Decolonising design in peacebuilding contexts

This paper explores how transdisciplinary design approaches can contribute to peacebuilding. Ways of decolonising workshops to create trust and ensure sensitizing, dialogic and meaningful experiences for participants, to enable them to envision interethnic and intercultural forms of being and becoming, are discussed. The participants were indigenous peoples, Afrodescendants, peasants and excombatants living in northern Cauca, Colombia, an area prioritized for peacebuilding. Challenges faced included: integrating written and oral forms of communication; revising and deconstructing the design tools; and overcoming colonized notions of time and futures. We argue that transdisciplinary design methods and interventions have the potential to contribute to peacebuilding but need to be constantly decolonised and consider what the future means for communities affected by conflict.