Course Overview

What makes an evaluation truly Indigenous? How does evaluation change when Indigenous Peoples have meaningful authority over its purpose, design, methods, evidence, and use?

Indigenous Evaluation offers approaches grounded in the rights, knowledge systems, values, and aspirations of Indigenous Peoples. It goes beyond participation or consultation to examine who defines success, who makes decisions, whose knowledge counts, and who benefits from evaluation.

This course introduces participants to the field as a distinct, diverse, and evolving field. Drawing on scholarship and frameworks from North America, Hawai‘i, Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, and Africa, participants explore how Indigenous rights, relationships, knowledge, and authority shape evaluation practice. They also learn why approaches must reflect the specific Peoples, places, and contexts involved.

Throughout the course, participants apply these ideas to practical evaluation challenges. They examine conventional evaluation designs, explore Indigenous Evaluation frameworks, consider data sovereignty and governance, and address the realities of working with funders and commissioning organizations. By the end, participants will have practical tools and approaches to support evaluation undertaken with and by Indigenous Peoples, with Indigenous leadership and self-determination as guiding principles.

What You Will Learn

Participants develop an understanding of Indigenous Evaluation and its foundations in Indigenous rights, self-determination, sovereignty, and knowledge systems. They explore how Indigenous Evaluation differs from participatory, collaborative, and culturally responsive evaluation. They also examine how authority shapes decisions throughout the evaluation process.

The course introduces Indigenous Evaluation frameworks and approaches from different cultural and geographic contexts. Participants learn to consider whose priorities guide an evaluation, how communities define success, and how relationships, cultural values, and Indigenous knowledge can shape evaluation questions, criteria, and evidence.

In addition, participants explore Indigenous data sovereignty and governance, including the CARE Principles and First Nations Principles of OCAP®. They consider how these principles affect decisions about consent, data collection, access, interpretation, reporting, and future use.

Finally, participants examine the practical challenges of applying this approach within existing funding and institutional arrangements. They practice adapting evaluation designs, negotiating expectations, developing appropriate governance arrangements, and identifying opportunities to strengthen Indigenous authority.

Course Format

This course consists of four live, virtual, instructor-led modules, each lasting three hours. Sessions combine short presentations, individual reflection, small-group discussions, and practical exercises.

Participants work with a continuing evaluation case across all four modules. As the course progresses, they apply new concepts and tools to strengthen the evaluation’s design, governance, methods, and use.

Participants also receive practical resources, including an Indigenous Evaluation Authority and Responsibility Check, an Indigenous Evaluation Design Canvas, an Indigenous Data Governance Checklist, and tools to support commissioning, budgeting, and partnership decisions. Curated readings and additional resources support continued learning.

Module Breakdown

Module 1: Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Evaluation Authority

What makes evaluation Indigenous? This module introduces Indigenous Evaluation through the foundations of Indigenous rights, self-determination, sovereignty, and authority. Participants examine the historical relationship between colonization, research, and evaluation. They also explore the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Wolastoq Declaration on Indigenous Evaluation.

Through practical exercises, participants examine who defines an evaluation’s purpose, controls resources, makes decisions, and determines how findings are used. They use an Indigenous Evaluation Authority and Responsibility Check to identify opportunities to strengthen shared or Indigenous-led authority.

Module 2: Designing Indigenous Evaluation

How do Indigenous knowledge, relationships, and authority change evaluation design? Participants explore Indigenous values and knowledge systems, including relational accountability, collective wellbeing, cultural continuity, and responsibilities to future generations.

The module introduces selected Indigenous Evaluation frameworks, including the AIHEC Indigenous Evaluation Framework, Kaupapa Māori evaluation, Evaluation with Aloha, and other approaches. Participants examine the assumptions within conventional logic models and evaluation designs. They then use an Indigenous Evaluation Design Canvas to reconsider evaluation questions, community-defined indicators, evidence, and approaches to making evaluative judgments.

Module 3: Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance (3 hours)

Who has authority over Indigenous knowledge and data? This module examines Indigenous data sovereignty and the practical responsibilities involved in collecting, managing, interpreting, and sharing information.

Participants explore the CARE Principles and First Nations Principles of OCAP®, alongside Nation- and community-specific governance requirements. They also consider collective consent, tribal review processes, cultural protocols, and intellectual property. Through an applied exercise, participants review a proposed data plan and use an Indigenous Data Governance Checklist to identify appropriate safeguards and decision-making responsibilities.

Module 4: Methods, Funder Relationships, and Practical Application (3 hours)

How can evaluators uphold Indigenous Evaluation principles within real-world funding and commissioning environments? Participants examine culturally grounded methods, including storytelling, Indigenous storywork, Yarning, talking circles, PhotoVoice, and community-defined indicators. They also explore collective interpretation and sensemaking.

The module addresses practical challenges such as negotiating funder expectations, aligning reporting requirements with community priorities, developing equitable budgets, and establishing meaningful partnerships.

Participants return to the course case study to develop a more appropriate evaluation approach. They consider governance, questions, indicators, methods, data, budgets, timelines, and relationships with funders. Finally, each participant develops an action plan identifying changes they can make in their own evaluation practice.

Who Should Attend

This course is designed for evaluators, researchers, monitoring, evaluation, and learning professionals, program managers, evaluation commissioners, funders, and others involved in designing, conducting, managing, or using evaluations.

It is particularly relevant to professionals working with Indigenous Peoples and communities, as well as those seeking to strengthen their understanding of Indigenous Evaluation and their responsibilities within Indigenous-led or collaborative evaluation.

The course takes a global perspective while recognizing that Indigenous Evaluation must remain grounded in the rights, knowledge, and contexts of specific Indigenous Peoples and Nations.

Prerequisites

No prior experience with Indigenous Evaluation is required. Participants will benefit from a basic familiarity with evaluation concepts or experience in program design, research, monitoring, evaluation, or commissioning.