72 - Who Owns and Controls Knowledge? Decolonizing Academia

Abstract Information: Recognizing that colonization and the settler state have made a ‘home sweet home’ in the field of evaluation and academia writ large, this panel will describe the recent strides that have been made in decolonizing evaluation and academia. As part of decolonizing academia and uplifting Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing, Indigenous scholars are finding ways to create culturally safe and influential academic spaces for publication, including dismantling the standard practice of publishers owning and controlling the knowledge of authors. Through the creation of Roots and Relations (R&R), an Indigenous only section within the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation (CJPE), the way we "do" publication is changing. The purpose of R&R is to honour our Indigenous lineage, grow our kinship, and sustain our intergenerational legacies of Indigenous wisdom and practices in and through evaluation. How R&R started and continues to thrive will be shared by this panel as part of a standard of sovereign rightsholders (not stakeholders) in North America. The Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) is promoting active reconciliation through adopting the Calls to Action from Canada’s 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission, subsequently incorporating active reconciliation into conferences, through changes to the CES competencies and the creation of an e-learning course on Truth and Reconciliation for evaluators. Part of CES's work also includes an UNDRIP Working Group to ensure that policies, practices, and systemic activities like the professionalization and training of evaluators includes the First Voice of Indigenous peoples. By co-creation of a new conceptual and online systems, the policies, practices, and processes for publication of Indigenous voices is changing. Using decolonized legal and policy agreements, Indigenous authors are reclaiming the intellectual and cultural property of their voices and efforts. This movement within evaluation is new and thus far has resulted in decolonized and Indigenous rooted policies and publications with CJPE, the international Journal of Multidisciplinary Evaluation, and Oxford University Press. These changes with concrete examples from the field of evaluation, including those funding and publishing evaluation, will be shared by the panelists. A discussant will reflect on the progress made to date and potential pathways to a decolonized academia.