Karen Lynn Alexander Anishinaabe OjibweExploring the Use of Cultural Values in the Evaluation of Programs with Native American Tribes
2023 PhD in Evaluation, Western Michigan University |
This qualitative study explores the inclusion of Indigenous cultural values in evaluations of programs involving Native American Tribes. Through storytelling and Talking Circles with members of an Ojibwe Tribe in Michigan, Alexander identifies the Seven Grandfather Teachings—Love, Honesty, Wisdom, Bravery, Humility, Respect, and Truth—as critical Indigenous values. Tribal members expressed a strong desire for evaluations to reflect these values, linking culturally grounded evaluation with greater community relevance and increased use of findings. The study advocates for a culturally specific approach to metaevaluation and emphasizes that integrating Indigenous values can enhance the quality and impact of evaluations.
Keywords: cultural & relational ethics, Indigenous evaluation
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Nicola Andrews
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Ngāti Pāoa scholar Nicola Andrews explores how historical trauma theory applies to the profession of librarianship. Drawing on interviews with Indigenous librarians in Aotearoa, Canada, and the US, she reveals how libraries can reinforce trauma through exclusionary policies, inadequate resources, and professional isolation. Using kaupapa Māori and autoethnography, Andrews critiques the whiteness of librarianship and advocates for systemic changes to make libraries culturally safe for Indigenous workers and users. Her thesis is an act of reclamation and a call to transform public institutions.
Keywords: cultural & relational ethics, institutional critique & transformation
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Jolene Bowman
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Jolene's dissertation explores the lived experiences of Stockbridge-Munsee students who persisted in Wisconsin colleges. Using a phenomenological approach grounded in Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribalCrit) and Indigenous persistence models (e.g., McAfee’s “Stepping Out,” Secatero’s Corn Model, and the Family Education Model), Jolene Bowman identifies barriers and strategies specific to her tribal community. Participants described navigating academic unpreparedness, institutional indifference, financial strain, and cultural dislocation. However, their persistence was supported by family, cultural identity, strategic problem-solving, and mentorship. A central finding is the need for culturally responsive teaching in high schools and more culturally grounded support systems in higher education. The research positions student voices not just as data but as pathways to Nation-building, and offers actionable strategies for both academic institutions and Mohican Nation to better support Indigenous student success in higher education.
Keywords: cultural & relational ethics, Indigenous evaluation, Indigenous governance & sovereignty
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Landon James Charlo
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Dr. Landon Charlo conducts a systematic review of 39 publications to map the diverse landscape of Indigenous program evaluation across the US, Canada, Australia, and Aotearoa. His study examines conceptual frameworks, culturally grounded methods (such as talking circles and storytelling), and tensions with external funders. Charlo articulates how Indigenous evaluation must be community-led, spiritually grounded, and responsive to sovereignty and self-determination. His review offers practical insights for policymakers and evaluators, affirming Indigenous paradigms as valid and necessary.
Keywords: Indigenous evaluation, Indigenous governance & sovereignty, methods & methodology
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Kirsty Marie Choquette
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Kirsty Choquette’s dissertation presents an Indigenous community-based participatory study of parenting in Alexander First Nation (Treaty 6 Territory, Alberta). Using Cree tipi teachings as an Indigenous theoretical framework, Kirsty worked alongside the Alexander Research Committee to document women’s experiences and child-rearing approaches. The study identifies four interconnected themes: mothering roles; community-based parenting grounded in kinship and collective responsibility; holistic child development; and the impacts of intergenerational trauma on parenting practices. Emphasising relational accountability, cultural safety, and community governance, the research challenges Eurocentric parenting frameworks and deficit narratives, instead highlighting Cree strengths-based parenting grounded in cultural teachings and community healing. The work contributes both locally to Alexander First Nation and more broadly to Indigenous parenting scholarship and culturally safe child welfare practice.
Keywords: education, data sovereignty & governance, governance & sovereignty, Indigenous evaluation, methods & methodology, wellbeing & child welfare
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Ella Rose Gorman
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Gorman’s thesis evaluates the validity of three resilience and wellbeing scales used with Aboriginal youth: the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM), and Strong Souls. Using Rasch analysis and confirmatory factor analysis with Aboriginal youth aged 15–25, she finds substantial issues in item functioning and cultural relevance. Her work highlights the importance of Indigenous-led psychometric testing and contributes to the development of reliable, culturally valid instruments to support social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) among Aboriginal communities.
Keywords: health, wellness & social wellbeing, Indigenous evaluation, methods & methodology
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Taryn Jim
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Taryn Jim’s dissertation centers the experiences of Diné (Navajo) college students with disabilities. Using Critical Indigenous Inquiry, Disability Justice, and Diné-centered methodologies, Taryn challenges deficit narratives that frame disabled Indigenous students as lacking or broken. Through personal stories, interviews, and cultural teachings, she illuminates how family, cultural identity, kinship, and Diné epistemologies (such as Sa’ah Naagháí Bik’eh Hózhóón) support disabled Indigenous students navigating higher education. The study advocates for the recognition of disability as part of Indigenous identity, rather than a medicalized problem, and calls on institutions to adopt more culturally sustaining, relational, and accessible approaches that affirm Indigenous students' full humanity and belonging.
Keywords: disability & wellbeing, education, Indigenous evaluation, methods & methodology, data sovereignty & governance, governance & sovereignty
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Andrea MilovanSinging the Song of Conservation: Influence of Biosecurity on the Indigenous Ngāi Tahu Land within the Mt Aspiring Region
2024 Master of Philosophy in Indigenous Studies, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway |
Andrea Milovan’s thesis investigates the impact of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Predator Free 2050 biosecurity strategy on Ngāi Tahu tino rangatiratanga and environmental authority within the Tititea (Mt Aspiring) region. Using the He Awa Whiria (Braided Rivers) framework, she weaves together Indigenous and Western knowledges to examine the use of 1080 poison, predator control policies, and the contested nature of conservation on Māori land. Her work highlights limited iwi consultation, the undervaluing of mātauranga Māori, and the ethical tensions facing non-Indigenous researchers. Milovan offers practical and relationally accountable conservation alternatives that centre Ngāi Tahu sovereignty and Indigenous environmental ethics. The research contributes to growing calls for decolonising conservation and affirms that ethical research with Indigenous peoples must be shaped by trust, collaboration, and accountability.
Keywords: cultural & relational ethics, indigenous governance & sovereignty, methods & methodology
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Ndapewa Fenny Nakanyete
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This dissertation investigates how San communities in Namibia engage in the global and regional value chains of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), such as Devil’s Claw. Using mixed methods, Nakanyete critiques benefit-sharing mechanisms, revealing inequities between multinational profits and minimal earnings for San producers. The work evaluates legislation and explores enabling structures for community-company partnerships. It makes a strong case for Indigenous knowledge and legal reform as tools for improving livelihood outcomes for forest-dependent communities.
Keywords: evaluation policy, economic & environmental justice
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Lynn Marie Mad Plume
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This dissertation portfolio includes three projects: a scoping review of Indigenous wellness measures, a facilitation manual for listening sessions with Tribal Peoples, and an evaluation of the 2022 Virtual Indigenous Data Science Academy. Each project centers Indigenous methodologies and values such as relationality, respect, and sovereignty. Mad Plume emphasizes Two-Eyed Seeing and Tribally Driven Research Frameworks to support culturally grounded health evaluation, with implications for both education and community-based research.
Keywords: cultural & relational ethics, health, wellness & social wellbeing, Indigenous evaluation, methods & methodology
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Gladys Rowe
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In this Master’s thesis, Gladys Rowe draws on a Muskego Inninuwuk (Swampy Cree) methodology to explore the identity journeys of mixed-blood Cree individuals in Canada. Through natural conversations with Cree Elders and mixed-ancestry Cree people, Rowe documents the impacts of colonisation, legislated identities, and systemic disconnection on the ability to form and sustain Indigenous identity. Participants speak to the pain of exclusion, internalised colonisation, and questions of authenticity, while also offering stories of reconnection, healing, and cultural resurgence. By centring concepts like mino-pimatisiwin (the good life) and Niwâkomâkanak (all my relations), this thesis affirms the role of story, relationship, and inner knowing as powerful tools for re-membering Indigenous identity. It is also a personal account of Rowe’s own decolonisation journey as a mixed-blood Muskego Inninuwuk woman.
Keywords: cultural & relational ethics, methods & methodology
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Gladys Rowe
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In her doctoral dissertation, Gladys Rowe explores how Indigenous full spectrum doulas are revitalising Indigenous Nationhood and reproductive justice across Turtle Island. Using an Indigenist paradigm and poetic inquiry, Rowe gathers and reflects on the stories of thirteen Indigenous doulas who provide culturally grounded support across a range of reproductive outcomes—including birth, miscarriage, abortion, and adoption. These doulas draw on ancestral knowledges, ceremonies, and relationships to resist colonial health systems and reclaim sovereignty over Indigenous bodies, lands, and family-making. Rowe presents the narratives as a “Resurgence Knowledge Bundle,” demonstrating that doula work fosters relational accountability, land-based reconnection, and Indigenous healing. This dissertation is both a scholarly and heartful offering—a call to honour Indigenous ways of knowing and doing in reproductive health.
Keywords: cultural & relational ethics, evaluation, Indigenous education, Indigenous governance & sovereignty
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Joyce Schneider
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Ucwalmicw scholar Joyce Schneider weaves her community’s teachings into a powerful Indigenist research framework using the metaphor and practice of blanket weaving. Through sharing circles, survey data, and a deep engagement with Ucwalmicw knowledge protocols, Schneider examines how local educational processes can disrupt colonial curricula and redefine Aboriginal education. Her work is grounded in political integrity, relational ethics, and community accountability. With each chapter structured as part of a loom, the dissertation itself becomes a living artefact—an educational blanket created for all her relations.
Keywords: Indigenous education, Indigenous governance & sovereignty, methods & methodology
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Mallory ShackIndigenous Perspectives in Program Evaluation: A Scoping Literature Review Exploring Wise Practices for Program Evaluation with Indigenous Communities in Northern Manitoba
2021 Master of Arts in Indigenous Governance, University of Winnipeg |
As a non-Indigenous researcher and Red Cross manager in northern Manitoba, Mallory Shack undertakes a scoping review to explore culturally grounded evaluation practices. Using 15 studies from across Turtle Island and Australia, she identifies evaluation frameworks grounded in community, land, and personal sovereignty. Her thesis offers “wise practices” for non-Indigenous organizations, emphasizing trust, reflexivity, and respect for Indigenous governance. The research strengthens understanding of data sovereignty and positions evaluation as a tool for Indigenous resurgence, not just accountability.
Keywords: cultural & relational ethics, Indigenous evaluation, geographic & community contexts
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Olga J. Skinner
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Olga Skinner’s PhD research examines how Alaska Native undergraduates navigate STEM degree pathways. Using Critical Indigenous Research Methodologies, she centers student voices to explore how cultural identity, family, subsistence knowledge, and both in-school and out-of-school experiences influence degree choices and persistence. Olga develops “the trail” as an Indigenous metaphor for student journeys, offering a strength-based alternative to the deficit-focused "pipeline" model. Through interviews, photographs, and participant observation, she highlights the role of Indigenous knowledge, community support, and programs like Rural Student Services and AISES in shaping student success. Her findings call for universities to engage more fully with Alaska Native ways of knowing and to strengthen culturally responsive supports for Indigenous STEM students.
Keywords: education, Indigenous evaluation, methods & methodology, Indigenous governance & sovereignty
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Nicole Tujague
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Tujague’s thesis uses story-based Indigenous methodologies to explore evaluation from the perspective of Aboriginal survivors of the Kinchela Boys Home. Through yarning and collaborative analysis, she finds that healing is the most critical indicator of success in programs affecting Aboriginal people. The research proposes a culturally safe, trauma-informed model of Indigenous Evaluation rooted in sovereignty, relationality, and accountability. It challenges mainstream evaluation practices and calls for Indigenous-led evaluation to support community-defined outcomes.
Keywords: health, wellness & social wellbeing, Indigenous evaluation, Indigenous governance & sovereignty
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Tammy Williams
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In this Master’s thesis, Mi’kmaw scholar Tammy Williams proposes a bold reimagining of Indigenous research frameworks through the creation of the 7-Direction Medicine Wheel Indigenous Research Model. Grounded in Two-Eyed Seeing—a Mi’kmaq approach that integrates Indigenous and Western worldviews—this work critiques existing paradigms like the Indigenous Research Agenda (IRA) and Indigenous Research Paradigm (IRP) for failing to reflect the diversity of Indigenous identities. Williams draws on interviews with urban Mi’kmaw knowledge holders in Kjipuktuk (Halifax), using story-acts and meaning making as culturally rooted analytical tools. Her model centres Indigenous epistemology, axiology, ontology, and methodology, while also adding new dimensions—consultation, identity, and community-specific protocols. Emphasising relational accountability, she offers a practical tool for researchers seeking to work respectfully and ethically with Indigenous communities. This work is both a decolonizing act and a personal journey, demonstrating that Indigenous research is not just methodology, but ceremony, identity, and resistance.
Keywords: cultural & relational ethics, geographic & community contexts, methods & methodology
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Tania Haerekiterā Wolfgramm
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Wolfgramm’s research weaves Māori knowledge systems, creative methodologies, and evaluation theory to develop Pou Mārama—a Māori values-centric evaluation framework. Grounded in the values of Wairua, Aroha, Mana, Tiaki, and Ora, the model builds on two decades of practitioner experience, interviews with Indigenous experts, and the symbolic construction of Pou Kapua, a large carved pou (pillar). The model supports ethical, relational, and transformative evaluation, advancing global Indigenous discourse on evaluation design.
Keywords: cultural & relational ethics, Indigenous evaluation
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