Abstract

Mindanao has been a site of protracted conflict for decades, yet attention has largely centred on the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao and religiously motivated violent extremism. By comparison, the communist insurgency—active since the 1960s across the Philippine archipelago with long-standing fronts in Mindanao—has ‘continued for so long that it has ceased to receive the [international] attention it deserves’ (International Crisis Group 2011, 1; 2024). The island’s Indigenous peoples (collectively known as the Lumad) are often disproportionately affected by—and drawn into—the armed conflict, both at the broader scale between the state and communist movement, and at the regional level between the Armed Forces, localised rebel fronts, and militias.
Indigenous communities not only tend to bear the brunt of militarisation as well as environmentally destructive mining, logging and agribusiness which encroach on and dispossess them of their ancestral domains. These pressures also intersect with—and can exacerbate—socio-economic and political dynamics of inter-/intra-communal relationships, conflicts, clan feuds, and intergenerational grievances.
This project aims to develop the conceptual and analytical framework of everyday peacescapes. Adopting a vernacular lens, this framework encompasses both the ‘everydayness’ of peace as well as cosmological, spiritual and eco-relational underpinnings. Three overarching questions guide the development of this framework which will be empirically grounded in fieldwork conducted across two Indigenous communities:

• What are local conceptions of peace, and how is it practised, contested and (re)made in everyday life?
• How do Indigenous knowledge systems and practices shape the conditions, imaginings and lived practices of peace?
• Viewing peace and security as co-constituted, what everyday security practices are employed to deal with the vulnerabilities and impacts of armed conflict?

Alongside community-centred peacebuilding efforts by civil society organisations in Mindanao, there is a rich body of literature—particularly by Filipino and Mindanaon scholars—on Lumad cultural practices and beliefs (including conflict resolution). Yet there remains significant scope for peace research to engage more deeply and interdisciplinarily with these complementary areas of study and action. At the same time, the well-established concept and analytical lens of ‘everyday peace’ is relatively unexamined in the Mindanao context. This project foregrounds the micro-level dimensions of everyday life and social relations, while also attending to the intersection of high-intensity armed conflict and lower-intensity communal conflict.
The project will be implemented through an academic-practitioner model, collaborating with (i) a research partner at a Mindanoan university and (ii) a civil society organisation (CSO) engaged in community-based peacebuilding. The methodological framework adopts an ethnographically informed approach and employs participatory methods: narrative-based and walking interviews, Photovoice digital diaries, community peace conversations and validation workshops with the CSO partner, and exploring vernacular conceptions and practices of peace through a discursive lens. Research findings will support the CSO partner in evaluating and refining their peacebuilding interventions, inform programme implementation, and inform their policy advocacy. A scientific workshop will be hosted with the university partner on the topic of decolonising methodologies and co-knowledge production. Findings will also be disseminated through scientific publications and a co-authored report with the CSO partner.