Since NDN Collective was founded, we have known the importance of collecting data that is by Indigenous people, for Indigenous people. We do this work through research and evaluation, which are processes of gathering, understanding, and acting on data. Terms such as research, evaluation, learning, and monitoring are often used when talking about how people and organizations can collect data to measure impact, or the real-world effects of their work. It might seem like these practices are confined to academic settings, or that they are removed from human-centered and community-based work because of their focus on data collection and analysis.
However, Indigenous people continue to collect data to benefit our communities, just as we have done for thousands of years.
We recognize that many systemically oppressed communities have traumatic experiences with how their data has been collected and used. Research and evaluation have been exploited as tools of colonialism to further epistemicide (silencing and erasing knowledge) and justify harm. To reclaim research and evaluation, it’s important to look to our ancestors. Indigenous people are the first scientists, researchers, and evaluators; we have been engaged in this work since time immemorial.
In an article outlining their Indigenous Evaluation Framework, evaluators from Urban Indian Health Institute write: “Our ancestors used the deep knowledge generated through their relationship with the land and their communities to sustainably manage resources, mitigate the impacts of climate change, engineer seaworthy crafts, selectively propagate crops, and prevent illness. We refer to these practices that Indigenous people have always engaged in as evaluation and research.”
We should approach evaluation in the same way that we approach being a good relative – by leading with compassion, honesty, curiosity, and the knowledge that people take unique paths on their journeys to accomplishing shared goals.
Understanding research and evaluation from our ancestors’ perspective guides NDN Collective’s approach to learning about impact.
Data sovereignty is our inherent right as Indigenous Peoples to “control, access, interpret, manage, and collectively own data about our communities, lands, and cultures.” Indigenous data sovereignty helps ensure that our communities benefit from accountable and ethical research, and that we are able and empowered to utilize data in the ways that we see fit.
Advocating for and practicing Indigenous data sovereignty is especially important in the current moment. Legislation that attacks human rights, governmental policies that deny peoples’ existence, and the rapid evolution of AI underscore the necessity of Indigenous data sovereignty. We know that data is a powerful tool that informs decisions, narratives, and funding, which have lasting impacts on our communities. Data sovereignty allows us to enact self-determination and reclaim research and evaluation work as an Indigenous practice to benefit Indigenous people.
The Importance of Research & Evaluation in Organizing
Data can be shared in healthy, sovereign, and beneficial ways. Through research and evaluation, we can create spaces that bring people together to reflect, imagine better futures, remain accountable, and exchange knowledge. When research and evaluation work is grounded in Indigenized methodologies, it becomes valuable and important for movement organizing.
NDN Collective relies on relational organizing to grow and sustain movements toward liberation. Relational organizing reminds us that we already have everything we need to effectively organize: community. By focusing on our relationships and circulating knowledge, resources, and skills, we can build collective power. Collective power and self-determination are interwoven; both empower communities to make transformative changes. LANDBACK exemplifies this approach to movement organizing and is the overarching framework for all of NDN Collective’s work to defend, develop, and decolonize.
Organizing for LANDBACK connects us to our ancestors and to Indigenous Peoples, Black relatives, and other people of color globally by targeting the root of white supremacy and colonialism. It’s imperative that we continually deepen relationships with and learn from each other because our struggles are interconnected and our oppressors benefit from separating us. A culture of care and learning is inherent to healthy relational organizing, but it can be difficult to consistently come together and reflect with those we are working towards liberation with. Balancing emergent needs, being present during direct actions, and tending to community by following up on everyone’s feedback can be daunting.
Evaluation practices provide a way for us to cultivate honest communication and ensure that people’s voices are heard and understood. Building evaluation into organizing might look like hosting community feedback and reflection sessions over a meal, talking with folks one-on-one to learn from their experiences, or having a council of youth and elders whose knowledge informs decision-making. These Indigenized evaluation practices give us insight into the impact of organizing efforts, information about community needs and expectations, and new perspectives.
Slowing down to listen to the people we are in community with and incorporating their wisdom into our collective work fosters accountability and reciprocity. Maintaining open dialogue through evaluation can also improve accessibility, ensure sustainable growth, and build consensus processes. Colonial research and evaluation practices are often focused on proving a theory right or only looking at a select few aspects of work. This is done by asking loaded questions, taking people’s words out of context, and not involving community members in the data gathering or meaning-making processes. Similarly to our relationships, evaluation must hold space for constructive criticism and encourage growth.
We should approach evaluation in the same way that we approach being a good relative– by leading with compassion, honesty, curiosity, and the knowledge that people take unique paths on their journeys to accomplishing shared goals.
Collective Visioning & Ancestral Knowledge
It’s crucial that we embody our dreams and ancestral knowledge when strategizing and reflecting on organizing. Indigenized evaluation can facilitate this collective visioning by inviting folks into a space dedicated to imagination. Collective visioning is a process of knowledge co-production where community members come together to imagine an equitable and just future.
Indigenous people continue to collect data to benefit our communities, just as we have done for thousands of years.
Aisha Shillingford, a Black futurist and artist-philosopher, writes that “Imagining the future is mostly about remembering and drawing lessons from the past. It’s also about giving ourselves space to change the present (or the near future). It allows us to temporarily let go of the feeling of the impossible that can exist in the present, and feel the power of creating conditions that allow more possibilities to unfold in the future. Once we can see these possibilities, regardless of when they exist in our imaginations, we can make them real in the now.”
This aligns with the seven generations philosophy, which emerged from Indigenous Peoples whose stories tell us that after six generations of oppression and hardship, there will be a seventh generation of youth born that will bring healing and renewal. We are all collectively preparing for the seventh generation by creating a path forward for our youth, and are simultaneously part of the seventh generation, which is why we are called to act now. By taking action in the present, envisioning and planning for the future, and listening to ancestral knowledge from the past, communities build power to enact radical change.
Using research and evaluation to understand the impact of organizing and how our movements should evolve encourages people to dream. It poses questions such as: What does the future you want to live in look like? And, how do we create it together? Hawaiian sovereignty activist Pōkā Laenui argues that dreaming is vital for decolonization, because “it is during this phase where people colonized are able to explore their own cultures, their own aspirations for their future, [and] consider their own structures of government.”
Sharing our dreams is a decolonial labor of love that shapes how we organize and reclaim sovereignty. Taking our dreams seriously and reflecting on them in community honors our ancestral knowledge of the power of dreaming. In these spaces of collaborative dreaming, we can better listen to our ancestors and invite them to be co-researchers and co-evaluators alongside us.
How to Support Our Work
The goal of sharing our perspective on research and evaluation’s role in movement organizing is multifaceted. We hope to continuously build Indigenized research and evaluation practices by sharing strategies and ideas with other folks who are working to understand how to best organize themselves against imperialism.
Nourishing ecosystems of collaboration will help us to use research and evaluation as a tool for guidance, support, and deeper connection as we engage in relational organizing. NDN Collective realizes that these practices are not static; they are meant to evolve as we continue to learn new perspectives and recover ancestral knowledge.
Our ask for allies isn’t to fully understand how we think as Indigenous Peoples. Rather, this is an invitation to acknowledge that our work might always leave you with questions. This is because our research and evaluation is story-based, and storytelling aims to share lessons that can be applied across diverse contexts instead of giving clearly spelled out, specific answers.
We also call on funders and individual allies who value NDN Collective’s work and believe in our theory of change to help us sustain our organizing and the research and evaluation work that accompanies it through recurring donations to our For the People Campaign. Building well-resourced communities means widely sharing knowledge, dreams, and material assets. This is imperative to regenerative development, self-determination, and collective power.
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Artwork created for NDN Collective by Megan McDermott (Little Shell Chippewa, Blackfeet & Cree).