In these trying times for the peoples throughout the world, the Lumad of the Philippines, defying all odds, uncertainties, and dangers, call on all God’s people in America, “Let us rise [from chaos] and rebuild!” (Nehemiah 2: 18). Indigenous leaders experienced in building grassroots movements among the Lumad communities most impacted by militarization and aggressive development like large mining, logging and agricultural corporations, will speak about the indigenous communities’ steadfast, courageous defense of their rights to land and ancestral domain, and how grassroots communities, particularly women, contribute in naming the concrete and radical reforms their communities need and in building what to them is just and lasting peace. They will be joined by a legal consultant in the peace negotiations between the Philippine Government (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), who will address the historic social, economic and political issues behind the civil war in the Philippines, and speak about the current stage of the peace negotiations, which are now in peril as the Duterte administration made declarations to terminate the government’s peace talks with the NDFP.

Speakers: