Framework for Action

Submissions are encouraged to respond to the following questions and themes, drawing on your lived experience and knowledge. The purpose of providing questions as opposed to seeking more general views and opinions is to encourage nuanced discussion. Respondents do not have to answer all questions. If you prefer, you are also welcome to respond more generally to the themes.

 Measuring change outcomes

We are interested in learning from your experience about what effective practices (data collection, measurement, and evaluation) look like in order to understand how to measure change outcomes across community, regional, state, national and global settings. We also recognise that there are approaches and methodologies grounded in First Nations women’s knowledges and cultures that should be used when setting outcomes and measuring change, and we are keen to understand what these look like from your experience. 

1. What change do you want to see for First Nations women and girls, in all their diversity, with their families and communities, to live their lives in the way they want? What would you feel, see, hear, sense or collectively understand if this change was happening?
2. In your experience, what practices and approaches are most effective in collecting data, measuring and evaluating change?
3. How do you want to see local change practices and data collection inform national priorities and achieve systemic outcomes, and how could this relate to the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Framework for Action for First Nations Gender Justice and Equality? 
4. Do you have any additional thoughts, views or experiences about gender-specific data and outcomes that could be included in the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Framework for Action for First Nations Gender Justice and Equality and the First Nations Gender Justice Institute’s work?

Ensuring a strong accountability and evaluation approach

An accountability and evaluation approach is necessary to ensure that the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Framework for Action for First Nations Gender Justice and Equality and First Nations Gender Justice Institute can be responsive to the changes that First Nations women and girls, in all their diversity, want to see in their lives and communities. As both the Framework and Institute are independent of government, owned and designed by First Nations women and girls, this approach may be used to hold stakeholders to account if they have a role in realising outcomes. 

1. Should government (and other stakeholders) be accountable to community determined outcomes? How can this be included in the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Framework for Action for First Nations Gender Justice and Equality?
2. What does the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Framework for Action for First Nations Gender Justice and Equality and First Nations Gender Justice Institute need to do to incorporate diverse lived experiences and to ensure that no one misses out on opportunities to contribute to and hear this work?
3. We recognise that the process to implement change is just as important as achieving outcomes. How would you want to see implementation processes evaluated over time?
4. Do you have any additional thoughts, views or experiences about accountability practices that could be included in the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Framework for Action for First Nations Gender Justice and Equality and the Institute’s work?

Protecting and strengthening data sovereignty and governance

The First Nations Gender Justice Institute will continue the engagement, storytelling and sharing of women's and girls’ voices that has been a core practice of Wiyi Yani U Thangani. These experiences, strengths, issues and aspirations that women and girls share will be used to form part of a living database to help us understand what’s working, what needs to change, and what success looks like. 

1. What are your hopes and aspirations for what the First Nations Gender Justice Institute’s database on First Nations women’s and girl’s lived experience and voices could look like? How can we ensure safe and considered access and use of the database?
2. How do we ensure that this living database is used and owned by First Nations women and girls?
3. How can the First Nations Gender Justice Institute support First Nations women and girls to access, contribute to and use the database? How can this help women and girls to make decisions about their own local priorities to measure what works on the ground?  
4. Do you have any additional thoughts, views or experiences about strengthening data sovereignty and government that could be included in the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Framework for Action for First Nations Gender Justice and Equality and First Nations Gender Justice Institute’s work?

Feedback was initially sought from delegates attending the Wiyi Yani U Thangani National Summit: We are the Change held in May 2023 through a post-summit survey and gathered through discussions during summit presentations and sessions. This feedback has provided useful insight guiding the design phases of this exciting work. 

Delegates called for the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Framework for Action for First Nations Gender Justice and Equality (working title) and First Nations Gender Justice Institute to incorporate the existing Ways of Working used in the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Implementation Framework, stressing the importance of empowering all First Nations women, in all their diversity, and across all ages. As many women reflected, the Framework and Institute must be co-designed with us, for us - the Institute acting as a place for First Nations women’s knowledges and practices, and a safe and empowering environment for voices to be heard and responded to. 

The Framework and Institute should be culturally appropriate, use a decolonising approach, be trauma-informed, honest and hold integrity. Priorities and ways of working should align with other policies and practices across Australia, including the Closing the Gap agenda, Uluru Statement from the Heart and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

The Framework must be an empowering and self-determined scaffold for the future, grounded in First Nations women’s ways of knowing, doing and being, truth-telling, and strengths and best practices. It should create a sustainable way forward that reflects First Nations women’s values, priorities and goals. In doing so, it should be flexible and resilient, acting as a living governance structure for a better, stronger future for all. 

Reflecting on measurement and evaluation, women acknowledged that data should be collected in collaboration with communities and uphold principles of Indigenous data sovereignty and governance. The approach taken should speak to what First Nations women and girls feel, see, sense and hear, so as to be grounded in lived experience, and respect, value and respond to this experience, equal to or above formal western qualitative and quantitative evaluation methodologies. This emphasis provides a more nuanced understanding of how actions, indicators, targets and goals impact women and girls across all facets of their lives. This approach ensures that outcomes and data collected are viewed within a holistic context, where women’s lives are embedded in women’s knowledge and ways of working.  

Women suggested evaluation and measurement could take place through national surveys (annual, quarterly, broad or topic-focused) or regular yarning with communities. The data collected should be measured against community-developed baselines connecting to culture and community priorities, not in comparison to others, and through a strengths-based and holistic approach. Others suggested data should be evaluated against national data sets and studies to reflect systemic changes across key areas. Reporting and measurement should also be made public, transparent, and accessible to First Nations peoples across Australia – presented in different formats and languages. Reporting should be responded to authentically by all stakeholders involved – recognising that the data holds meaning and should be treated respectfully. 

Women also raised questions regarding how the Framework and Institute might interact with government bodies, and how it can best be used in different settings, including as an educative tool, to make change happen.