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South Africa, Maverick Citizen, Our Burning Planet

From Octopus Teacher to Amphibious Soul – filmmaker Craig Foster on why living in SA is a privilege

From Octopus Teacher to Amphibious Soul – filmmaker Craig Foster on why living in SA is a privilege
My Octopus Teacher (Image by Ross Frylinck)
Gunnar Oberhosel
By Gunnar Oberhosel
13 Aug 2024
Facebook
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“South Africa is the heart of the world. It is one of the most exciting and powerful places to live on the planet because everything started here. For 75% of our time as humans on this planet, our species incubated in Africa, and then a small group started to migrate to the rest of the world. We are all African by nature. This is the mother continent.”

“We are born wild, but then we enter a tame world. We must keep the wild side close to our hearts.” This message from acclaimed filmmaker Craig Foster’s new book, Amphibious Soul, resonates with my own journey to maintain a strong connection to nature. Living in Simon’s Town, Craig and I dive into the kelp forests daily, sharing a fascination for the underwater world right on our doorstep. Through this amphibious lifestyle, we try to balance the tame and wild aspects of life – a challenge we accept. 

Join us as we explore the secrets to living a life intertwined with the natural world, as beautifully captured in Amphibious Soul. In our conversation, we discuss why Craig, creator of My Octopus Teacher, never wants to move away from South Africa, his vision for living in harmony with nature, and how being in nature will reveal the wildness within us, just waiting to emerge.

Living in balance with nature: indigenous people protect 80% of the world’s biodiversity. (Photo: Craig Foster)


Craig, as an accomplished filmmaker, why have you chosen to remain in South Africa despite opportunities abroad?


I could live in Europe or America, but these places are empty of biodiversity and bereft of life. I have just spoken to my friends in America, and on both sides of the continent, they have lost 95% of the kelp forest in California and Maine. It is terrifying. Here in South Africa, we still have biodiversity. Our kelp forest is still intact — if not growing- in comparison of course - we have our own challenges with over fishing, pollution and poaching but the habitat is healthy and that allows for regeneration and rewilding.

Why would you give that up for a place that is apocalyptic in comparison? People think money, gold, and diamonds are worth a lot, but they are worth nothing compared to biodiversity. Biodiversity is the essence of everything, and we are very fortunate to have such incredible biodiversity in South Africa. 

"We are very fortunate to have such incredible biodiversity in South Africa.“ (Photo: Craig Foster)


What makes South Africa such a pivotal place for you and your work?


South Africa is the heart of the world. It is one of the most exciting and powerful places to live on the planet because everything started here. For 75% of our time as humans on this planet, our species incubated in Africa, and then a small group started to migrate to the rest of the world. We are all African by nature. This is the mother continent. 

In terms of human origins, we find the beginning of art and science in South Africa. Here, we can see the world’s oldest drawing on Earth, engravings, and chemistry kit. These early Africans invented symbol-making and created the first proto-books and proto-computers. So much of what we know and hold dear was invented up the coast of Cape Town by a small group of Africans. We have this 200,000-year-old relationship with the ocean, the land and the coastline — this almost unbroken relationship with the wild.

The kelpforest still holds many mysteries: how do millions of kelp lice sense an intense incoming swell and move up the coastline to safety?
(Photo: Craig Foster)



How can we use our ancient relationship with the wild to navigate the future in the face of uncertainty?

We have this 200,000-year-old relationship with the wild. That knowledge is still in us. Every person has that wild being inside. We can draw on that and let it guide us. Because we try to control Mother Nature, the more we want to control her, the more problems we create and the more we lose control.




The people who understand this better than I do are the indigenous people of the world. Indigenous people protect 80% of the world’s biodiversity, yet they only make up 5% of the world's population. These incredible elders around the world possess invaluable knowledge about communicating with Mother Nature.

Our best scientists have an incredibly good idea of the terrifying things happening with biodiversity loss and climate change. So I think if we put the best scientists, the best indigenous knowledge, and the best storytellers together, you have this two-eyed-seeing — or you could even call it three-eyed-seeing — because you need the scientist and the indigenous elder. Still, you also need to be able to communicate that. That is where the storyteller comes in.
I have just thought of that right now, and I think it needs to be three-eyed seeing because elevating the concept of two-eyed seeing requires a much bigger platform. We might not have heard of it, but it is so important. 

More than a filmmaker: Craig Foster is an accomplished photographer documenting his daily encounters tracking in the Kelp forest.
(Photo: Craig Foster)


What inspired you to write Amphibious Soul, and what message do you hope it conveys?


Most of the world has forgotten that this incredible biodiversity has kept us alive. Only in the last fraction of time, since the Industrial Revolution, have we lost this wild dialogue. In all of my work and Sea Change’s work, our driving motivation and purpose is to begin this dialogue again, get to know our Mother, and ensure that our actions are in accordance with that relationship.
Through storytelling and public awareness, we all work to try to reconnect people to nature. 

Recently, I was in Barcelona and went down to the shore. It was like a death zone. For someone who is a tracker, looking around for the wild family and seeing that they were gone was terrifying. To understand that the family is not there. That is deeply disturbing. I can lose my home in a fire and get past that. But if the biodiversity is gone, it is like losing my mother, my lighthouse, my guiding light. I would give up everything and just have that. It is the most precious thing we will ever encounter. I always want to be close to that. It is the life force that animates us, our mind, body, and spirit. It is the life support system of every human. If it collapses, we are finished; there is nothing left. 

In Amphibious Soul Foster recounts the remarkable tales that took place in the Kelp forest. (Photo: Craig Foster)


Where do you think humanity has fallen short in maintaining a healthy relationship with nature?


Before the Agricultural and later the Industrial Revolution, every human had a deep relationship with hundreds, if not thousands, of plants and animals. Only a part of those relationships were human relationships. It is this beautiful feeling of understanding the wild and living in reciprocity with it. It made up the entire psyche of the early human. 

Now, imagine a massive pair of scissors and just cutting those threads. Cut 95% off those relationships. You are left with these tiny little strands, going to the few humans, a dog and a cat, a cell phone and a computer. What will happen to the psyche now that 95% of all those threads are dangling and bleeding?  What is going to happen? That is what we had from the beginning. Every single person had it. 

ONCE OFF USE ONLY On tour: Craig Foster in conversation with Jon Young at the Commonwealth Club in the United States about his new book Amphibious Soul.
(Photo: Swati Thiyagarajan)


Many young people feel disconnected from humanity. How do you respond to this perspective?


You can understand why that is the case. We see this mass destruction caused by humans in the so-called Anthropocene. When we get thrown into an alien world, we fall under unbelievable pressure, which causes a lot of violence and destruction. But it is not our fundamental nature. The massive existential dilemma many people face is a sense of not belonging in the world. It is like you are an alien in your world. And that is because those threads are cut. When we start mending those threads, the psyche feels more and more at home. And suddenly, you can feel like you belong.

We have lived for 290,000 years in incredible balance and entwined with nature. In some cases, we see areas where hunting and gathering went on, and biodiversity increased. We are, at heart, highly empathic. You do not leave someone to die. You care for them. If someone falls in the street, people will immediately go and help. You do not find that necessarily among other species. If you look at Neanderthal skeletons, they look like modern-day rodeo riders with many broken bones. They have broken their bones from getting into close combat with massive animals, yet they are healing because they have been taken care of by each other. 

Seeing us as essentially a bad species is very unfortunate, and even destructive. Around the world, there are incredible groups of people dedicating their whole lives; in many cases, they are sacrificing their lives for nature. We have the capacity for unbelievable empathy. It is worrying me that a lot of young people see us in a negative light. One can understand that, but much evidence suggests we are a beautiful species — just naive.

ONCE OFF USE ONLY Our species evolved in Africa and laid the foundation for all of humanities‘ great inventions to follow. (Photo: Craig Foster)


Is it still possible for modern humans to mend the broken threads of our relationship with nature?


You must remember that every child could speak the wild language fluently from the beginning. Because if you cannot talk that wild language as a child, you are dead. When I went out with children in the Kalahari, they walked in silence. There was no screaming or playing; the children listened to particular bird calls because they were worried about a leopard or lion. It was part of their makeup. 

Picking up the wild language is easier for children than for adults. It is closer to the surface. Every child, even today, is born wild and expects a fully wild existence. The shock of this must be extreme. It is traumatic, but we have forgotten that. It is traumatic to be thrown into this world and not experience the same hundreds of thousands of years of wildness with all the right smells and cues. So, I believe it is in us. It is just under the skin, waiting to come out. 



Production still from 'My Octopus Teacher'. Image: Tom Foster Production still from 'My Octopus Teacher'. (Image: Tom Foster)


How did growing up near the ocean shape your relationship with nature?


My mother was diving four or five times a week when I was still in the womb. Before I was born, I heard the cracker shrimp, the movement of the waves, and the seagulls crying. I was already introduced to that. Then, in the first days after my birth, I was taken straight into the water. We did the same with my son Tom. 

Growing up, the intertidal environment was by far my most important place. I went into the rock pools and started diving at three years old. It was my magical childhood kingdom. My dad taught me to catch crabs, swim, and body surf. He built up the foundation, but I needed the scientific approach. I always needed a nature mentor. It would have been ideal to have a tracking mentor as a child. That would have been incredible. 

Craig Foster during the making of 'My Octopus Teacher' (Image: Ross Frylinck)


Was it challenging to let your son Tom explore nature independently, and what did you learn from that experience?


It was very difficult. I was not able to release him as freely as my parents released me. Because the psyche has changed. Our whole psyche is terrified of letting a child get out there. It was safer back then, but the media also makes us feel paranoid. 

I let him get out more than others, but he also ran into trouble. One time, one of his friends got pulled under a rock. It was by that giant boulder near A-frame. There is a vortex that can suck you under. So Tom dived down and got his friend out, but they had lost all their gear. 

Strangely enough, it was hard for me to let go, but you have to allow a child to have these experiences, even the negative ones, by themselves. 

How can families, corporations, and governments foster a more conscious connection to nature?


We must understand that the more we try to control nature, the more we lose control. The more we work in reciprocity, the easier it is for us to survive. 

We developed a new idea at Sea Change. Let us say we have a meeting because we run a big company. We are sitting on the board around a big table. Now, can we imagine that one chair is reserved for Mother Nature? There should be a place for her because she is the main shareholder in every household, company, government and military operation. I would like to take this concept to the government level. But it is already happening. There are amazing people in the South African government who understand this. And worldwide, some movements give me a lot of hope. 

The wild person is in us. We just have to awaken it. DM

To dive deeper into these stories, check out Craig Foster’s new book, Amphibious Soul, released by HarperCollins in June 2024, now available in bookstores and online.

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