October 2025, a milestone for FAO's strategic alliance with Indigenous Peoples

October 2025 will be remembered as an eventful and milestone month in FAO's longstanding work with Indigenous Peoples.

In the occasion of the 80th Anniversary of FAO and during the World Food Day week, the Global-Hub on Indigenous Peoples’ Food and Knowledge Systems called its experts to its third in-person meeting. The relevance of this third meeting was marked by the first time ever visit of Chief Deskaheh to FAO to provide guidance and bless the opening of the HOPE Indigenous Peoples’ room at FAO Museum.

The 80th anniversary of FAO has consolidated the commitment of the organization in working with Indigenous Peoples as key strategic allies. In FAO, more and more spaces and fora are seeing the presence and meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples experts.

Furthermore, the creation of a Council of Indigenous Elders to provide advice to the Global-Hub on Indigenous Peoples’ Food and Knowledge Systems is a historic step in the right direction for FAO’s work to defeat hunger and malnutrition. 

The relevance of the Global-Hub in the current context

From the 13th to the 17th October 2025, about 75 experts of the Global-Hub gathered for the third year in a row in Rome to advance on groundbreaking research and intercultural processes of co-creation of knowledge. Over 130 Indigenous and non-Indigenous speakers, from over 50 organisations and 23 universities and research centers joined the Global-Hub experts to participate in the five days of discussions. Thanks to the generosity and support of the Sámi people, an Indigenous Peoples’ territory was created inside two Arctic Nomadic tents pitched at the heart of Rome, within FAO premises. The Sámi Indigenous nomadic tents have become a symbol of Indigenous Peoples’ being welcomed at FAO.

This Global-Hub expert meeting could not be more timely. For the first time in the history of the World Committee of Food Security (CFS), in 2027 the countries will discuss relevant policies on Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems. This breakthrough is the result of over 2 years of negotiations by the Global-Hub’s experts with the countries at the Rome Group of Friends of Indigenous Peoples. Today this group of friends has become the largest on Indigenous Peoples in the UN system, witnessing how FAO is acknowledging Indigenous Peoples as right but also knowledge holders. The Global-Hub meeting is particularly timely to pave the road for the work of the High-Level Panel of Experts (HLPE). The HLPE will prepare for the first time a draft paper on Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems.

The Global-Hub is a strategic thinktank that leads innovative ways of co-creating knowledge. The experts in the Global-Hub honour oral knowledge and put at the same level of validity Indigenous Peoples’ science and academic/formal science. Bringing together Indigenous and non-Indigenous experts from 7 socio cultural regions, over 38 organisations, and 3 international research networks worldwide, the Global-Hub bridges the divide academics face with Indigenous Peoples’ science. Indigenous Peoples’ science, resulting from thousands of years of observation and experience, is encapsulated into a dynamic body of knowledge mostly transmitted orally through the over 4000 remaining Indigenous Peoples’ languages.

Whilst the botanical knowledge of Indigenous Peoples has been long regarded by medicine, only recently academics are starting to realize that Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge offers game-changing solutions on food generation, restoration, mobility, ecosystem reading, food processing, conservation, energy transition, food loss/waste and sustainable use of resources. All of these being essential for climate action and biodiversity conservation.

Indigenous Peoples’ science enshrines solutions the world needs to face global challenges, but unfortunately it is often disregarded in policy processes, decision making tables, and academic debates.

The 2025 meeting of the Global-Hub strives to fill this gap in relation to the current geopolitical context. The 5 days discussions were dedicated to the HOPE Indigenous Peoples bring to the planet. Each day was dedicated to one of Indigenous Peoples’ values of peace, reciprocity, caring, sharing and solidarity. As the members of the Council of Indigenous Elders reminded us, “food should never be e used as a weapon of war, but as a bearer of peace”.

The Global-Hub aligned firmly in solidarity with these words of wisdom that aligned with the intent, approach and respect reigning during the entire week. 

The five days of intercultural technical discussions around the fire, enable important advancements on the 9 existing drafting committees that the Global-Hub is coordinating. Co-creation processes are leading to papers on ultra-processed foods, poverty and Indigenous Peoples, biocentric restoration, and Indigenous Peoples’ mobility, nomadism and transhumance. Several of these papers will be published before the upcoming UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII).  The Council of Indigenous Elders and the Global-Hub discussed on new relevant areas of work in relation to Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems.

To meet new emerging challenges, the Global-Hub agreed on starting 4 additional new drafting committees on: Indigenous Peoples and social protection; Indigenous Peoples and carbon markets; the impact of conservation policies on Indigenous Peoples; and Indigenous Peoples and labelling and certification.

The publications being launched in the coming weeks and the agreed upcoming work of the Global-Hub will be fundamental in informing policy discussion processes by the countries. The evidence base approach of the Global-Hub bridging orality with written academic knowledge, will forge solid basis to accompany the upcoming discussions of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) on Indigenous Peoples in 2027. The Global-Hub is also providing important inputs for the 2026 first ever report of the HLPE-FSN on Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems.

2025 has been a year of strategic alliances by FAO with Indigenous Peoples with The Global-Hub organizing three joint fora with: the Hand-in-Hand Investment Forum; the Science and Innovation Forum; and the Rome Water Dialogue. 

The strategic leading work of the Global-Hub attracted the interest of different stakeholders that wanted to organize side events in the margin of the technical discussions. Ten side events and three special events on different topics, such as the importance of the commission of genetic resources, fermentation, mountain partnerships, and resilience, conflict and Indigenous Peoples, took place at the Sami Indigenous nomadic tents.

With the whole week dedicated to peace and Indigenous Peoples’ values, music, art and Indigenous Peoples' gastronomy have been forms of communicating and connecting in peace beyond beliefs and language barriers. An Indigenous Peoples’ artist (Guna, from Panama)  who won the FAO Indigenous Peoples art contest in 2025, was invited to paint a mural in FAO symbolizing the diversity and importance of Indigenous Peoples’ nutritious and varied foods.

Chief Deskaheh for the first time in FAO

102 years ago, Chief Deskaheh went to the League of Nations in Geneva to deliver a message of peace from 6 Indigenous Peoples’ nations. This episode, during which he was denied the right to speak at the League, marked the beginning of the international movement to advocate for Indigenous Peoples’ rights to speak and to participate in discussions at the UN. Deskaheh died in exile and was never allowed returning to his community after his travel to Geneva, yet his spark lighted the fire that led in 2007 to the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

At its 80th anniversary, FAO was honoured with the first ever visit by Chief Deskaheh. Chief Deskaheh is an honorary title given by the women that bestows many representatives amongst Indigenous Peoples worldwide. Chief Deskaheh is the leader of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six Indigenous Peoples in North America: the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora Indigenous Peoples.

The Haudenosaunee confederacy is very well known given the fact that hundreds of years back the women forced the men into signing a peace agreement that is today being used as a model for peace amongst enemy nations.

Chief Deskaheh’s official visit to FAO for the first time was full of significance to support the message of peace in today’s world. Chief Deskaheh opened the Global-Hub meeting by lighting with the FAO Director General the sacred fire and delivering words of peace from his ancestors. Him joining the council of Elders that will advice the work of the Global-Hub as well as participating in the inauguration of the Indigenous Peoples’ room (HOPE room) at the FAO Museum, were crucial for the success of the week.

During his bilateral with the FAO Director General, it was agreed that FAO will convene a larger meeting of the Council of Indigenous Elders in 2026 to continue with the strategic alliances forged at the 80th anniversary of FAO’s creation. During the bilateral, the common path of collaboration  and friendship between the organisation and Indigenous Peoples have been strengthened even further.

A permanent legacy: the inauguration of the HOPE room at FAO museum

On the World Food Day, the 16th October 2025, FAO inaugurated its new museum on food and agriculture. Central in the museum lies the HOPE room, which is entirely dedicated to Indigenous Peoples. It is a space where Indigenous Peoples can tell their stories with their own voices. Indigenous Peoples’ leaders decided to call it HOPE, because this is what Indigenous Peoples bring to today’s values and food systems: the hope of a better, sustainable and food secure future.

The HOPE room is the result of several months of collaboration between the FAO Indigenous Peoples Unit and an Advisory Group that gathered Indigenous Peoples’ elders and leaders from the seven socio-cultural regions of the world. The Advisory Group took the main decisions on the scope and meaning of the room and contributed to gathering the artifacts that are now part of the exhibition.

In terms of content, the room features both ancestral and state of the art innovation, both artifacts and audiovisual materials. All items displayed are related to Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems and are grouped according to the seven socio-cultural regions. The seven regional “stations” are then connected to a central spiritual heart, which symbolizes Indigenous Peoples' unity through diversity. The Interactive totem at the HOPE room displays information on Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems, on the Global Programme on Indigenous Peoples’ Biocentric Restoration and much more.

Thanks to the generosity of photographer Alexander Khimushin, the HOPE room also features an exceptional photographic exhibition: “The World In Faces”. The exhibition celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ cultures, rights and identities through portraits collected in over a decade of work.

Indigenous Peoples and FAO, walking a common path

The week of the 13th – 17th October 2025 has marked a milestone in FAO's joint work with Indigenous Peoples. The FAO's commitment to follow on this path of recognition, respect and collaboration was reaffirmed and new spaces for Indigenous Peoples’ have been opened in the organisation.

These spaces are fundamental for Indigenous Peoples to have a say in the discussions that affect their rights and lives. But they are also necessary to inform policy discussions aimed at better food systems for all. The legacy of these October 2025 days will resonate in the CFS discussions and work of the HLPE. This will happen on time for when the future of Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems will be in the spotlight for the countries to discuss in 2027. The strategic work of the Global-Hub on Indigenous Peoples’ Food and Knowledge Systems, and the Indigenous Peoples’ room at the FAO museum will remind us all that there is HOPE to have dedicated policies to support the fundamental continuation of Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems.