When Indigenous Peoples survive, the rest of us do too

Detailed summary

We cannot control when El Niño arrives, but we can control how much of our natural defense — forests, watersheds, water, rivers — we destroy before it does

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Across the country, Indigenous Peoples have been sounding a warning we have been slow to hear.

“Ang proyektong iyan ay isang dambuhalang linta na sisipsipin lahat ng yaman ng bundok. Hindi naman po pansarili ang aming ipinaglalaban.” (That project is a giant leech that will suck the mountain dry of its riches. What we are fighting for is not for ourselves alone.)

These were the words of an Aeta elder opposing the proposed Pax Silica development in Tarlac.

Farther south, in General Nakar, Quezon, a Dumagat mother who marched 150 kilometers to oppose the Kaliwa Dam, spoke of the burden she carried:

“Tuwing naglalakad po kami, tuwing naiisip ko ang gagawin sa amin at mangyayari sa amin at sa susunod na henerasyon, halos ako po ay naiiyak sa daan dahil pakiramdam ko pasan ko ang Sierra Madre.” (Every time we walk, when I think about what will happen to us and to the generations after us, I almost cry because I feel as though I am carrying the Sierra Madre on my shoulders.)

Communities and environmental groups warn that the dam threatens the biodiversity of the Sierra Madre.

A giant leech draining a mountain. A Dumagat mother carrying the Sierra Madre on her shoulders. Different communities, different threats, but the same warning: what is being lost in the name of progress does not belong to them alone.

The Philippines is once again confronting El Niño, with warnings of drought, threats to food security, and pressure on our water supply. While we ask how to withstand a hotter, drier future, people long pushed aside in the name of progress have practiced resilience for generations. They remind us that survival depends not only on what we take from the Earth, but on what we leave behind.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Rappler. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.