Symbols of Female Power

NATURE: CHAMPIONING HYENAS IN ‘ECO-QUEER’ QUEST

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They are often disparaged as ugly, sly and cruel scavengers but for artist Hannelie Coetzee, hyenas are symbols of female power and the normalization of queerness.

The walls of her studio in the university district of downtown Johannesburg are covered in drawings in ink and rooibos tea of the sloped-back carnivores, her heroines of the bush.

With cute ears but a frightening jaw, the animal is also represented in sculptures Coetzee fashions from scavenged materials.

“I am very curious about hyenas from an ecofeminist perspective,” said the artist, whose work has been exhibited internationally.

“They’re the underdog and misrepresented,” she said.

“They have been Disney-fied, made into creatures they are not.”