a. What is Appreciative Inquiry?

12. Finally, research shows that contemplative practices such as mindfulness meditation can have dramatic effects on reducing violence. Research shows that different networks and neurochemicals in the brain can increase or diminish violence. The Orbital Frontal Cortex, including the Ventral medial Prefrontal Cortex (vmPFC), Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (dlPFC), Insula and Amygdala are all associated with fear, anxiety, aggression, and violence.

Neurochemicals such as are serotonin, oxytocin, vasopressin, and testosterone are also implicated with violence and aggression. A large body of research on mindfulness meditation shows that mindfulness practices can positively change key brain areas and neurochemicals leading to increased feelings of positivity, calm, happiness, and compassion. It also decreases feelings of anxiety, depression, fear, and anger. Recent research shows that mindfulness can decrease race bias (Lueke and Gibson, 2014), which has many implications for reducing the interracial violence against Native women. Mindfulness approaches should be implemented to prevent, treat, and heal violence against Native women, children, and communities.

III. METHODS

Analyzing the work and activities of the projects in a manner that would steer as much as

possible away from a colonized, positivistic, interrogatory method that focuses on the limitations,

weaknesses, and what’s gone wrong with the projects, is the main goal of this research. Without

question colonialism and settler colonialism have deliberately marginalized and harshly judged

all of what is right with Indigenous cultures by focusing on what is wrong and lacking according

to a western standard paradigm – and then attempted to fix or correct it. An Appreciative Inquiry

(AI) approach strongly departs from this methodological approach and was, therefore, used to

document the positive core of progress, accomplishments, strengths, and challenges of the seven

Alaska Native Women’s-Led Violence Prevention projects.

A. What is Appreciative Inquiry?

Appreciate Inquiry (AI) is an approach that has been used in many different

organizational, individual, group, and community development contexts. Appreciate Inquiry

scholars, Stavos, Godwin, and Cooperrider (2015) state that:

“At its heart, AI is about the search for the best in people, their organizations,

and the strengths-filled, opportunity-rich world around them. AI is not so much a shift in the methods and models of organizational change, but AI is a fundamental shift in the overall perspective taken throughout the entire change process to ‘see’ the wholeness of the human system and to “inquire” into that system’s strengths, possibilities, and successes.”

AI researcher, consultant, and author Jackie Kelm (2011) says that AI is used to transform

organizations by focusing on what’s right, positive, and what works within the organization

rather than what’s wrong or broken. As a tool for problem solving Kelm says AI goes beyond

fixing the problem. You engage in transforming a situation to settle on an outcome that opens

new possibilities and goes far beyond fixing the problem.

Bliss Brown (2009, p. 1) the founder and president of the organization Imagine Chicago and

AI innovator says AI:

Has been used worldwide to cultivate hope, build capacity, unleash collective appreciation and imagination, and bring about positive change. It is based upon the simple idea that human beings move in the direction of what we of what we ask about…when groups study exalted human values and achievements, like peak experiences, best practices, and worthy accomplishments, these phenomena tend to flourish.

David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney (2005, p. 2) two AI experts suggest a definition of

AI that mirrors the above:

“Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is the cooperative search for the best in people, their organizations, and the world around them. It involves systematic discovery of what gives a system ‘life’ when it is most effective and capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to heighten positive potential. It mobilizes inquiry through crafting an “unconditional positive question’ often involving hundreds or sometimes thousands of people.”

A major evaluative tenet that guides this approach is that when the system under review

understands what is working, it can use this knowledge to guide its activities and positively

influence its future. Bliss Browne states that AI “deliberately asks positive questions around

affirmative topics to ignite constructive dialogue and inspired action within organizations and

communities.”

Appreciative Inquiry experts Diana Whitney and Amanda Trosten-Bloom (2003, p. 1)

state “Appreciative Inquiry is the study and exploration of what gives life to human systems as

they function at their best. This approach to personal change and organization change is based

on the assumption that questions or dialogue about strengths, successes, values, hopes, and

dreams are themselves transformational.” They suggest that following beliefs about human

nature and organizing are the “foundations for Appreciative Inquiry:”

People individually and collectively have unique gifts, skills, and contributions to bring life;

Organizations are human social systems, sources of unlimited relational capacity, created and lived in language;

The images we hold of the future are socially created and once articulated, serve to guide individuals and collective actions;

Through human communication (inquiry and dialogue) people shift their attention and actions away from problem analysis to lift up worthy ideas and productive possibilities for the future.

The nature, philosophy, and procedures embedded within of AI approach have proved to

be an important in the documenting of the progress, accomplishments, strengths, and positive

changes of the seven ANW projects in this study. They have as Brown (2009) suggests,

implemented “community innovation methods that evoke stories, and affirm and compel groups

of people to envision positive images of the future grounded in the best of the past, have the

greatest potential to produce deep and sustaining change and inspire collective action.” As we

will soon see, the ANW projects have shared stories, engaged in work to create change and

increase community connectedness, and have envisioned positive futures that they believe are

possible through the incorporation the traditional wisdom, beliefs, and values of their cultural

past and present.