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Presenter: Dr. Nicole Bowman (Mohican/Lunaape) of Bowman Performance Consulting and the Wisconsin Center for Education Research

Abstract: Prior to colonial contact, there were Indigenous peoples, principles, and pathways for living sacredly with all our relations on Mother Earth and within the universe. These traditional knowledge sources, indigenous lifestyles, and effective ways to co-exist and sustain the planet have not been completely erased. However, post-colonial values and life ways have dominated the Anthropocene for centuries and have severely caused damage, some irreparable. Learning how to “be a good relative” also applies to the evaluation ecosystem. By understanding how tribal critical theory can be applied to our systems or other work as evaluators, we can begin to work with Tribal Nations and Indigneous communities as partners without extracting the cultural and intellectual knowledge from Indigenous partners like has been extracted in a damaging way from Mother Earth. By engaging in nation-to-nation evaluations, Tribal and non-Tribal governments and evaluation policy makers and practitioners can learn one way to create authentic, responsive, and lasting relations. We must re-imagine how we can work together differently so we address the root causes that have us in climate crisis, which is why SDGs are even needed in the first place.