When working on monitoring and evaluation projects with Aboriginal people and organisations, it is easy for university, government and non-government organisations to take the assumptions embedded their work as given.
In our GroundUp methods we begin with the knowledge and governance practices of Aboriginal people, taking seriously how they may be different from those assumed by governments, and by ourselves as academic researchers.
Working with Aboriginal elders to elaborate these insights often involves developing or discovering new methods for monitoring and evaluation. Working GroundUp with government (and nongovernment) agencies enables new ways of developing workable policies and practices which support and strengthen Aboriginal lives on country.