Indigenous Peoples’ Pilgrimage of Hope in their Ancestral Domain

The yearly celebration of the Indigenous Peoples’ Sunday reflects the Church’s steadfast commitment to carry out its mission to be beacons of hope and bearers of truth, all journeying towards the Kingdom of God.

“Lakbay-laya: Pilgrims of Hope in Ancestral Domain”, this year’s theme, stresses that Indigenous peoples traversed history as pilgrims with deep integral connection of their ancestral lands they called not just as home but as their very life.

The journey of the IPs in their ancestral lands is not easy, and rather is accompanied with many challenges, transgressions, poverty, displacement, and marginalization. In this context, Indigenous Peoples see the potential for integral transformation, filled with hope and a deep trust in the divine. Through their pilgrimage alongside their indigenous communities, marked by simplicity and courage, they believe the future will always remain bright for them. This is why they can live in harmony while ensuring the preservation and protection of their culture and traditions. Interestingly, the Indigenous Peoples possess a cultural pipeline through which they pass down their indigenous knowledge systems and practices to the next generation.

The IPs anchored their social structures and spirituality on their ancestral domains as the source of identity. The lands they occupy is more than just a finite territory but is a sacred space where they commune with God to express their faith and celebrate their life’s essences. This deep rootedness shaped their values and rich cultural practices exemplified in their tribal justice system, rituals and views.

Lakbay-laya is also a call that indigenous communities be free from threats and prejudices that holds them of their rights to self-actualization and self-governance politically and economically. While Indigenous peoples are gladly regarded as front liners in the preservation and protection of the natural environment, yet this “being pilgrims and steward of creation” is now turned into struggle against industrial expansions, land grabbing, resources exploitations and land conversions that damage their sacred spaces. Lakbay-laya in this very sense calls for a transformative action from all stakeholders, it is hoped that in this journey they are not alone, the fight for restoring what can be restored, preserved and reclaimed is everybody’s concern.

Finally, the clarion bells ringing that “Lakbay-Laya: Pilgrims of Hope in Ancestral Domain” is not a lowly theme, but must resonate all walks of life in solidarity with the Indigenous Cultural Communities, to inspire, to motivate, to reflect on each ones purpose or connectedness and relationship with our Creator for the good of our common home. We are all stewards of creation. (Genaro D. Guadalquiver Jr. | IPA Coordinator)