Rachel McClintock, Kahu McClintock, Amohia Boulton, Rachel Brown, Jaylene Wehipeihana, Tyler Morris, Tima Tuinasau, Tania Tito-Edge, Valerie Williams, May Hart
Abstract
In a world with a rapidly evolving technological landscape, Indigenous people are striving to reclaim and strengthen their traditional cultural knowledge bases for the wellbeing of their people. Currently, there is sparse literature on the use of technology in evaluation with indigenous people. This article provides an example of a Kaupapa Māori evaluation which utilised a novel technological approach to collect evaluation data from indigenous people, in a way that demonstrated Indigenous cultural values of Aotearoa (New Zealand) and improved understanding of the Seventh Healing Our Spirit Worldwide Gathering’s (Seventh Gathering) contribution to the wellbeing of its attendees. Specifically, the article describes the process undertaken to evaluate the sessions component of the Seventh Gathering, that was held in Aotearoa, over four days. The evaluation team describe the use of an iPad based mixed method e-survey to gain participant impressions about, and the benefits of, the Seventh Gathering sessions. This article will share benefits of the application used to build and run the survey; how participation in the survey was encouraged; as well as provide examples of the information gained. All of which is helpful for Indigenous people considering using this or similar technology to gain information about Indigenous wellbeing; as well as those seeking to run a similar event.
