Fiona Cram shares about some of her experiences at the American Evaluation Association Conference, Portland Oregon, 21-26 October 2024 I arrived ready for the AEA Conference on Wednesday 23 October, and it began at 2:30pm with a welcome, awards ceremony, and opening plenary. This opening plenary was a tribute to our beloved colleague, Ricardo Millett who had passed away. It was entitled ‘Learning from the Life and Legacy of Ricardo Millett: Mentor, Scholar, Field Builder’ and included tributes from David Chavis, Rodney Hopson, Maria Montenegro and other friends and colleagues of Ricardo. He will be much missed. I then went to the session on ‘Engaging Youth as Leaders as DRG & Evaluative Practice: Cross-TIG, Cross-Cultural & MultiLinguistic Lessons Learned in the U.S. and African Contexts to Amplify and Empower Youth Voices in Evaluation.’ EvalIndigenous member Dr Awuor Ponge spoke on behalf of AfrEA, and was joined by Ian Hopwood, Denise Baer, Safyatou Diallo and others. They all spoke with passion about the importance of investing in the capacity of young and emerging evaluators (YEEs). These YEEs are and will be the innovators and change-makers in our field I presented on Thursday afternoon on behalf of Phuntsho Choden, in a roundtable session entitled ‘How do we evaluate the contribution of development initiatives to Gross National Happiness (GNH)’. Phuntsho and I have been talking together for the past 5-6 years. The AEA conference was a great opportunity to catch people up with the development of the Wholesome Evaluation (WE) framework from Bhutan, to get their feedback, and to pick their brains about the outcomes for the GNH Domains and the WE principles. I am very grateful for people’s feedback. Friday’s plenary was ‘Participatory MEL and MEL Tech – Friends or Frenemies’. EvalIndigenous member Eddah Kanini spoke about the importance of not further marginalising those whose voices are already silenced or who are considered ‘hard-to-reach’. This includes those with hearing and vision impairments, and other disabilities, who may be sidelined by the use of MEL tech technologies in evaluation. She is a passionate advocate who understands the advantages that MEL brings to evaluation, but who is able to balance this with words of caution about missing people out. EvalIndigenous members Dr Ponge and Grace Wanjiru Murigo presented their work on ‘Amplifying and Empowering Voices of the Indigenous Communities in Evaluation in Kenya: Case of the Indigenous Ogiek and the Mijikenda of Kenya.’ It was good to see them present at AEA and their paper was well-received. Another standout panel on Friday was a panel that included EvalIndigenous member Gladys Rowe, along with Natalie Nicholson, Pearl Walker-Swaney, Millicent Simenson (via video clips) and Roxanne Johnson from Mewinzha Ondaadiziike Wiigaming. Their session, entitled ‘Crafting an Anishinaabe Evaluation Framework: Co-Creation, Iteration, and Community Alignment in Evaluation Practices’, provided wonderful insights into the provision of tribal health services that are of the community and what this then means for culturally responsive evaluation. I presented with my wonderful colleagues Joan LaFrance, Pālama Lee and Kathy Tibbetts on Friday afternoon. Our session on ‘Lifting the Voices of ʻĀina (Land, Sky, Ocean) in Evaluation: Three Indigenous Perspectives’ reflected on our relations – the Land, Sky and Ocean – and how we need to include them in our evaluation if our work is to be in the service of decolonisation. My many thanks for those who attended this session for your attentiveness and ensuring our session was well held in ceremony.
On Saturday morning I attended Monique Liston and Drew Koleros, about ‘The Evaluative Power Fellowship Model: Demonstrating Dignity-based Data Collection to Empower and Amplify Voices in Evaluation’. This was a powerful session about the importance of engaging with community housing advocates to build’ social movements’ power while ensuring completeness and fidelity in our data collection process.’ The finale of the conference was Saturday’s plenary by Bagele Chilisa, ‘Breaking the Echo Chamber: Amplifying Marginalized Voices to Resonate with the Dominant Narrative.’ This did not disappoint. Bagele shared story about her academic journey and the lessons she learned along the way about paradigms and the need for the inclusion of an Indigenous evaluation paradigm in any evaluation taxonomy. She encouraged us to include Indigenous knowledge in our evaluation and acknowledge the importance of Indigenous evaluation methodologies. She uplifted us and left us feeling hopeful that the messages she shared will help ensure that evaluation is in the service of Indigenous peoples. As always, this conference was about the opportunities to catch up with old friends, to meet new colleagues, to eat together, and to hear messages of provocation, encouragement and resistance. Dr Ponge also ended on a note of thanks from AfrEA and an invitation to the next AfrEA conference. Kia ora koutou – greetings to you all.
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