This paper discusses how Indigenous Karen women experience war and build peace in the Salween Peace Park, a peacebuilding initiative in a 6,700 km2 area controlled by the Karen National Union. It contributes to debates on Indigenous, feminist, and environmental peacebuilding in Myanmar and beyond. Specifically, we make three contributions. First, we demonstrate how Indigenous Karen communities experience conflict not only as violence against people but also as damage to “territories of life”—including lands, forests, spirits, and the relations that sustain them. We conceptualize peacebuilding as a relational practice that involves restoring more-than-human relations disrupted by war. Second, we explore how Indigenous Karen women mobilize gendered roles to sustain peace, focusing on (1) their participation in Peace Park governance and (2) women acting as biodiversity researchers. Whereas the formal peace process (2015–2021) prioritized individual women’s empowerment, Indigenous Karen women approached peacebuilding relationally, seeking to gain recognition for how they were already sustaining more-than-human relations amid war. Third, we situate Indigenous Karen women’s peacebuilding strategies within the history of the Karen conflict, in which Karen women navigate a seeming tension between the pursuits of ethnic self-determination and gender equity. The Salween Peace Park, we argue, positions Indigenous women as peacebuilders insofar as they are recognized for their roles in tending to territories of life amid a long-term conflict. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of Indigenous and gendered perspectives in reimagining peacebuilding beyond state-centric and donor-driven paradigms.
