Hada de Basura

by Heather Goodwin

The thesis is focused on the use of art and art making as a tool to address environmental awareness and social issues and community development in a small island community in Nicaragua. A community in which I lived for a period of time immersed in the Spanish language and the culture working alongside pre-established local organizations facilitating workshops. In presenting this thesis through an Indigenous narrative methodology, the researcher takes on the role of a storyteller more than that of the researcher to present the lived experience. Documented in this thesis is my personal reflection and integration of an experience that led to furthering empowering a community by promoting critical thought about sustainability and social engagement while expanding and reshaping their relationship to garbage. Woven into these pages that you hold in your hands are two stories; a narrative account of my shared lived experience, as well as a story that was distilled down to its essence, then embellished and transformed from this narrative account into a children’s picture book to share back to the community that welcomed this research.