Evaluation for Healing: An Indigenous Perspective

Abstract Information: Indigenous evaluation is about more than fitting Western evaluation theories and practices into indigenous contexts. It is decolonization work and an act of resistance (Rowe, 2020). It requires a paradigm shift and a reconceptualization of how evaluation is perceived, taught, learned, designed, and implemented. This paper explores how evaluation processes can facilitate and result in healing for indigenous communities and other communities of color impacted by harm such as colonialism and imperialism. It draws from indigenous definitions of healing and demonstrates how the understanding of such notions can help evaluators better recognize its emergence in a decolonized, culturally responsive evaluation process. This paper features literature regarding indigenous communities worldwide; but places special focus on Pacific and Micronesian indigenous knowledge and practices that are transferrable to evaluation. Given this framing, the following questions are considered: • How is healing connected to decolonized evaluation work? • How can evaluation, as a process, facilitate healing for indigenous communities i.e. people whose history is marred by exploitative research, colonialism, imperialism, and other forms of harm that have resulted in generations of distrust and anti-Eurocentric sentiments? • How does being in intentional about healing in evaluation look like practice? • How can using evaluation for healing benefit indigenous communities and support their efforts in connection to community, liberation, and sovereignty? • What are the challenges of practicing healing-centered evaluation?