Nation-to-Nation Evaluation: Governance, Tribal Sovereignty, and Systems Thinking through Culturally Responsive Indigenous Evaluations

Abstract

This paper was presented as part of the opening plenary panel at the 2018 Canadian Evaluation Conference in Calgary, Alberta, on May 27, 2018. Th rough telling the origin stories of First Nations/Indigenous people and Western evaluation colleagues, we can begin to understand the history and practical applications for advancing the truth through evaluation. The Doctrine of Discovery is rarely told as part of the Western canon of history or contemporary evaluation practice. Th ere are significant and negative cultural, human rights, and social impacts that have deep institutional and systemic roots that continue to cause harm to First Nations/ Indigenous populations throughout the world. To change centuries of old negative outcomes and impacts, we must understand our personal origin stories and the origin stories embedded within evaluation. Governance, policy, and evaluation can work as transformative levers for professional and sustained change if systems, critical and Indigenous theories, and methods are utilized. This paper offers origin stories of First Nations and colonial nations as a historical perspective and a new Tribal Critical Systems Theory to change contemporary Nation-to-Nation evaluation practices.