4 Evaluation Journal of Australasia Vol 17 | No 2 | 2017 ACADEMIC ARTICLE Evaluation Journal of Australasia Vol 17 | No 2 | 2017 | pp. 4–10 ILSE BLIGNAULT | MEGAN WILLIAMS Challenges in evaluating Aboriginal healing programs: defnitions, diversity and data Indigenous people around the world have long healing traditions. Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healing projects are designed to empower individuals, families and communities; strengthen connections to culture; and reduce the damaging efects of colonisation and government policies such as the forcible removal of children (the Stolen Generations). Evidence on the conditions necessary for healing to occur, and how healing works for diferent people and in diferent contexts, is limited. Evaluations that will help identify good practice and document the full range of outcomes are sorely needed. This paper is based largely on experiences and learnings from Stolen Generations projects around Australia funded by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation, and the refections of experienced scholar-practitioners. It argues that evaluations that are responsive to, and ultimately owned and led by, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities need to be designed and implemented diferently to mainstream evaluations. Timeframes, methods, relationships between evaluators and stakeholders, and the identifcation and measurement of outcomes all need to be carefully considered. Challenges include defnitions of healing, diversity of landscapes and programs, and data collection. Qualitative methods that preference and support Indigenous cultural frameworks and ways of creating and sharing knowledge work well. In addition to ensuring culturally sensitive methodologies and tools, working ethically and efectively in the Indigenous healing space means emphasising and enabling safety for participants, workers and organisations. Background Aboriginal people are believed to have lived in Australia for over 60 000 years. They successfully adapted to the often-harsh environments which they inhabited, using their intimate knowledge and understanding of the land and its physical and natural resources not only to survive, but to thrive. As collective peoples, they developed ways of life that were rich in spirituality, lore, relationships and roles, music, art and storytelling (Pascoe, 2012). Colonisation had many negative consequences for Australia’s First Peoples. One of the most profound was the forcible removal of Aboriginal children from their families and communities under the laws and policies of Federal and State and Territory governments from the late 1800s to the 1970s. The social and emotional wellbeing and healing needs of these men and women—the Stolen Generations—and their families are distinct from the wider Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population (Peeters, Hamann & Kelly, 2014).