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What We Do

Gilibanga’s work is organised around four interconnected streams, each building on the other to drive lasting change across the Australian evaluation sector.

Building a Strong and Confident Living Network

Gilibanga is not a static membership list. It is a living, connected community of practice : built on genuine relationships, mutual care, and shared purpose.

In our first year, we grew from 65 interested First Nations peoples to 120 endorsed members nationally, spanning every state and territory, as well as connections in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. We hosted 7 national online yarns, drawing 164 attendances, with many members returning month after month.

These gatherings are more than meetings. They are culturally safe spaces : predictable, healing, and grounded : where First Nations evaluators who often work in isolation can show up, share, and grow together. Across the Network, many members carry the weight of being the only Blak evaluation practitioner in their organisation or region. Gilibanga exists to bridge that gap.

Our Network operates through a Core-Periphery Model : with a Core Backbone Team acting as systems-weavers, Network Catalysts creating connection and synthesising insight, and an Extended Community of members driving the broader movement. Leadership, resources, and responsibility are distributed across all levels for maximum reach and effectiveness.

our network

Strengthening Skills and Authority

Gilibanga is committed to deepening the skills, confidence, and recognised authority of First Nations evaluators : ensuring they have everything they need to lead, implement, and teach culturally grounded evaluation practice across the sector. In 2025, 54 members accessed specialised learning opportunities through Gilibanga’s capability-building program, including:

39 Members

strengthening their cultural evaluation authority through 2WUMEL, Decolonising Research Methodologies workshops, and participation in the Australian Evaluation Society conferences.

15 Members

advancing their Indigenous Data Governance expertise through KUMU evaluation methods and specialised IDS masterclasses.

1 Emerging Leader

supported to apply for the prestigious Paul Ramsay Foundation Fellowship : signalling Gilibanga’s role as an incubator of next-generation Blak thought leadership.
We are also developing the Gilibanga Library and Resource Hub : a growing repository of Indigenous evaluation knowledge and thought leadership, designed to decolonise access to expertise and ensure that First Nations practitioners and the sector can learn from a growing body of culturally grounded knowledge.

Sharing First Nations-led Evaluation

Resources and Knowledge

Gilibanga premises First Nations ways of knowing, doing and being in the work that we do together and with others. We have a shared responsibility and obligation to contribute to thought leadership, to share knowledge, insights and connections, and to bring these back to our communities and spaces. We have an open space for all voices to contribute and seek to bring others along the journey.

We are currently developing our Gilibanga Resource Hub and Online Library as part of the Gilibanga Digital Infrastructure and Ecosystem, which will share resources, tools and knowledge about evaluation practices and methodologies that honour and embed our worldviews. By highlighting the contributions and perspectives of our members and other leaders globally, we are creating a solid basis for identifying the most effective standards and principles for work that leverages the expertise of Blak evaluators and eliminates harm.

knowledge sharing

Driving Systemic Change

Gilibanga is a visible and recognised force for sector accountability. Through advocacy, presence, and collective voice, we are reshaping the foundations of evaluation practice in Australia.

In 2025, we made our presence felt at the Australian Evaluation Society International Conference (aes25), engaging with over 600 participants from 17 countries. We connected and supported 13 First Nations AES-sponsored grant recipients, creating a unified and powerful presence of Blak excellence at the highest level of the sector.

Our members continue to call out the pervasive lack of cultural safety across the broader sector : naming colonial load, cultural harm, and the need for structural change. This advocacy is not just naming problems. It is sparking critical conversations about power, representation, and accountability that are beginning to reshape what the sector demands of itself.

We are not here to participate in evaluation on someone else’s terms. We are here to redefine what evaluation looks like : grounded in cultural integrity, community authority, and Indigenous ways of knowing.