In Our Hands: Nepali nature inspired climate solutions in the Anthropocene

This paper considers material based making practices as found in the traditional handicraft, contemporary crafts practices and design innovation communities in Nepal. Using case studies from the Road to COP26 Innovation Programme and In Our Hands projects supported by the British Council in Nepal, which took place between 2020 and 2024, the paper considers how the ‘radical indigenism’ of these craft practices can be situated in context of the Anthropocene, a concept from the Earth sciences which has been adopted by academia at large and the arts and humanities in particular. It is a useful framework to explore the role of the human in our contemporary predicament of the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity collapse.

The paper places these craft practices within circular design disciplines operating within the safe space of a doughnut economy, that proposes a closed loop design that can be found in these Nepali craft practices. It introduces the Quintuple Bottom Line (profit, people, planet purpose and place) framework which emanated from these projects to support narratives of a Green or Net Zero Economy which dominate international policymaking to help contextualise the ‘antropos’ in this bioregional approach to economic craft development. The work offers insights that can be applied beyond craft practices, demonstrating the interlink of the hyper-local (materials use), to mutually benefit and build regenerative practices that speak of provenance and bioregionalism in a global context.