The issue of whether Indigenous communities support or oppose energy or infrastructure projects is increasingly making headlines, both in Canada and elsewhere. A case study from the Philippines exemplifies the complex realities on the ground, well beyond a binary yes-or-no divide.

Canada, like many other countries, has a turbulent history with the Indigenous communities living within its borders. In Québec, large dams and other energy projects are often at the centre of conflicts. Recently, the Innu community of Pessamit rejected an agreement negotiated between its band council and Hydro-Québec.

Across the country, various Indigenous communities are also resisting projects by the mining industry, as well as the oil and gas sectors.

They oppose the exploitation of their lands and point to the failure of governments and companies to fulfil their consultation obligations, as well as their tendency to negotiate bilaterally with individual communities rather than collectively.

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’s debates.

As a PhD student in international business at HEC Montréal and a researcher affiliated with the Centre for International Research and Studies at Université de Montréal (CÉRIUM), my work focuses on forms of resistance to mining extractivism amid the global energy transition.

Together with Dominique Caouette, holder of the Chair in Asian and Indo-Pacific Studies, and Dalia Aktouf, who holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from Université de Montréal, we examined the case of Agusan del Norte province in the Philippines.

Our study, soon to be published in a special issue on Indigenous issues in the journal Les Cahiers du CIERA (Inter-University Centre for Indigenous Studies and Research), reveals complex dynamics.

Read more: Reconciliation or recolonization? What Canada can learn by looking abroad

Internal tensions and power dynamics

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