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Indigenous Communities in the Philippines have been recently forced to step up their efforts to defend their lands against foreign mining interests. There were two separate blockades last month, both in Nueva Vizcaya, Northern Luzon.

The first blockade was set up on Thursday, December 10th, shortly after the Ifugao, Ibaloi and Kalanguya got word the Australia firm OceanaGold would soon arrive to start exploration operations on their land. Sure enough, the workers arrived the following day. Fortunately that’s all they did—at least until the 100-strong group escorted the workers …

Last week, Environmental groups from the Philippines cautioned against the government sending in larger deployments of police and military to protect mining operations such as the one headed by the Australian mining giant Xstrata in Tampakan, Mindanao. The groups warn that doing so “would give rise to even more conflict and human rights violations against mining-affected communities.”

In a statement, Clemente Bautista Jr., National Coordinator of Kalikasan Peoples’ Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE), said “We’re disappointed that the Environment Secretary favors militarization over peace talks and community consent …

“Moving Mountains, ” is a film produced by the Philippine Human Rights Information Center (PhilRights) which examines the toxic legacy of large-scale mining in the Philippines.

The primary focus in the following 10 minute clip is on the region known as the Cordillera.

Home to over a million settlers and indigenous people, the Cordillera is a row of great mountain ranges occupying half of Northern Luzon in the Philippines.

Currently, there are more than 60 pending applications by mining companies to explore and exploit the minerals in the Cordillera–altogether covering more than half of the region (over 11,000 hectares).

There are …

The following video clip is from “Sa Ngalan ng Mina?” (In the Name of Mining) a film that shows how politicians in the Philippines have been selling the country’s natural resources to foreign mining companies, and how those companies are impacting the environment and the cultures and livelihoods of Indigenous People. This particular clip focuses on the exploits of Canadian mining firm Toronto Ventures, Inc (TVI) in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte.

TVI’s operations are said to be “one of the most shameful of the existing mining operations encroaching on IP lands;” and “one of the more well documented cases …

Several Indigenous Leaders recently gathered in Mindanao to call for the abolishment of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) as well as the 10-year-old Indigenous Peoples Right Act (IPRA).

Organized in connection to the Confederation of Lumad Organizations’ General Assembly on October 6-10, the protest was part of a now-ongoing campaign for the Lumad to protect their lands and restore peace in the communities.

During the protest, a statement was read by Lumad explaining that both the NCIP and IPRA are being used to facilitate the destruction and exploitation …

From September 11 - 15, several women activists from the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, South Korea, and Guam will be gathering in the San Fransisco bay area to share and talk about their experiences, strategies, and projects to transform local communities and cultures affected by U.S. militarism.

Sponsored by Women for Genuine Security and PANA Institute Civil Liberty and Faith Project, this is the sixth meeting of its kind since 1997.

For more information, you can visit http://www.genuinesecurity.org/ or contact Women for Genuine Security, info@genuinesecurity.org, 510 …

For as long as Indigenous People have been defending themselves from the encroachment of modern civilization, there has been a steady debate regarding the so-called need for indigenous people to modernize themselves, “lest perish by the sheer weight of their own irrelevance.”

We can talk more about this another day. For now here are a couple recent stories about how technology, specifically satellite imaging, is being used to assist indigenous people… (I am actually hearing about the utilization of satellite technology for this ends. See my post Protecting Shipibo Territory for another example.)

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