In November 2010, 29 indigenous women from 10 countries in the Asia Pacific region met in Manila, Philippines to discuss the challenges facing indigenous women and their communities in relation to their land rights. The workshop was jointly organized by the Asian Indigenous Women's Network (AIWN) and the Forest Peoples Program (FPP). Land rights are extremely important both in this region and in the rest of the world if indigenous peoples are to survive as culturally unique peoples. In Asia and the Pacific, indigenous peoples live in a huge variety of circumstances, from indigenous-majority countries like Fiji in the Pacific, to countries on the Asian mainland where indigenous peoples are not even recognized by their governments.

In this workshop the women shared experiences and knowledge about their own countries and learned from the strategies and work of others. They identified areas in which it would be interesting to investigate and work in order to better understand how gender issues pose challenges for the effective protection of the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands and resources. 

The participants produced a document with a detailed strategy, identifying the challenges, the opportunities for change and the necessary resources to achieve the proposed objectives.

(Translated from Spanish)

The Asian Indigenous Women’s Network (AIWN) was formed in 1993 during the First Conference of Asian Indigenous Women in response to the common experiences of discrimination as women, as indigenous peoples and based on socio-economic class. This was attended by 150 participants from 13 Asian countries. As a loose network of 11 indigenous women’s organisations and 26 indigenous peoples’ organisations with women committees, AIWN has faced several challenges in its aim to organise and consolidate indigenous women’s organisations in the region to engage in all levels and fora affecting their rights and identities as women and as indigenous peoples. AIWN continues to build on these experiences to further raise Asian indigenous women’s voices from their own organisations, to the national and international levels.