Good Things · 10 hours ago

Ocean Hero Wade Naude Shines at Sharks International

Wade Naude grew up in Paarl's Magnolia Flats, where the ocean was a distant world visited once or twice a year, and survival took precedence over nature. He found his first language of expression in KRUMP dance, performing on street corners to give neighborhood kids a creative refuge, then discovered marine science and realized that colonialism and apartheid had severed entire communities from their ancestral connection to the sea. Now, as a coordinator at the Save Our Seas Foundation Shark Education Centre, he uses dance and his own story to teach children about sharks, insisting that "we must find ways to reconnect them with nature by meeting them halfway." His presentation at Sharks International -- the world's largest shark conference -- on decolonizing marine education terminology brought his community's pride full circle, proving that the boy who rarely saw the ocean has become one of its most compelling advocates.