Indigenous Evaluation: A Strategic Objective of the Australasian Evaluation Society

Abstract

In 2003, the Australasian Evaluation Society (AES) Board identified Indigenous evaluation as a strategic objective of the Society. In coming to this decision, the Board signalled that it believed it was important to consider Indigenous evaluation more fully and its potential implications for the AES, its members, and the practice of evaluation. This article provides brief background information about the factors that gave rise to the emergence of Indigenous evaluation as a strategic objective of the AES, describes the activities and progress for the period 2004-2007, and identifies possible strategies to further progress Indigenous evaluation. It argues that greater engagement on the part of AES members is needed to progress Indigenous evaluation as a strategic objective of the Society; in particular, the need for AES members to consider what Indigenous evaluation means or might mean for the Society and why, if at all, Indigenous evaluation has a place within the AES. The article is set in the context of my role as a past Executive member of the AES Board, with responsibility to progress Indigenous evaluation as a strategic objective of the Society. As such, it is a personal reflection of that journey to date.