ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the relationship between Nasa peacebuilding and responses to unsanctioned mining, the form of mining that causes most divisions and conflict within the Indigenous movement. It discusses the limitations of prescriptive, subordinative or binary (local vs. global) perspectives on the roles of local actors in peacebuilding and in post-conflict mineral resource governance. It examines how the Nasa understand the relationship between mining, violence and peace. It discusses the Nasa resistance identity and process, their peacebuilding work and ideas on peace and peacemaking. It explores the links between the Nasa responses to mining and peacebuilding work, finding that where mining by outsiders is concerned, there is broad consensus that resisting mining is building peace. However, livelihood dilemmas, aspirations for better material conditions and political contests see some Nasa participate in unsanctioned mining ventures in Indigenous territories. In these scenarios, the Nasa are divided on what constitutes peacebuilding where responses to mining are concerned. Ultimately, violence creeps in through the cracks left by dispossession and material poverty and, for as long as Colombian society fails to attend to those problems in rural territories such as North Cauca, communities’ best efforts will continue to fall short.
