Newar, an Indigenous community in Nepal, have been practising their unique language, culture and traditions for centuries. However, this rich knowledge is increasingly marginalised by the adoption of Eurocentric universal Western models of development and the influence of neoliberalism in formal education. Further, while women have long played a central role in the intergenerational transfer of Indigenous knowledge, often such engagement goes unnoticed or is undervalued as merely conducting everyday ordinary activities. However, these engagements carry deep significance in sustaining the knowledge and skills that are essential for the overall well-being of the community. Although previous studies have examined Newar cultural and religious practices, research incorporating women’s perspectives remain scarce. To address this, I have used a bricolage of qualitative methodological approaches across six triads of three generations of Newar women to explore how they transfer their knowledge to the younger generation. I also examined the perceptions of three different generations toward Indigenous knowledge and how they were responding to social changes derived from modernity and the influence of neoliberalism in formal education. Conceptually, this study is underpinned by Santos’ decolonial perspective on cognitive justice and his related concepts of ecologies of knowledges and intercultural translation. Based on Kincheloe et al.’s (2017) theoretical bricolage, it further draws on a range of sociocultural, critical, decolonial and postcolonial theoretical perspectives to attend to the engagement of Newar women in the intergenerational transfer of Indigenous knowledge and confront the power relations that seek to silence Indigenous knowledge in/through education. Research strategies included observation, conversations and fieldnotes drawn from ethnography and participatory approaches, which included object interviews and photovoice. Analysis of the data showed that Newar grandmothers and mothers were engaged in transferring their Indigenous knowledge to the future generations especially in religious, cultural, and household domains. Daughters learned and adopted these knowledges from their mothers and grandmothers through observation, guided participation, and contribution in shared family endeavours and from listening to traditional stories and tales. While grandmothers and mothers focused more on spirituality, togetherness, and relationality, the neoliberal view of limiting the role of education to the development of human capital for economic prosperity had been influencing the younger generation more towards a materialistic worldview, often evaluating Indigenous knowledge and skills in terms of economic benefit. The findings also highlighted ruptures in relationships that my participants were experiencing with their language, land and family ties to be the impacts of modernity and neoliberalism in formal education. Finally, discussing various exemplary ideas suggested by the participants, this study suggests building on Santos’ (2014) idea of ecologies of knowledges as a framework for decolonisation of curricular practices in the Nepali context as some initial steps towards cognitive justice for sustaining Newar language, culture and traditions.
