Across the country, various Indigenous communities are also resisting projects by the mining industry<\/a>, as well as the oil and gas sectors.<\/p>\n They oppose<\/a> the exploitation of their lands<\/a> and point to the failure of governments and companies to fulfil their consultation obligations<\/a>, as well as their tendency to negotiate bilaterally<\/a> with individual communities rather than collectively.<\/p>\n However, some communities do consent to certain projects on their ancestral lands, even though those lands are central to their cultural identity, territorial sovereignty and livelihoods. Understanding why can shed light on today\u2019s debates.<\/p>\n A barricade erected by the Mohawks in late 2020 in Saint-Lambert, on the Canadian Pacific railway line, in support of the Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en of British Columbia against the TransMountain pipeline project. Complex dynamics<\/p>\n As a PhD student in international business at HEC Montr\u00e9al and a researcher affiliated with the Centre for International Research and Studies at Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al<\/a> (C\u00c9RIUM), my work focuses on forms of resistance to mining extractivism amid the global energy transition. <\/p>\n Together with Dominique Caouette, holder of the Chair in Asian and Indo-Pacific Studies, and Dalia Aktouf, who holds a Master\u2019s degree in Political Science from Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al, we examined the case of Agusan del Norte province in the Philippines<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our study, soon to be published in a special issue on Indigenous issues in the journal Les Cahiers du CIERA<\/a> (Inter-University Centre for Indigenous Studies and Research), reveals complex dynamics.<\/p>\n Read more: Internal tensions and power dynamics<\/p>\n In the north on the island of Mindanao, an ancestral territory belonging to five Indigenous clans has been exploited by Agata Mining Ventures Inc<\/a> for nickel extraction. Aktouf conducted 40 interviews there over several months with the various Mamanwa and Mamanwa-Manobo clans.<\/p>\n Our study reveals the complexity of Indigenous communities\u2019 political agency. They are not homogeneous groups, and they respond to mining in diverse and sometimes contradictory ways. As a result, their positions on mining projects are shaped by internal tensions, power dynamics, compromises and forms of ambivalent engagement.<\/p>\n With Spanish colonization in the Philippines in the 16th century, Indigenous Peoples<\/a> experienced significant territorial dispossession, along with political and economic marginalisation. Over the course of the 20th century, they gradually won legal recognition from the state. <\/p>\n The cornerstone of that recognition is the Indigenous People Rights Act of 1997, or IPRA<\/a>, which recognizes them as the archipelago\u2019s original inhabitants and gives them the opportunity to obtain land rights.<\/p>\n Yet even as IPRA recognizes these rights, it also perpetuates forms of state control<\/a>: it folds these territories into a capitalist, extractive development model<\/a> governed by the Philippine Mining Act of 1995<\/a> while also integrating these communities into state governance structures that limit their autonomy.<\/p>\n Institutional neglect and contempt<\/p>\n This history of political and economic marginalization helps explain why Indigenous communities in the Philippines might value alternative forms of recognition, including those offered by mining companies.<\/p>\n The clans\u2019 accounts reveal a history marked by territorial insecurity, dispossession and symbolic as well as physical violence. This marginalization shapes how Indigenous communities see themselves and external entities, including government authorities and mining companies. During the interviews, communities described a sense of abandonment and institutional contempt.<\/p>\n For these communities, ancestral territory is an existential matter, one that goes far beyond legal categories. As one clan chief interviewed for our study put it: <\/p>\n \u201cThis land is our hospital, because it is where we can find medicinal plants. It is also a market, because it is where we can find food.\u201d<\/p>\n The state\u2019s failure to recognize ancestral territories, therefore, is not just a legal or economic injustice \u2014 it\u2019s a denial of these communities\u2019 social, cultural and political existence.<\/p>\n This marginalization \u2014 symbolic, political, and territorial \u2014 has shaped a deeply rooted quest for recognition, one that seeks dignity, visibility and political legitimacy.<\/p>\n Protest against mining projects in 2017, in Manila, the Philippines. Selective and conditional recognition<\/p>\n In this context, the mining sector paradoxically emerges as one of the few spaces where Indigenous identity and land rights are institutionally recognized. Mining companies are required to carry out a \u201cFree, Prior, and Informed Consent\u201d process. <\/p>\n Yet this political recognition remains limited and asymmetrical: it opens up space for participation without challenging existing power structures, even as it fosters a sense of recognition against a backdrop of historical invisibility.<\/p>\n Furthermore, recognition of ancestral lands does not stand in opposition to mining; the two are intertwined. In Agusan del Norte, the legal recognition of ancestral lands unfolded alongside the growth of mining activity. Environmental and social impact assessment processes also played a part.<\/p>\n One leader interviewed for our study explains that these assessments involved consultations within each clan, allowing elements of local knowledge to make their way into the formal agreements signed with the company and authorities. Several members directly link the mine\u2019s arrival to a process of territorial and cultural recognition. As one fisherman put it:<\/p>\n \u201cOur traditions were slowly dying out, but when mining arrived, they began to come back to life.\u201d<\/p>\n Cultural recognition also shows up in the promotion of Indigenous identity, support \u2014 financial and otherwise \u2014 for certain practices and partial recognition of sacred sites. Still, it remains selective and conditional, contingent on its compatibility with mining operations.<\/p>\n Economic recognition, meanwhile, is a central dimension in its own right, going beyond mere monetary compensation to reshape communities\u2019 social status. Many describe mining royalties as having improved their living conditions.<\/p>\n Ambivalent consent<\/p>\n However, the collected accounts suggest that this recognition is seen as incomplete, conditional and occasionally opportunistic.<\/p>\n These tensions reveal recognition\u2019s ambiguous nature. It can be seen as a source of symbolic redress for communities. At the same time, it also helps to stabilize and legitimize mining on ancestral lands.<\/p>\n Despite being included in certain mechanisms tied to the mining project, communities remain invisible in national narratives of mining \u201csuccess.\u201d This recognition, therefore, appears selective, defined by external criteria rather than by the communities themselves.<\/p>\n Protest on the fringes of the First Nations Summit in July 2025 at the Canadian History Museum in Gatineau. The case of Agusan del Norte reveals the complex dynamic just described, unfolding in four stages: historical marginalization that produces a quest for recognition outside the state; the emergence of mining companies as providers of what we call \u201cextractive recognition;\u201d the limits and contradictions of that recognition and, finally, the production of ambivalent consent.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/file-20260716-68-yxg0vu.jpeg\")
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\n THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Graham Hughes<\/p>\n
\n Reconciliation or recolonization? What Canada can learn by looking abroad<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Protesters](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/file-20260715-71-2oddiz.jpg\")
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\n (AP Photo\/Bullit Marquez)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/file-20260716-57-vjaaz5.jpeg\")
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\n THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Spencer Colby<\/p>\n