Indigenous Peoples in Evaluation TIG Week: Honoring Roots and Relations in Indigenous Evaluation by January O’Connor

Date: Sunday, October 12, 2025

My name is January O’Connor (Tlingit, Kake, Alaska). I am an Alaska Native evaluator, educator, and consultant, and a current Ph.D. student in Indigenous Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Through Raven’s Group LLC, I focus on culturally grounded evaluation and education initiatives that center Indigenous values and priorities.

In my experience, effective Indigenous evaluation is less about the tools and more about the relationships. Entering an evaluation space means grounding myself in the understanding that evaluation is not just technical, it is also relational. Listening with respect, honoring cultural knowledge, and creating space for voices across generations is as important as the surveys and reports. This relational approach reminds me that evaluation can either reproduce harm or contribute to advancing Indigenous priorities.

Rad Resource

One resource that embodies this spirit is the Roots and Relations section of the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation.

Its purpose is to:

• Provide a safe, welcoming space for Indigenous-led evaluation.
• Build a home for Indigenous scholarship in diverse formats—text, oral history, visual, and creative.
• Blend Indigenous frameworks with conventional review, fostering learning and kinship.
• Center intergenerational relationships and sovereignty, keeping the work rooted in traditional knowledge, cultural protocols, and Indigenous ethics.

Four Directions of the Medicine Wheel framework:

• Eastern Door – Be a Good Relative. Come ready to listen and act with respect.
• Southern Door – Be of Good Mind. Evaluation is rooted in strength-based, sovereign practices.
• Western Door – Do Good Work. Strategies and policies must be culturally responsive and regenerative.
• Northern Door – Be on a Good Journey. Evaluation honors ancestral wisdom while inspiring future generations.

This framework reminds that evaluation can be holistic and include facets that expand beyond the academic.

Cool Trick: Apply the Four Doors into Practice

Even outside of Indigenous communities, the Four Doors can guide evaluation practice.

• Eastern Door – Being a Good Relative: Am I approaching this work as a good relative? And what does that mean to me as a person and evaluator? For example, before designing tools or collecting data, evaluators can pause to consider how they are preparing themselves and their teams. Are they approaching work with respect, openness, and readiness to learn from the community?
• Southern Door – Do Good Work: Is my mind centered in respect and reciprocity? For example, as information is gathered, evaluators can reflect on whether the methods respect participant sovereignty and center community-defined strengths, rather than relying solely on external measures.
• Western Door – Implementation and Analysis: Are the strategies aligned with community-defined needs? For example, in interpreting findings and making recommendations, evaluators can ask whether the work advances solutions that are culturally relevant, practical, and responsive to community needs.
• Northern Door – Be on a good Journey: How will this work benefit future generations? For example, at the conclusion of a project, evaluators can consider how the results will serve beyond the immediate funder report. Will the products be accessible to youth, Elders, or community leaders? Will they help guide future action?

This approach doesn’t require specialized knowledge of Indigenous cultures to begin applying. Instead, it provides reflective questions to build stronger relationships and ensure that work is carried out in ways that are more in alignment with Indigenous values and approaches.

Closing Thought

It is important to remember that Indigenous Evaluation is not simply about adapting western methods. It is about reclaiming evaluation as a tool for cultural survival, sovereignty, and intergenerational strength. Roots and Relations is a resource that we can utilize to garner insights, use to ground ourselves, and to remember the reason for our work.

The American Evaluation Association is hosting Indigenous Peoples in Evaluation (IPE) TIG week. All posts this week are contributed by members of the IPE Topical Interest Group. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the AEA365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an AEA365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to AEA365@eval.org. AEA365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.