I-LEAD Partners Convene to Advance Indigenous Leadership and Peacebuilding Dialogue

Programming example

The new home of the Indigenous Peoples in Region XI in Tugbok District served as a safe and meaningful space for intergenerational and multisectoral conversations on Indigenous peoples and peacebuilding.The seed of New Zealand’s flagship partnership for the next 1,460 days began in the old NCIP Regional Office in Ecoland. In between modest spaces, amid maps, books, and reports, NCIP Region XI leadership, Regional Director Gerry Aguio and TMSD Chief Shirley Iguianon, a co-leadership that breathes teamwork, integrity, and Indigenous servant leadership, gave life to what is now I-LEAD: Indigenous Women and Girls – Leadership and Empowerment in Ancestral Domains.Its fruition affirms a simple but powerful truth: when good governance and trust coexist within institutions, there is life-giving space for new ideas and fresh ways of thinking. I honour the collective mana (spiritual power) of NCIP XI for helping break glass ceilings for Indigenous peoples in the margins.Yesterday, we broke bread and dialogued with longstanding partners to reflect on peacebuilding and social justice with Indigenous peoples. Grateful for the time, intelligence, and energy of partners from Alsons Dev, Davao City Agriculture Office, Kahayag Foundation, Mindanao Development Authority, Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute, Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity, Peace 911, The Asia Foundation, and the University of the Philippines Mindanao.The dialogue naturally returned to the lived realities of Paquibato District, whose socio-political contours have long been shaped by a five-decade conflict. The ancestral domain of the Ata lies within this landscape. Its environs, people, and memories bear scars that remind us counter-insurgency efforts alone will never suffice. Local peacebuilding efforts carry equal weight, breathing soft power into keloidal hearts.That the Ata ancestral domain remains a steady part of I-LEAD is an affirmation that peace breeds the conditions for communities to dream again. I honour the individuals and organisations whose quiet, patient, iterative peacebuilding work made new dreams possible.Longstanding peacebuilder Irene "Inday" Morada Santiago gave an intergenerational talk on the importance of a development lens humble enough to internalize and metabolize the interconnectedness of concepts, structures, institutions, and norms that often paralyze new ways of finding solutions. Her decades of experience reminded us that naming is power.The elephants in the room, where struggles for Indigenous self-determination in political and economic spaces are often reduced to lofty development jargon, were named plainly: oligarchy, patriarchy, and elite capture.

Communities

• Indigenous & Native

Formats

• Summit & Conference
• Offsite Event

Goals

• Grow