Western colonizers forward ontological violence against indigenous communities through “problem-solving” methods which ignore foundations of knowledge these communities have had for centuries – to pursue decolonization we need to be able to access methods of conflict resolution in indigenous manner

Walker 04 Walker is a scholar, leader, and advocate for peace. She is Director of Juniata College’s Baker Institute, Director of –Imagining Together: Platform for Arts, Culture, and Conflict Transformation, and Director of the Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts at the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life at Brandeis University. (Polly O., "Decolonizing conflict resolution: addressing the ontological violence of Westernization." The American Indian Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 3-4, summer-fall 2004, pp. 527+., Accessed on Gale Academic Online via University of Michigan Library System, DOA: 6/27/24)// LFS – LMH

In this article I have argued that Western problem-solving models of conflict resolution are not culturally universal as some authors claim. Rather, they reflect unacknowledged cultural underpinnings of Western worldview. I further maintain that assertions of cultural universality of Western models represent a form of ontological violence by marginalizing Indigenous ways of conflict transformation. A number of scholars argue that Western problem-solving models of conflict resolution, rather than being acultural, merely fail to make explicit the cultural basis of their own approach (Avruch and Black 1991). For example, the cultural parameters of Western conflict resolution often remain at an "out-of-awareness" level: We think of the practice of mediation as the application of techniques ... yet these techniques are embedded within a surrounding cultural framework of unrecognized and taken for granted conceptions of the social world. This cultural framework consists of ideas about when to fight and when to compromise, notions of the self in relation to others, and theories about which third parties are entitled to intervene in problems and in what ways. To those who share this implicit framework, it is simply the natural and sensible way of doing things. (Merry 1987, 1) Indigenous peoples who do not share this implicit framework may find their worldviews and ways of transforming conflict marginalized or suppressed. Current literature on culture and conflict resolution criticizes the application of Western paradigms to conflicts involving Indigenous peoples (Grose 1995; Beattie 1997; Yazzie 1995) and urges further research to determine the conflict resolution methods of other cultures (Avruch and Black 1991, 31-37). In the last ten years a growing number of researchers have addressed Indigenous processing of conflict, including Beattie (1997), Garrett (1998), Grose (1995), Huber (1993), LaResche (1993), LeBaron (1995), Walker (2001), and Yazzie (1995). Nevertheless, the majority of formal research on processing conflict continues to focus on Western methodologies. Western problem-solving models are frequently imported into Indigenous communities with few modifications (Beattie 1997; Grose 1995; Lederach 1995). Ron Kraybill describes this proselytization of Western conflict resolution stating that, "Where religions send missionaries, conflict resolution organisations send trainers" (1996, 22). Elements of ontological violence are evidenced in the marginalization of Indigenous approaches to conflict transformation through the promotion of Western approaches. These differences in worldview are more than cultural points of interest. They are the sites of political contestation of power. Indigenous methods of conflict transformation are marginalized within the Western discipline of conflict resolution. The Western methods of resolving conflict that are often imported into Indigenous communities are based on an extremely different worldview. Western societies' power and willingness to implement their models without consideration of Indigenous worldviews perpetuates ontological violence, the forceful introduction of one worldview to the extent that it marginalizes or suppresses another worldview. Decolonizing the discipline of conflict resolution involves developing a deeper understanding of, respect for, and acknowledgement of Indigenous worldviews. The decolonizing process also involves creating support for Indigenous people to be able to access conflict transformation processes that are in alignment with Indigenous worldviews.