Aboriginal-led development
We work with Aboriginal-controlled and other Aboriginal-focused organisations in the Northern Territory to monitor the implementation of some of their key programs and understand how they are contributing to wellbeing in their communities.
These projects focus on facilitating Aboriginal communities’ autonomy and control over their lives.
We aim to ensure that monitoring and evaluation activities help to track and meaningfully assess change in a way which reflects community values and strengthens community capacity to manage their lives. Working with Aboriginal researchers, we aim to conduct culturally safe research by co-designing research approaches, data collection tools and data visualisations in collaboration with Indigenous communities.
We also aim to share the learning from these partnerships in ways which influence the ideas, policies and practices of development and social change organisations.
Featured projects
Other projects
The CHSSC is working alongside Parks Australia to develop an effective and sustainable process for monitoring and evaluating the joint management of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the Northern Territory.
Over a period of twelve months, the CHSSC has worked with Aboriginal communities of the park and with other Parks Australia stakeholders to develop and pilot a monitoring and evaluation approach to support the ongoing assessment of stakeholder satisfaction with the joint management of the park.
The approach has been developed, tested and refined in collaboration with Aboriginal researchers, paying particular attention to the perspectives and world views of traditional owners and local Aboriginal community members.
Our work with Parks Australia is currently led by Research Fellow Alex Gyles with support from Senior Research Fellow Mardi Grundy.
The CHSSC partnered with the Aboriginal Peak Organisations Northern Territory (APONT) in 2022-23 to conduct an evaluation of its Aboriginal Governance and Management Program (AGMP) which was established in 2013 to build the capacity of NT Aboriginal organisations.
The evaluation was conducted in the second half of 2022 and was led by former Senior Research Fellow Danielle Campell with support from then CHSSC Senior Research Fellow Lisa Denney, Research Associate Marlkirdi Napaljarri Rose and an independent researcher Louise Stanley who completed a research thesis with the CHSSC in 2021.
The final evaluation report can be found here.
The CHSSC was engaged by the Northern Institute at Charles Darwin University in 2021-2022 to help develop a monitoring and evaluation framework for the Northern Territory Government (NTG) Remote Engagement and Coordination Strategy (RECS).
The RECS aims to improve outcomes for Indigenous communities by improving government service coordination and regional and remote engagement with Indigenous people.
The CHSSC drew on existing Northern Institute research and consultation with NTG government staff to draw out differences between NTG staff and remote Indigenous community in regard to expectations of RECS and indicators of positive change. This informed an action research project which has enabled each group to separately collect, analyse and use data to assess existing engagement and coordination practice and identify how it can be improved.
This project was led by then Centre Co-Director Linda Kelly and supported by former Senior Research Fellow Danielle Campbell.
The Northern Land Council (NLC) is responsible for assisting Aboriginal peoples in the Top End of the Northern Territory to acquire and manage their traditional lands and seas. This includes supporting the design and delivery of community projects across 18 locations through the Community Planning and Development Program, all of which have a strong focus on maintaining culture, supporting youth and constructing community infrastructure.
In 2021, then CHSSC Co-Director Linda Kelly collaborated with the NLC on trialling and refining three approaches to monitoring and evaluating these Aboriginal-led community development initiatives. These included regular project monitoring and feedback from Indigenous participants and NLC staff, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers from Charles Darwin University (CDU). The research explored community perspectives on community development aspirations and outcomes using a ‘Ground Up’ approach and assessing the program’s impact on community wellbeing in one location using an adapted version of the Australian National University’s Mayi Kuwayu Survey.
The work generated interesting and important insights, particularly around the Indigenous Ground Up research approach and the adapted community well-being survey, which were co-presented with CDU researchers at the national Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AITSIS) conferences and in a journal article co-authored with the NLC which won the Australasian Evaluation Society 2022 Publication Award.