Insights

The theme of this year’s Australian Evaluation Society (AES) conference was ‘Wayfinding’, asking attendees to reframe the evaluation process as a sensemaking journey through complex spaces to a mutually beneficial goal.

First Nations evaluators had a strong presence at the conference, both as delegates and as presenters, providing stories and guidance on how ancient knowledge and processes can guide evaluations that don’t just tell a story about what happened, but help to ensure the insights gained lead to positive change.

The concept of the journey is a good way to explore some of the themes and key concepts of the conference, specifically in the context of best practice in First Nations evaluation. So, what are the most important steps in planning and embarking on a journey?

Choose your guides

As with all journeys, it is essential to make sure we have the right people on board to help us get to our destination. When working with First Nations people it is vital to put them in the driving seat of the evaluation.

One strategy is to make use of community navigators, members of the community being evaluated who have the skills, confidence and experience, to act as (often literally) translators between the community and the evaluators. As with all guides it is important to make sure they are paid for the services they provide.

Make sure everyone has the right equipment

Putting trust in First Nations communities to understand the aim of the evaluation and providing them with the tools to determine the best way to get there, is increasingly seen as best practice.

Ensuring upskilling and training community members is incorporated into evaluation methodologies not only empowers communities to exercise self-determination in co-design, it also ensures the evaluation leaves a legacy that will assist with future evaluations.

Find your way

At the heart of any evaluation is sensemaking. First Nations people have been observing and making sense of their environment for thousands of years and have develop a wide range of tools and methodologies to do so. One of the most important tools is storytelling.

While targets, outputs and quantitative data are all important, we must acknowledge the value of story, or qualitative data, in understanding what has happened and how people have changed. Both elements are essential – no stories without data, no data without stories.

Don’t rush

Effective co-design and delivery of an evaluation in a First Nations context takes time. To build the trust and relationships required for success means that external evaluators need to spend the time with the community before the evaluation starts to make themselves known.

One presentation at the AES conference told a story about an evaluation on Warlpiri country in the Northern Territory that spent the first two years of the project just talking with the community to understand their values and context.

Tell your story

Sharing the findings of an evaluation back to the community is essential to ensure the findings are validated, and so the community has the opportunity to ask questions to ensure understanding. This could be formally, as in a validation workshop, or informally, as in a community gathering focused on food and sharing stories.

By cutting back on the amount of measurement and data gathering in favour of taking the time to share findings with the relevant people, evaluators can build ownership and increase the chance that recommendations will be implemented to drive positive change.

Be changed

For many people, the purpose of travel is to understand and change themselves. Relational sensemaking, where both the evaluators and the people being evaluated change as part of the process, is a natural outcome of implementing the strategies outlined above.

Evaluators should make space for reflection on self during the data collection and sensemaking process to ensure the project adapts and evolves effectively.