A simple yet profound encounter in Mae Tang District in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, marked the beginning of a shared journey of active listening, storytelling, and building hope as Indigenous youth from 10 villages gathered not just to speak, but to be heard.
From 9 to 11 April 2025, Pedro Walpole SJ and James Pochury from the River Above Asia Oceania Ecclesial Network (RAOEN) visited communities in northern Thailand. This is part of RAOEN’s mission to contribute in opening spaces for Indigenous youth voices and being present with them in the midst of climate-induced displacement, cultural erosion, and deep uncertainty.
Listening as a first step toward hope
In the village of Bakhalam, a young man spoke of staying rooted: “We love each other. I want the youth to know the Church and grow in friendship and love.”
Others, like Mr. Unnoan from Mae Na Chang, a Karen village in Mae Hong Son province, shared painful stories of addiction and resilience. He urged younger peers not to follow that path” “It is hard to come out. I want to be a good example in my community.”
These words speak of deeply personal truths.
Young people spoke of the forests they protect, essentially their life, and the hope to preserve their own environment. They talked about the floods they survived, and the dreams they carry for agri-businesses, tour guiding, and communal harmony.
Amid these stories, there is a longing to stay connected to land, culture, and each other, even as structural challenges like national park restrictions, generational gaps, drug exposure, and forced migration threaten their ways of life.
“We are concerned for the youth, their activities, and the care of our common home,” said Ms Vilaiwan “Kep” Phokthavi, Director of the Jesuit Foundation-Prison Ministry in Thailand and who also heads Emmaus Farm that initially served as a place for re-integration to society of recently-released prisoners and recovering drug addicts. In recent years, Kep and a small team of four from the Karen Indigenous community, have broadened Emmaus Farm to welcome people who want to connect with the land and community, inspired and informed by Laudato Si’.
A faith-based journey of reflection and relationship
At the heart of the gathering was a gentle insistence that reflection, prayer, and community are forms of resistance and healing.
Pedro Walpole SJ, RAOEN Coordinator, shared reflections from his home in Bendum, Mindanao where the youth face similar disruptions. “In the cities, people often lack what you have – a deep relationship with land and community.”
RAOEN’s role is to sustain relationships among the Church, Indigenous and local communities, youth, and faith-based organizations, all rooted in care for forests, oceans, and peoples.
RAOEN draws its strength from Indigenous communities who humbly depend on their faith as they reflect and hope to find ways forward. They do so through caring for creation and the sacred current of life that shapes winds and waters across the biome, symbolizing the interconnectedness of territories, stories, struggles, and solutions.
Crossing borders, finding shelter
The journey of listening also brought the team to a forested community where the Karen migrants from Myanmar care for more than 120 elephants. Fleeing conflict, many live without legal status. Their livelihoods are tied to irregular tourism, and access to education and health care is often problematic.
The Karen people, one of the largest Indigenous Peoples in Myanmar, have faced decades of conflict, military aggression, and displacement. Their ancestral lands in southeastern Myanmar have long been the sites of violent clashes between the Myanmar military and ethnic armed groups. As a result, many Karen communities are forced to flee, often multiple times, seeking safety across the border in Thailand.
Life in displacement brings new challenges – lack of legal recognition, restricted access to health care, education, and stable employment. For those who stay behind, militarization and resource exploitation continue to threaten both their cultural integrity and their natural environment.
Despite these hardships, the Karen People maintain their strong cultural identity through language, their weaving, rituals, and close ties to the land. As a Karen elder from the Thai-Myanmar border shared, “even when we were running from village to village, we carried our weaving frames with us. It is our story, our memory, our dignity,”
As Christians, we are called to walk with the displaced and the marginalized. The Karen People’s journey is a living testimony of hope in adversity. In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis reminds us that the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor are one.
The Karen youth, caring for elephants while hiding in forests, reveal a sacred resilience rooted in their relationship with creation. As a Karen youth said, “I pray for peace, not just for us, but for all who have lost their homes and dreams.”
“We are happier here than in Myanmar,” one resident shared. “There are only guns and no homes there.” Yet fear remains as without proper visas, many retreat into the forest when immigration authorities appear.
This is not just a humanitarian issue; it is a spiritual call. We are urged to respond out of solidarity, justice, and faith, and not out of charity alone.
Every Karen story reflects Christ’s suffering and the promise of resurrection through community, care, and courage.
These stories are also powerful reminders that climate and conflict are deeply intertwined as both displace lives and cultures but also call us to deeper solidarity.
Weaving a future together
In a world that often overlooks the realities of Indigenous People, RAOEN seeks to weave these testimonies into a wider fabric of hope and action. This journey in northern Thailand is part of an unfolding community action that RAOEN animates across Asia and Oceania.
For the Indigenous youth met, there is a commitment to tradition, despite systemic challenges, that is an act of faith. As one young woman said, “Many youth are leaving the village but I want to preserve our weaving culture.”
RAOEN walks with these youth not only through workshops and field visits, but in the ongoing journey of mapping stories, understanding community needs, and bridging generations. In sharing this story, RAOEN invites us to reflect, reclaim, and reweave across all our communities in Asia and Oceania and to continue walking together, in faith, in love, and in hope.
As Pedro Walpole shared during the gathering, “Sometimes we must take a step back to breathe, to listen again, to discern. But hope is something we cultivate together by listening, by encouraging, by praying, and by reflecting.”