While we were in Mindanao, listening to people tell us their stories, their insider story of the conflict that has plagued the region for years, I would always find myself thinking about how hard it is to tell your stories to an outsider. Especially when those stories are about wounds that never healed and I am asking someone to open up and tell me about these wounds again. I soon found out that the retelling of these stories may not have necessarily been painful but rather cathartic, as people were willingly tell us about violent community clashes and personal losses as though they needed to tell someone and they just wanted someone to listen. It is pretty straight forward if you think about it, how often have we found ourselves in a situation where we feel the need to convey a thought or story to someone but that did not happen. When a conflict lasts as long as the one in Mindanao, people have more and more painful stories to tell and most people are not heard; and you find yourself in a place where someone is willing to listen, you tell.
The stories we heard were so diverse in subjects and time that we would often have to confirm with each other whether we had heard some pieces correctly. The impact that these stories made means that these stories will never be forgotten either for the teller or for the listener. One of these stories that have stuck with me is that of a former female MNLF fighter. The reason I mention “female” is because it was a huge deal to be able to meet a former fighter and that too a woman, it helped us understand a new side of the conflict we didn’t know about. The former fighter retold her story of how she joined MNLF and the various roles she played, such as providing financial assistance, food security, covertly delivering messages and an impromptu medic. She nonchalantly mentioned that at times they had to perform a serious operation such as severing a limb. She also told us that she had joined MNLF because it was a way of seeking safety within the jungles rather than stay at home and be abused my the military. I had read about some soldiers at the time sexually abusing women but when she mentioned that the reasoning for her joining a rebel group was because home was no longer safe, we were all left aghast. I had put a face to a horrid fact I had read in an article, and that is something I will never forget.
