Members of the study entitled Commissioning Indigenous Evaluations, including Dr Amohia Boulton, recently met in Canberra over two days for the final face-to-face meeting for the research team. This study, funded by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) seeks to identify how the commissioning practices of Australian government entities (i.e. federal, state/territory) and non-government organisations (e.g., not-for-profit, corporate, foundation, philanthropic) can better support Indigenous engagement and leadership in the evaluation of health and wellbeing programmes in Australia. The project, which is now in its final year, is being led by Chief Investigator Dr Summer May Finlay (Yorta Yorta) who took over leadership of the project when Professor Margaret Cargo returned home to Canada. In addition to Summer, Margaret and Amohia, team members include Professor Bronwyn Fredericks (The University of Queensland); Professor Yvette Roe (Charles Darwin University); Professor Jenni Judd (CQ University); Professor James Smith (Flinders University). The research team are ably supported by Jennifer Penny and Anna Temby.
Two members of the Commissioning Indigenous Evaluations team, Dr Amohia Boulton and Prof Jenni Judd were part of an earlier study also led by Professor Cargo titled Strengthening Evaluation Practices and Strategies in Indigenous settings in Australia and New Zealand (StEPS). The project ran from 2014-2018 and laid the groundwork for this current work (see Cargo, M., Potaka-Osborne, G., Cvitanovic, L., Warner, L., Clarke, S., Judd, J., Chakraborty, A., Boulton, A. (2019). Strategies to support culturally safe health and wellbeing evaluations in Indigenous settings in Australia and New Zealand: A concept mapping study. International Journal for Equity in Health, 18,194 doi:10.1186/s12939-019-1094-z)
The meeting was held at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) building beside Lake Burley Griffin in central Canberra. AIATSIS is an Indigenous-led, national institute that focuses on the knowledge, heritage, and cultures of Australia's First Peoples, and provided the perfect setting for the discussion that occurred over the two days. During that time research team members discussed and debated project findings; the Project Advisory Group (PAG) was updated on study progress, and on day two, both researchers and PAG members hosted a workshop with government and NGO stakeholders to workshop how the research findings can be transformed into tangible resources to support “wiser” commissioning practices. Stakeholders, who hailed from state and national government departments, NGOs, and community-controlled organisations including indigenous-led organisations, all agreed on the worth, timeliness and importance of the study findings a means of supporting self-determination efforts and capacity building in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities.
A report from the day will be produced by the research team and findings will be presented at both the INIHKD Conference in April in New Mexico and at the Lowitja Conference in June in Adelaide. Publication of research results is also ongoing.
Members of the study entitled Commissioning Indigenous Evaluations, including Dr Amohia Boulton, recently met in Canberra over two days for the final face-to-face meeting for the research team. This study, funded by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) seeks to identify how the commissioning practices of Australian government entities (i.e. federal, state/territory) and non-government organisations (e.g., not-for-profit, corporate, foundation, philanthropic) can better support Indigenous engagement and leadership in the evaluation of health and wellbeing programmes in Australia. The project, which is now in its final year, is being led by Chief Investigator Dr Summer May Finlay (Yorta Yorta) who took over leadership of the project when Professor Margaret Cargo returned home to Canada. In addition to Summer, Margaret and Amohia, team members include Professor Bronwyn Fredericks (The University of Queensland); Professor Yvette Roe (Charles Darwin University); Professor Jenni Judd (CQ University); Professor James Smith (Flinders University). The research team are ably supported by Jennifer Penny and Anna Temby.
Two members of the Commissioning Indigenous Evaluations team, Dr Amohia Boulton and Prof Jenni Judd were part of an earlier study also led by Professor Cargo titled Strengthening Evaluation Practices and Strategies in Indigenous settings in Australia and New Zealand (StEPS). The project ran from 2014-2018 and laid the groundwork for this current work (see Cargo, M., Potaka-Osborne, G., Cvitanovic, L., Warner, L., Clarke, S., Judd, J., Chakraborty, A., Boulton, A. (2019). Strategies to support culturally safe health and wellbeing evaluations in Indigenous settings in Australia and New Zealand: A concept mapping study. International Journal for Equity in Health, 18,194 doi:10.1186/s12939-019-1094-z)
The meeting was held at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) building beside Lake Burley Griffin in central Canberra. AIATSIS is an Indigenous-led, national institute that focuses on the knowledge, heritage, and cultures of Australia's First Peoples, and provided the perfect setting for the discussion that occurred over the two days. During that time research team members discussed and debated project findings; the Project Advisory Group (PAG) was updated on study progress, and on day two, both researchers and PAG members hosted a workshop with government and NGO stakeholders to workshop how the research findings can be transformed into tangible resources to support “wiser” commissioning practices. Stakeholders, who hailed from state and national government departments, NGOs, and community-controlled organisations including indigenous-led organisations, all agreed on the worth, timeliness and importance of the study findings a means of supporting self-determination efforts and capacity building in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities.
A report from the day will be produced by the research team and findings will be presented at both the INIHKD Conference in April in New Mexico and at the Lowitja Conference in June in Adelaide. Publication of research results is also ongoing.
