Credit: Chela Yego | source: Shado Magazine
For millennia, Indigenous women have been the heart, memory, and custodians of the land. They are the seed-keepers, the water-walkers, the ones who know the rhythm of mountains and forests in ways modern development barely comprehends. Yet today, as the world grapples with climate collapse and resource scarcity, these daughters of ancestral soil face escalating threats to their lifeways, lands and very survival. Their fight exposes a confronting truth: the global scramble for resources is violently gendered, and the frontline defenders are women upholding a legacy of resilience that holds keys to our collective future.
Custodians under siege: The gendered burden of dispossession
The struggle for land, water, and resources is not gender-neutral. Indigenous women are disproportionately impacted by land grabs, environmental degradation and pollution, precisely because their roles, health and cultural identities are inextricably tied to the integrity of their territories. They are the primary custodians of traditional knowledge related to biodiversity, food systems and water sources. When extractive industries or conservation schemes invade, it is women who first feel the loss: compromised water means illness in their families; lost forests mean vanished medicinal plants; fragmented lands undermine food sovereignty.
This dispossession is compounded by gendered violence. As documented by multiple UN bodies, the influx of external workers for mining, logging or agribusiness projects correlates with spikes in sexual assault, harassment, trafficking and femicide against Indigenous women and girls. This violence is not incidental but a brutal tool of social control and displacement, silencing dissent and fracturing the social fabric these women hold together.
The UN Report: A stark diagnosis of broken promises
This global crisis was authoritatively outlined in the recent interim report by Albert Barume, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Presented to the UN General Assembly, the report on “Identification, demarcation, registration and titling of Indigenous Peoples’ lands” underscores a foundational principle: Indigenous rights to land and resources are inherent, rooted in self-determination and ancestral connection – not concessions granted by states.
Barume’s findings reveal a devastating chasm between legal recognition and reality. From Africa to the Amazon, Indigenous communities possess paper rights but live in profound insecurity. Their territories are increasingly coveted for the “green” transition (lithium for batteries, forests for carbon offsets, land for mega-renewable projects) and protected through top-down conservation that excludes them. The report documents a “disturbing rise in criminalisation” of land defenders, who are branded “anti-development” or “terrorists” for protecting their homes.
From legal rights to real violence: The “Green Colonialism” trap
The case of the Samburu women in Kenya is a tragic example. Here, their communal grazing lands are being annexed under the guise of conservation and carbon market schemes, enacted without their Free, Prior and Informed Consent. The resulting loss of livestock and water triggers food insecurity, poverty and displacement, exacerbating risks of gender-based violence. What is marketed globally as climate action manifests locally as a new “green colonialism,” severing Indigenous women from their stewardship role.
This pattern repeats worldwide. In Latin America, Indigenous women blockading mines that poison rivers face violent evictions. In Scandinavia, Sámi feminists connect mining’s “rape of the earth” to attacks on their culture. In Canada, Indigenous women lead fights against pipeline “man camps” linked to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women. The interim report stresses that without secure land titles and respect for customary governance, such violations will continue unabated.
Frontlines of resistance: Women weaving sovereignty and survival
Yet, the story is not one of victimhood alone. In the face of this onslaught, Indigenous women are the architects of powerful, innovative resistance. They are translating ancestral knowledge into contemporary advocacy, asserting themselves as indispensable leaders.
They engage in direct action, physically blocking bulldozers. They wage legal battles, demanding states uphold their own laws and international commitments like the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). They practice cultural defense, reviving seed banks and traditional farming to reinforce food sovereignty. And they take their cases to global stages, from the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) to climate summits, forging transnational alliances.
In Colombia, Amazonian women integrate ancestral ecological knowledge into community-led climate plans, declaring autonomous control over their territories. In Honduras, Lenca women led the legendary struggle against the Agua Zarca dam. They are not just saying “no” to destruction; they are actively building models of life-affirming governance and ecological stewardship.
A necessary paradigm shift: From obstacles to essential allies
Barume’s report calls for a fundamental “paradigm shift.” States and the international community must stop viewing Indigenous Peoples, and women in particular, as obstacles to progress or mere stakeholders to be consulted. They must be recognised as essential partners and allies in achieving genuine environmental sustainability and human security.
The UNPFII has repeatedly emphasised that securing Indigenous women’s rights to land, seeds, water and resources is a prerequisite for cultural survival, poverty eradication and climate resilience. Investing in their leadership and protecting them from violence is not a marginal act of charity; it is a strategic imperative for planetary health.
The stakes we all share: Land, knowledge and planetary survival
The fight of Indigenous women for their lands is a fight for a livable future for all. Their territories safeguard a disproportionate share of the world’s remaining biodiversity and carbon stocks. Their knowledge systems offer sophisticated, time-tested models for resilience in the face of climate disruption.
The criminalisation must end. The titling of ancestral lands must be accelerated. The specific rights and agency of Indigenous women must be centered. This is the urgent mandate from the frontlines.
In distant capitals, land rights can seem an abstract legal concept. For Indigenous women, they are the substance of life itself: the source of healing, the map of identity, the promise to future generations. As the world hurtles through ecological crises, their voices are not just calling for justice for their own communities; they are offering a compass for collective survival. To heed their call is to choose a path of true sustainability, rooted in respect, reciprocity, and the profound understanding that we cannot save the planet without safeguarding its foremost guardians.
References
- UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – Interim Report (2025), Report: A/80/181: “Identification, demarcation, registration and titling of Indigenous Peoples’ lands: practices and lessons. https://undocs.org/A/80/181
- UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) – Official Documents https://social.desa.un.org/issues/indigenous-peoples/unpfii
- United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html
- ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_INSTRUMENT_ID:312314
- OHCHR – Reports on Indigenous Women and Violence https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents
- Global Witness – “Last Line of Defence” Annual Reports https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/last-line-defence/
- Front Line Defenders – Global Analysis Report 2024 https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/sites/default/files/2023_global_analysis_eng_web.pdf
- Cultural Survival – Advocacy Reports https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications
- Amnesty International – Country & Thematic Reports : “Brazil: Deforestation and violence must end for Indigenous Peoples’ survival” (2024).
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/04/brazil-deforestation-violence-indigenous-peoples-survival/ - International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), Annual Report: “The Indigenous World” (2024 Edition). https://www.iwgia.org/en/resources/indigenous-world.html
- Indigenous Land Rights Dossier: https://landportal.org/book/dossier/2023/indigenous-peoples-land-rights
- The Oakland Institute – Investigative Reports, “Driven Out: The Eviction of the Maasai from Loliondo, Tanzania” (2023). https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/driven-out-eviction-maasai-loliondo
- Samburu Women (Kenya): Minority Rights Group International. “Kenya: Samburu women fight for land rights amid climate crisis.” https://minorityrights.org/2023/03/08/kenya-samburu-women-land-rights-climate/
- Berta Cáceres & Lenca Women (Honduras): Global Witness. “Berta Cáceres: The dam defender who paid with her life.” https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/berta-caceres/
- Sámi Feminist Opposition to Mining: “Sweden: The Sámi fight for their rights in the green transition.” https://www.iwgia.org/en/news/4986-sweden-the-sami-fight-for-their-rights-in-the-green-transition.html
- Violence Linked to “Man Camps” (North America): National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (Canada). “Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report” (2019), Vol. 1a, Chapter 10. https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/
- Roeurn Heng (Cambodia): Licadho (Cambodian Human Rights NGO). “Environmental Defenders at Risk” documentation. https://www.licadho-cambodia.org/tag/environmental_defenders
