Shringaar Stories - a podcast series exploring indigenous women's role in intangible cultural heritage
..Shringaar Stories is a podcast series that attempts to archive intangible cultural heritage of Nepal’s diverse ethnic communities – a curiosity of women’s indigenous identities – an appeal for tradition to thrive.
A Tharu woman’s hand-poked tattoo induced with mother’s breastmilk, a Newa girl’s coming of age celebration with her first “alaa” and two young women travellers’ exploration of their indigenous identity growing up away from their mothers – this podcast series documents how women’s aesthetic symbols signify a deeper mother-daughter bond from the womb to the afterlife in indigenous Nepali communities, with the aim to archive intangible cultural practices.
The podcast series has been supported by the British Council Nepal Gender Grants. Produced by Juliana Shrestha. Edited by Suraj Shakya.
Localstorytellingplatform for women.
The process of founding this group began informally with voluntary efforts from the co- founders. Every time our team met we would tirelessly talk about our travel stories and learn from each other’s experiences of navigating challenges and breaking stereotypes. With no local storytelling platform dedicated to women in travel and outdoors, in a country known for the great Himalayas and the adventures they offer, we joined hands in this initiative to bring travel stories of women- DULUWA TALKS
In 2019, our closets became our recording studio as we began collecting and publishing podcasts telling other women travelers’ stories through duluwa talks. As the platform grew to inspire young women to travel, we began offering outdoor activities starting with short hikes through duluwa outdoors, but the pandemic restricted our outdoor engagements. Young women and girls already face many restrictions in stepping outside their houses without a male counterpart or adult accompanying them. The risk of contracting the COVID virus added to these restrictions, and we had to cancel our outdoor plans for 2020.
We utilised this time to record online and publish podcast stories of women in travel and outdoors. Even if women couldn’t be out travelling, they were listening to the podcast building that motivation to step outside their boundaries and explore inwards when it would be possible.