The Puteri is a retelling of a story rooted in Central Asia, exploring how oral storytelling connects cultures and generations. Reflecting on the disruption of this tradition through apartheid in South Africa, the performance reclaims storytelling as a living, evolving practice that connects communities through shared histories, people and ideas.

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In the artist’s community in South Africa, this tradition was largely disrupted by the forced removals of apartheid, which fractured communities and severed intergenerational connections. The surviving version of the story was recorded by an apartheid-era ethnographer whose work contributed to the isolation and exoticisation of the community.

Through The Puteri, the artist reclaims this living tradition, creating a new interpretation that embraces storytelling as fluid and ever-changing. The performance reflects on the shared histories that connect communities through the movement of people, stories and ideas.

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