Great Elephant Migration wrapping up American tour in Los Angeles

On June 27, 2025, The Great Elephant Migration will arrive in Los Angeles for the final leg of its historic journey across the United States. Marking this culmination is Wrapped in History, a sweeping ceremonial textile initiative curated by acclaimed Indian designer Vikram Goyal. The project brings together over 70 handcrafted blankets, by 55 globally recognized designers and Indigenous communities, all to honour their unprecedented 5,000 mile journey which invites the human race to reimagine how we share space.

The blankets will be draped ceremonially over members of the 100-strong herd of life-sized elephant sculptures during their arrival and official launch event in Los Angeles at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. Inspired by Indigenous communities around the world where blankets hold profound significance, the collection represents a connection to ancestors, the land, and our animal relatives telling stories of identity, culture and spiritual beliefs.

Following this ceremonial unveiling, the blankets will be auctioned online toward the end of July, with proceeds supporting The Great Elephant Migration, which benefits more than 20 conservation NGOs advancing human-wildlife coexistence around the globe including the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, California Grizzly Alliance, INDIGENOUS LED, Lion Guardians and more.

“Blankets are vessels of protection, identity, and story,” Vikram Goyal, who also contributed a blanket to the project, said. “In this context, each one becomes a monumental gesture, a way of honoring the past while materially supporting a more compassionate, interdependent future.”

A longtime leader in Indian craft revival, Goyal’s practice bridges heritage techniques and contemporary form. Known especially for his repoussé metalwork, he brings to Wrapped in History a curatorial sensibility shaped by decades of working closely with master artisans across India. His work—often monumental in scale and deeply narrative in concept—has reimagined the possibilities of traditional craft in modern life. With this project, he extends that ethos into the realm of textiles, inviting collaborators from around the world to engage in a shared act of cultural memory and future-making.

Contributors span the worlds of fashion, design, and Indigenous craft, including Ralph Lauren, Tarun Tahiliani, Sabyasachi, Diane von Furstenberg, Ozwald Boateng, Markarian, Collina Strada, and Johanna Ortiz, alongside the Navajo Nation, Osage Nation, Snoqualmie Tribe, Maasai, and others.

Each elephant sculpture was handcrafted by Indigenous artisans in southern India’s Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve using the invasive plant Lantana camara. Over the past year, the Migration has crossed the U.S. in a visually striking procession, making stops in Newport, Rhode Island, New York City, Miami Beach, Florida, Houston, Texas, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Blackfeet Nation in Western Montana’s Glacier Country, transforming urban spaces and Tribal lands while raising awareness—and millions in funding—for conservation work led by local communities. 

The elephants will arrive at the final destination of Los Angeles after a 1,000 mile, four day road trip, driven in a convoy or 25 trucks supplied by Hertz, decorated in the style of traditional Indian lorry art. This final migration from Jackson Hole to Los Angeles, with stops in Salt Lake City, Zion, Las Vegas and Joshua Tree, also marks the first moment that The Real Elephant Collective, the Indigenous creators of the herd, will join the Migration in the U.S.

Land Acknowledgement

The Great Elephant Migration will travel through the unceded traditional lands, waters, and territories of the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Lenape, Tequesta, Calusa, Miccosukee, Seminole, Karankawa, Atakapa, Akokisa, Shoshone, Blackfeet, Tongva, Tataviam, Serrano, Kizh, Salish, Chumash, Kootenai, and Pend d’Oreille Peoples. We acknowledge the painful history of genocide and forced occupation of their territory. In gratitude, we honor the wisdom of past, present, and future elders and community members and the enduring strength of their cultures and connections to the earth.

NGO Partners

Coexistence Consortium, INDIGENOUS LED, Lion Guardians, The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, California Grizzly Alliance, The ReefLine, Wild Bird Fund, Elephant Family, Buffalo Field Campaign, Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, International Wildlife Coexistence Network, The European Nature Trust, Save The Elephants, Save The Bay, One Earth, Think Elephants International, The Perfect World Foundation, Deep Hope, Rewilding Chile, Rewilding Argentina, Wildlife Conservation Trust, Free The Wild, Pangea Trust, Four Paws, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Carbon Emissions Statement

The Great Elephant Migration is supporting a large-scale initiative to shred vast areas of Lantana from India’s Protected Areas and convert it into biochar. By the end of 2025, the effort will have sequestered 2625 tons of carbon and created more than 500 jobs for Indigenous communities through this effort.

The total estimated carbon emissions for the creation, shipping, and transportation of the herd are between 250 and 400 tons, depending on the exact vehicles used.

A detailed carbon projection report is available on the Great Elephant Migration website, and a complete carbon emission and sequestration audit will be published at the end of the Migration.

About Vikram Goyal

Vikram Goyal is a New Delhi–based designer and founder of Vikram Goyal Studio – www.vikramgoyal.com and Viya – www.viyadesign.com, known for his pioneering work in contemporary Indian collectible design. Trained as an engineer and educated in development economics at Princeton, Goyal brings a deeply intellectual and materially sensitive approach to his practice.

Since establishing his studio in 2000, he has worked closely with master artisans across India to revive and reimagine traditional craft techniques—especially repoussé metalwork—into sculptural furniture and limited-edition objects. His designs draw from India’s rich visual culture and spiritual heritage, translating historical motifs and techniques into timeless modern forms.

Goyal is represented by Nilufar Gallery and The Future Perfect, and his work has been exhibited at leading art and design fairs including PAD London, Design Miami, and India Art Fair.

About The Great Elephant Migration

The Great Elephant Migration is the fundraising adventure of 100 life-size Indian elephants migrating across the US to amplify indigenous knowledge and inspire the human race to share space. As they travel, they tell the story of Asia’s wild elephants and the indigenous communities living alongside them, where people and elephants coexist in the densest populations in the world.

A collaboration between indigenous artisans, contemporary artists and cultural institutions, it is raising millions of dollars to power human-wildlife coexistence projects through partnerships with over 20 conservation NGOs in the USA and around the world.

About The Real Elephant Collective

The Real Elephant Collective is a sustainable, community-owned Indian enterprise of 200 Indigenous artisans from the Bettakurumba, Paniya, Kattunayakan, and Soliga communities of India’s Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, Tamil Nadu. The collective has spent the past five years replicating every elephant they live alongside in intricately detailed sculptural form. Like many Indigenous cultures around the world, these communities have extensive knowledge of nature and wildlife based on generations of observation and experience.