Emiline Smith on Demystifying Cultural Trafficking and Nepal’s Quest for Restorative Justice

Ep#050 When the world took itself indoors and online during the pandemic, a unique virtual movement bubbled in the Nepali social media sphere, one that identified multitudes of Nepal’s cultural objects in the unnatural glass cases of foreign museums and mobilized, in thousands, for their repatriation. For the first time, the Nepali masses collectively denounced cultural trafficking, pressuring withholders to give back what is rightfully theirs. In this episode, PEI's Khushi and Emiline delve into the obscure world of cultural heritage trafficking and its impact on communities, with a particular focus on Nepal. The two tap into Emiline’s expertise as a criminologist to understand the processes involved in the trafficking of cultural objects and its history and persistence in Nepal. They then discuss the repatriation of such objects and how restorative justice can be achieved in the process. Dr. Emiline Smith is a Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Glasgow (Scotland). She is a Fellow of the Centre for Criminology at the University of Hong Kong and a member of the Trafficking Culture Research Consortium and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. In addition, she is an advisor to the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign and several other NGOs. She recently authored and published a trilingual storybook for children titled ‘Pema and the Stolen Statue from Dolpa’; for more information, see www.stolenstatues.com. If you liked the episode, hear more from us through our free newsletter services, PEI Substack: Of Policies and Politics, and/or click here to support us on Patreon!!