStart tank at the Secret Garden Party Festival

I recall, as a child, being taken to the circus and having an overwhelming feeling of sadness and empathy for the animals, particularly the elephants that were paraded for our entertainment.

As I grew up, my eyes opened wide, and wider still, to the atrocities against these ancient and magnificent creatures. They: being manipulated and consumed according to our own whims and desires. We: turning these creatures, that feel trauma, loss, deprivation akin to how a human would feel under the same circumstances, into trophies and puppets. And now that our human arrogance and greed is ushering them towards extinction, I believe, that they deserve our protection, they deserve a fight.

I am a musician—a singer. Music and being a part in the creation of it, has pulled, pushed, ignited, overwhelmed and led my heart. It is my reason, my dream. And in the way music calls to me to have a voice, so does this fight, for them and for us. They have a purpose, that of being a vital part to the well being of the whole, an integral link in the complex chain of life. It is for this reason that we each need to start doing our part, in raising awareness for the elephants, for wildlife, for the sustainability and conservation of our magnificent home: planet earth. Their extinction, or extinction of any other species, will start a chain reaction that will lead to us. Simply said, if they perish, life as we know it will too.

“Animals are indeed more ancient, more complex and in many ways more sophisticated than us. They are more perfect because they remain within Nature's fearful symmetry just as Nature intended. They should be respected and revered, but perhaps none more so than the elephant, the world's most emotionally human land mammal,” Daphne Sheldrick "Love, Life and Elephants, and African Love Story" (a must read).

Open your eyes. Find your voice for them, for the planet, for us, for our future, for life.

-January Thompson (pictured above wearing an AWF ThreadStart tank and shouting "African Wildlife Foundation" to the camera at the Secret Garden Party Festival in the UK)

 

Learn more about AWF's work in elephant conservation.