IPE TIG Week: Reciprocal Relations: Reflections from an Indigenous Evaluators Community of Practice by Nicole Bowman and Banita McCarn

Date: Monday, October 12, 2026

Koolamalsi (greetings in Nicky’s language)/ Dzaanh nezoonh! (in Banita’s language).

I’m Nicky Bowman (Lunaape/Mohican), Policy Chair for the IPE TIG. A wife, auntie, sister, and friend, I am also a traditional community member and citizen of the sovereign Tribal Nation of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohicans in Wisconsin. My professional/academic work is via Bowman Performance Consulting and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

I’m Banita McCarn (Koyukon Athabascan). I was born on ancestral land in Fairbanks, Alaska, and currently live as a guest on Coast Salish land in Seattle, Washington. I come from a family of storytellers and carry on that legacy through my evaluation work of creating a story of impact through data. My approach is grounded in relational accountability, guided by community knowledge. My work has been situated within diverse spaces, including a Tribal epidemiology center, urban Indian organizations, and now local government.

As part of an Indigenous evaluation Community of Practice (CoP), facilitated and led by Gladys Rowe with the Indigenous Insights Collective. The CoP culminated in Juneau, Alaska, after nearly a year of meeting virtually. Nine CoP members came together to deeply connect and envision what an Indigenous evaluation CoP looks like.

Rooted in storytelling, poetry, weaving, drawing, and engaging in land-based activities, we incorporated Indigenous knowledge, values, and practices. With our minds, bodies, hearts, and spirits, we listened and learned. We stood in the presence of the seen and unseen, including our own intuitive voice, as part of reciprocal and sacred relationships.

In evaluation spaces, Indigenous ways of knowing are often treated as additional rather than foundational. This CoP created space for Indigenous evaluators to learn together without the need to translate or justify community-centered approaches. Evaluation, particularly equity- and justice-oriented work, can be isolating and demanding. This CoP offered belonging, nourishment, and the gifts of seeing and being seen while holding space for stories, laughter, humor, insights, and collective meaning-making.

Takeaways (AKA Lessons Learned and Hot Tips)

• The medicine and traditional knowledge shared need to be authentic so we can learn to integrate our collective medicines into evaluation. Indigenous knowledge keepers must also be vigilant caretakers of this knowledge, so it is safely and appropriately utilized within our communities, including evaluation.
• Embodied knowledge from traditional Indigenous knowledge keepers requires engaged students of culture and language to cocreate and grow a healthy evaluation ecosystem. Reading about traditional knowledge (i.e., head knowledge) is never a replacement for lived and ancestral knowledge (i.e., oral knowledge shared since time immemorial). Walking with this spiritual and intellectual integrity is part of the ecology of the Sacred (Sheridan and Longboat, 2006).
• As Indigenous people, we bring an array of traditions, worldviews, and art forms. As a CoP, we were aligned through a relational approach centered on values of connection to the Land (including physical land, air, water, all beings and their spiritual interconnectedness), a wholistic paradigm of personhood, respect for the wisdom of Elders and ancestors, and collective responsibility for sharing knowledge and cultural teachings.

Giveaways (AKA Rad Resources)

• Braiding sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Indigenous methodologies. Characteristics, conversations, and context by Margaret Kovach
• A conversational approach to learning about learning: Embedded Indigenous evaluation and communities of practice
• Xwat Anushiik (big appreciation) to the resources and supports from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Indigenous Insights Collective.

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.