Evaluation of Ngalla Wirrin Wungening (Our Spirit Healing) AOD Program
Wungening Aboriginal Corporation receives the 2026 Indigenous Evaluation Award for its evaluation of the Ngalla Wirrin Wungening (Our Spirit Healing) AOD Programme. By bringing developmental evaluation together with Aboriginal methodologies including Impact Yarns, storytelling, co-research and collective sense-making, the evaluation offers a powerful example of culturally grounded evaluation practice.
At the heart of the evaluation was an approach that privileged Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing while supporting continuous learning and improvement within the organisation.
The evaluation involved strong engagement with Aboriginal participants, staff and organisational leaders. Methods such as Impact Yarns and storytelling created opportunities for people’s experiences and knowledge to meaningfully shape both the evidence and the conclusions drawn from it.
Importantly, the evaluation was not simply an exercise in reporting. Findings have already contributed to service improvement, strengthened organisational capability and supported ongoing learning. Videos and other dissemination activities have extended participation in the evaluation and helped make its findings accessible and useful.
The evaluation also makes a broader contribution to Indigenous evaluation practice, particularly within Aboriginal alcohol and other drug services.
Its thoughtful integration of developmental evaluation with Aboriginal methodologies provides a valuable model for culturally responsive evaluation that has relevance well beyond the immediate program.
About the Indigenous Evaluation Award
This Award recognises Indigenous evaluation practice. This includes evaluations led by Indigenous peoples, and/or conducted in partnership with Indigenous peoples. It also recognises evaluation capacity building with Indigenous peoples in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Pacifica.
Work nominated for the Award should:
- generate positive impacts for the Indigenous communities
- nurture Indigenous self-determination and sustainability#
- empower Indigenous people in evaluation practice##
- strengthen the accountability of Indigenous evaluation.
Recipients of this Award agree to publish their evaluation products on the AES website.
# The underlying intent of this point is to encourage a conceptual shift in practice from doing evaluations on Indigenous peoples towards doing evaluations with, and/or by, Indigenous peoples. For further guidance on the meaning of Indigenous self-determination and sustainability in this context, please refer to the descriptions in the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Code of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research – Consultation Draft, 2019. Non-Indigenous and First Nations evaluators can refer to the AES (2021) First Nations Cultural Safety Framework for further guidance on principles and practices for moving towards culturally safe evaluations.
## Empowerment may include work in building evaluation capacity, building a culture of evaluation, and/or an awareness and interest in evaluation, and evaluation policy development. Nominations are assessed by a panel of Indigenous peers.