The power of relationship
Kathleen Dustin has been working with Samunnat ’s polymer artists via Zoom for a couple of years. Here she reflects on her experience working with the women face-to-face, on her recent visit to Nepal.
A little over two years ago, as I contemplated retiring from doing retail fine craft shows, something led me to look at the Samunnat website. I thought maybe I could help them make some money from their jewelry in the US because I’d had a successful career doing that. I had no lofty ideas of volunteerism in far flung lands, I just wanted to help a bit. I had so little knowledge or understanding of the women of Samunnat, the workings of Samunnat, Kopila Basnet, Wendy Moore, or Nepal, but it led me to do Zoom classes with them on a weekly (or bi-weekly) basis.
The trip I recently took to Birtamod to meet them all in person for the first time was an adventure of great proportions in my life. I learned far more from the women of Samunnat than anything I may have taught them. I realized how easy it is to walk in as the BIG teacher from the US thinking I was going to give them so much when that’s not what they really needed.
Kathleen demonstrating in the polymer room upstairs in the Samunnat Nepal building
I taught them some new techniques that I thought they could use in their own designs.
I taught them some designs that I thought they might like.
But is that what they really needed?
What the women of Samunnat needed was to see someone they knew who’s worked with polymer clay for 35 years make mistakes, problem solve, and try some other ways of working with the clay. They needed to see someone not take things too seriously and laugh when a beautifully made earring fell and was damaged before baking. And I realized as I was flying home that they just needed me to pay attention to them, to be friendly, to honor them, and to enable and encourage them to work with their own ideas. They may never use the techniques I taught them, or they might.
What I really understand now above all else is that whatever it is they need, and I need, requires an extended commitment. I can see the results of the fifteen years of extended commitment that they have already had with the people of Samunnat Inc. I know some people would love to help the Samunnat women and would like to go there and teach a workshop on much-loved techniques or maybe do a Zoom tutorial with them. Or maybe you have thought of a special project for which you would like to raise money. However, meeting with the Board and women of Samunnat, I have seen that they have their own priorities and planning – we need to work with them and respect their agenda.
It is through extended relationships that we can enable them to develop their own techniques, invent their own canes, design their own necklaces, run their own business. [Ed: This is why Samunnat doesn’t invite people for one-off visits unless it has identified a specific need.] They do need help in becoming familiar with western tastes because that’s what their market is. And maybe they will always need some help with the logistics of running an international business. But I have seen, and am experiencing, the power of a relationship that gives so much in both directions.