Paper Short Abstract:

This presentation will outline the process of creating the children’s book “Pema and the Stolen Statue from Dolpa” (2022) with and for communities in Dolpa, Nepal.

Paper Abstract:

This presentation will outline the process of creating the children’s book “Pema and the Stolen Statue from Dolpa” (2022) with and for communities in Dolpa, Nepal. It will highlight the challenges and opportunities of researching the trafficking of cultural resources, a very sensitive topic, and disseminating this research through creative outputs. Specifically, it will reflect on knowledge co-creation across cultures, languages, access, and other differentiating factors. The presentation will discuss the process of writing, translating, publishing and launching the children’s book, as well as the accompanying museum exhibition of four Dolpa artists (three of which displayed their work for the first time), while being grounded in reflections of the author’s positionality, and how this project impacted their understanding, methodologies, and research outputs.