Deloitte in Jersey has introduced ‘Harriet’ the giant Tortoise, who is helping to raise funds for a new Reptile and Amphibian House at Jersey Zoo.
‘Harriet’ is part of a trail of 50 giant tortoises and 65 young tortoises that can be found at various locations in Jersey, as part of Durrell’s Tortoise Takeover art trail, providing islanders with the perfect excuse to get out and explore the island.
Lucy Fleming, a local Jersey artist from Bang Bang, created ‘Harriet’ and was inspired by the book ‘Darwin’s Dragons’, based on Charles Darwin and his research on the Galaìpagos Islands. ‘Harriet’ was the name of Darwin’s giant tortoise which lived to the ripe old age of 147 years.
Harriet’s body is representative of a starry night sky, including some constellations that you can see from the Galaìpagos Islands. The stars on Harriet also glow in the dark. Harriet’s shell shows several silhouetted specimen bottles that Charles Darwin used and that can be viewed in the Natural History Museum in London.
Lucy has used left-over paints so that there is no waste and she has opted to use hardly any acrylic paint to keep ‘Harriet’ as environmentally friendly as possible.
Deloitte also sponsored a young tortoise as part of the trail, which they donated to St. Saviour’s Primary School.
The young trail for Tortoise Takeover launched on 16 June, to give them their moment in the spotlight ahead of the 50 giant tortoises being unleashed. The theme for St Saviour’s School tortoise incorporates the school’s core values of ‘Achieve’, ‘Respect’, ‘Co-operate’. The rainbow logo (Arc) is used as a motif for the sculpture. ‘Archie’ tortoise can be found at Hapi in Liberty Wharf, St Helier.
Deloitte has created their own ‘Tortoise Takeover team’ made up of individuals from across its Audit, Advisory and Tax teams who are raising money for Jersey Zoo through a variety of initiatives at its Jersey office. This includes raffles, launching ‘a design a home for Harriet’ competition and a ‘design a tortoise’ competition and much more.
Last Saturday, to mark the launch, the team cleaned the beach at Archirondel to provide the best new home for ‘Harriet’ and to give back to the local community.
The giant tortoise trail began on 01 July and ends 31 August. After the trail, the giant tortoise sculptures will be auctioned on 21 September to raise funds to build a new Tropical House at Jersey Zoo. The young tortoises will return to the schools and community groups that created them.
In 2019, the Deloitte-sponsored Gorilla sculpture for Go Wild Gorillas, ‘The Space Between Us’, by Andy Coutanche raised a world record-breaking £72,000 – the highest ever recorded amount for a Wild in Art sculpture, with funds helping to build Jersey Zoo’s gorilla family a new indoor home.
