First Nations-led research organisation Community First Development has released a new guide designed to support practitioners, researchers, and governments working in partnership with Indigenous peoples.
Titled Right Way Evaluation: Telling Our Own Stories of Change, the practical guide offers a culturally responsive approach to monitoring, evaluation and learning, centred on self-determination, community leadership and strengths-based practice.
Community First Development (CFD) says the guide provides an opportunity for practitioners to reconsider how they evaluate community projects with First Nations peoples and an avenue to rethink what success really looks like "because mainstream approaches often miss what's most important – the cultural and historical context".
"It challenges mainstream models that may overlook the realities and strengths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people," CFD chief executive and Bidjara woman Stephanie Harvey said.
"It's about doing better, not just in what we deliver, but in how we listen, how we learn, and how we show up in community."
With focuses areas including support for community decision making and co-designing with communities, using storytelling, yarning and relational approaches to capture impact, and knowing when to step up and when to step back, the guide is designed to be practical and accessible by helping others embed culturally safe practices and shift away from extractive or top-down approaches to evaluation.
CFD says First Nations' communities have always had their own ways of making decisions.
"These processes are often oral, relational, and guided by values like respect, reciprocity, and a collective responsibility within a family or community. Right Way Evaluation honours and supports these traditions," the organisation said.
Ms Harvey says evaluation must be led by First Nations' people, reflect their values, not the priorities of others.
"We need to start confronting the reality that mainstream approaches that don't consider First Nations' ways of being and doing, often do more harm than good," Ms Harvey said.
CFD says through Right Way Evaluation, stories and data have been gathered which show real change being created by communities.
"We hear real stories about the ongoing impacts of colonisation, trauma, but also about survival, culture, and strength," CFD said.
"If done right, evaluation supports communities to heal and move forward. We have many examples of this."
The organisation says evaluation isn't a separate or external process, rather "it's woven into our Community Development Framework, embedded in our partnerships from the first conversation through to project completion and beyond".
CFD is calling on practitioners to reflect on how they engage with First Nations' communities and to raise the bar when it comes to how success is measured, who defines it, and how partnerships are built.
"This is more than a guide. It's a call to lift the bar across our sector," Ms Harvey said.
Right Way Evaluation: Telling Our Own Stories of Change is available online.
