Weaving Self-Governance and Harmony with Mother Earth: Proposal of Iku Indigenous Women of Colombia for Building Environmental Peace

Jun 18, 2025 | Yeimy Alejandra Izquierdo Cujar and Natalia Jiménez Galindo

Voices from the Iku Indigenous women of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia.

Colombian Indigenous women can be part of the global progress advancing structural equity. 

From the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta—sacred territory of the four Indigenous Peoples who inhabit it—the Iku women share a vision that redefines the way their younger brothers (bunachis, non-Indigenous/white people) understand development. Their notion of well-being is not measured in accumulation, but in balance; it is not based on extraction, but on reciprocity; it does not separate nature from culture, nor body from spirit. This worldview, woven by generations of wise women and caretakers, has the potential to inform global debates on sustainability, peace, and climate justice with frameworks that recover the sacred dimension of life and territory.

From the perspective of Indigenous Iku women, colonization not only took away lands; it also imposed hierarchies, silenced knowledge, and dismantled the communal fabric of the interconnected mother-daughter relationship, where women were spinners and forgers of that conscious thought that makes you feel, think, act, and speak in relation to the understanding that the human being is not the center of life in the universe, but rather part of the balance with Zaku—the name given to planet Earth.

Iku women have been direct witnesses of women's silent resistance in sustaining the territory. This resistance is evident in their constant presence in farming spaces, in the conservation of native seeds, in the oral transmission of knowledge, in spiritual rituals that harmonize the environment, and in community support during times of crisis. They sow, harvest, teach, protect, heal, and guide. They rise early with the moon, converse with the water, ask permission to collect seeds, and raise their daughters and sons with sweet words. But they have also been silenced in decision-making spaces, excluded from political dialogue, and reduced to symbols of tradition or support, in physical or spiritual presence.

Through the study of agriculture for life—as Iku women call it from their spiritual perspective—they have been able to identify how Iku women maintain ancestral forms of governance based on care, reciprocity, spirituality, and balance with Mother Earth. These forms are sustained through daily practices and rituals that organize community life: women are responsible for harmonizing the spaces of the home and farmland; they call meetings to resolve issues of coexistence through gentle words; they provide spiritual guidance to the youngest through weaving, songs, and offerings; and they safeguard knowledge about the use of water, seeds, and natural cycles as guides for decision-making. These practices are not just about agricultural techniques; they are a way of inhabiting the territory, where sowing is speaking and giving thanks, caring for the seed is protecting memory, and harvesting is an act of accepting the Mother for her contribution. This strengthens the mother-child relationship and the collective fabric of the community. This spiritual agroecology, rooted in intergenerational knowledge, not only nourishes the body but also preserves community life and the social fabric.

It is urgent to reorient global thinking toward more holistic, ethical, and territorial ways of inhabiting the world. This is where Indigenous experiences—and particularly those led by women—have much to contribute. The connection between spirituality, sustainability, and female leadership constitutes a legitimate and urgent path to building environmental peace. It is impossible to speak of climate justice or sustainable development if we continue to exclude the voices that have cared for the land for centuries.

From the Iku worldview, the balance between humanity, nature, and spirituality is not a future aspiration, but a present responsibility. Peace, from this perspective, is not only the absence of war, but the balanced presence of the natural and sacred order. An order that recognizes Mother Earth as a living being, thoughts as energy, and generations as a continuous fabric of memory and purpose.

It is a political contribution because it proposes transforming the frameworks of participation, integrating Indigenous women as active subjects of governance, decision-making, and coordination with other actors. This means that it is not enough to include the "cultural" or "gender" element in sustainability projects. It is necessary to transform the frameworks from which questions, indicators, and solutions are constructed. And this requires listening deeply to the voices of peoples who have resisted for centuries with dignity.

Being an Indigenous Woman in Today's World

Globally, Indigenous women continue to be among the groups most affected by structural inequality. There are an estimated 476.6 million Indigenous people worldwide, more than half (238.4 million) of whom are women. Discrimination and violence are recurring phenomena in the lives of many Indigenous women and girls living in rural, remote, and urban areas. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) explicitly recognized, in Recommendation 39 of 2022, that Indigenous women and girls around the world still do not enjoy equality before the law in accordance with Article 15 of the Convention.

This reality, which remains difficult to overcome, is perhaps explained by the fact that important instruments such as ILO Convention No. 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (1989), which is binding on ratifying states, while emphasizing participation, land rights, and cultural preservation, do not explicitly focus on women, but are interpreted as applying equally to Indigenous women and men. Its language is gender-neutral, but it should not be gender-blind in its intent or implementation.

Today, faced with multiple crises—climate, food, meaning, and leadership—the world is beginning to look to Indigenous peoples for answers. However, these answers cannot emerge without making the participation of Indigenous women visible and strengthened, not only as leaders, but as managers of life, shapers of thought, and weavers of the recovery of ways of governing and inhabiting the territory.

In many contexts—including some ancestral governance structures—the female voice has historically been relegated, not due to a lack of capacity, but as a result of patriarchal patterns that have also been internalized by Indigenous Peoples, partly inherited from colonization. Indigenous justice systems are often male-dominated and discriminate against women and girls, offering them limited space to participate and express their concerns, as well as to hold decision-making positions. Therefore, Indigenous customary law, misogyny, and existing institutions can also constitute obstacles. However, in recent decades, reflections have emerged within communities, driven by women as well as spiritual authorities and some traditional leaders, on the importance of restoring the balance between the feminine and masculine. In some territories, traditional governments themselves have begun to recognize that strengthening the spiritual, social, and political role of women is vital to preserving the natural order and the community fabric. Proposals such as the creation of spaces for equal dialogue, intergenerational spiritual guidance, and the formal recognition of women who are wise and speak in assemblies have emerged from within communities as legitimate ways to harmonize the principles of self-government with the original law and current reality.

A Still Timely International Response

First, it is worth highlighting the alarming number of forms of gender-based violence against Indigenous women and girls, which are committed in all spaces and spheres of human interaction, such as the family, the community, public spaces, the workplace, educational settings, and the digital space. CEDAW has highlighted the intersectional forms of discrimination (ethnicity, gender, poverty) and urges culturally appropriate education, health, political participation, and land rights. It establishes that intersectional discrimination against Indigenous women and girls must be understood within the framework of the multifaceted nature of their identity. They face discrimination and gender-based violence committed by both state and non-state actors. It suggests that these forms of violence and discrimination are widespread and often go unpunished.

For this reason, it establishes that discrimination against Indigenous women and girls and its effects must be understood in both their individual and collective dimensions and must be understood as perpetuated by gender stereotypes, but also by forms of racism fueled by colonialism and militarization. These underlying causes of discrimination are reflected directly and indirectly in laws and policies that hinder Indigenous women and girls' access to the use and ownership of land, the exercise of their rights over their territories, natural and economic resources, and their access to credit, financial services, and income-generating opportunities.

At the regional level of the Americas, the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted in 2016, which explicitly establishes that the rights of Indigenous women and children have special protection and the right to participate in decision-making and in the institutions that affect them. The Convention of Belém do Pará (1994) focuses on violence against women, including Indigenous women, and proposed for the first time the development of mechanisms for the protection and defense of women's rights as fundamental to combating violence against their physical, sexual, and psychological integrity, both in the public and private spheres.

A Slow and Timid National Response

The historical invisibility of Colombian Indigenous women has had profound consequences: loss of knowledge, fragmentation of the intergenerational fabric, weakening of spiritual governance, and a rupture between political activity and balance with Mother Earth. This invisibility has not only been symbolic or cultural, but also political and institutional. In the Colombian context, Indigenous women have faced a double silencing: on the one hand, as peoples historically marginalized by the State; on the other, as women who have been excluded even within their own representative structures. During the armed conflict, many were victims of displacement, sexual violence, and forced recruitment, without their voices being heard in reparation or peacebuilding processes.

However, at the national level, some opportunities have arisen, such as:

• In 2024, Colombia was fully committed to organizing the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 16), held in Cali, Colombia, under the theme "Peace with Nature." The outcomes of the COP included the approval of the Program of Work with Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities for the implementation of Article 8j and other related provisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity; the approval to establish a subsidiary body of Indigenous communities and peoples as a consultative body to the CBD; and recognition of the contribution of Afro-descendant peoples to biodiversity conservation within the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

This progress coincided with the call of Francisco Cali Tzay, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, who submitted a report urging Colombia to prioritize the rights of Indigenous Peoples to achieve "total peace." Calí Tzay acknowledged the positive legal advances and the government's intentions to strengthen the rights of Indigenous peoples, but deplored the persistent challenges that threaten the very existence of many of them, putting them at imminent risk of physical and cultural extermination. "The absence of competent state institutions in Indigenous peoples' territories, especially in rural areas far from the Colombian capital, has allowed for the progressive and tragic deterioration of their rights for generations," the expert stated.

• Starting in 2024, Colombian Indigenous Peoples are now environmental authorities. Since the promulgation of the Colombian Political Constitution of 1991 and ILO Convention 169, Colombian Indigenous Peoples and organizations have been demanding that the State recognize them as environmental authorities in their territories based on their rights to autonomy and self-determination.

This is in accordance with their knowledge systems, Greater Law, Own Law, Law of Origin, Natural Law, Word of Life, with respect to the members of each community and in their own territories. Based on this decision, Indigenous communities will exercise powers over territorial environmental planning, determining regulatory, management, and governance mechanisms for the purposes of preservation, conservation, restoration, protection, care, use, and management of natural resources in accordance with Article 15 of ILO Convention 169.

However, since then, it has been recognized that many environmental decisions, including the issuance of licenses, permits, and authorizations, have still been in the hands of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, the National Environmental Licensing Authority, and the Regional Autonomous Corporations for Sustainable Development. Contradictions and tensions with these bodies are often difficult to resolve due to the unilateral imposition of their decisions, weak governance in Indigenous territories, and the lack of implementation of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), among other aspects, such as the gender perspective.

Conclusion

At the very least, Indigenous women should participate in the national and international bodies focused on the rights of Indigenous communities, recognizing the need to work within their own ancestral governance structures.

In Colombia's Indigenous territories, as in many other regions historically violated by colonization, women have sustained the life, knowledge, and balance of their communities. However, this spiritual and everyday ancestral identity has not translated into political recognition. Achieving such recognition implies, first and foremost, creating spaces with guarantees and balanced and harmonized ways in which Indigenous women can share their voices in compliance with natural law and the spiritual mandate emanating from their original law. Likewise, if these spaces are listened to and created, women's voices begin to be recognized as relevant, legitimate, and necessary for the care and balance of their communities. This recognition does not mean merely symbolic inclusion, but also effective participation in decision-making processes, with conditions that respect their forms of leadership and community management.

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Yeimy Alejandra Izquierdo Cujar

PhD Researcher in Interdisciplinary Studies, Universidad de los Andes – Colombia

Community Manager and Representative, IKARWA Community – Arhuaco People

Natalia Jiménez Galindo

Colombian Lawyer and Consultant

Co-Chair of the EnPAx Gender Interest Group