In the Kimberley, the Yawuru people recognised a need to first and foremost invest in data about themselves, driven by them to inform Yawuru development and wellbeing. Between 2013 and 2016, the Yawuru community in partnership with the ANU and the Kimberley Institute, supported by Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre  embarked on the Yawuru Wellbeing Project to capture Yawuru ways of being and doing underpinned by the philosophy of mabu liyan. Mabu liyan reflects the Yawuru sense of belonging and being, living well in connection with country, culture, others and oneself.  

In 2020, Nyamba Buru Yawuru Ltd, Nagula Jarndu, Garnduwa Amboorny Wirnan and the Centre for Indigenous Policy Research (CIPR) formed a research consortium to explore how sports, arts and nation-building supports the pursuit and achievement of mabu liyan in the Kimberley. All Aboriginal organisations involved in this research share and embrace the philosophy of liyan, are community focused, Indigenous led and locally based.  Funded through the Lowitja Institute Project Grants (2020, this project aimed to: 

1. To co-design culturally appropriate framework and associated indicators and data collection mechanisms to enable Indigenous-led monitoring and evaluation
2. To understand how invovlement in arts, sports and nation building activities can lead mabu liyan (wellbeing) for Indigenous communities in the Kimberley

Why this research matters?  

For many Indigenous communities in Australia, the evaluation and monitoring of programs and services affecting them are typically framed using mainstream government reporting frameworks and do not go far enough to reflect their aspirations and circumstances. Indigenous communities and organisations in the Kimberley have been mobilising a grass-roots agenda to be informed with their own information rather than be at the margins of receiving data about them. This agenda starts with Indigenous philosophies and lived realities on the ground and involves working with Indigenous community partners the whole research process to co-develop and measure what constitutes wellbeing for them. 

Key implications arising from the research 

• By reshaping our understanding of evidence and the forms it might take, this project places Indigenous knowledge at the forefront of evidence production with the aim of transforming the ways in which governments work with Indigenous organisations to co-develop indicators and targets for program evaluation.
• The co-produced framework and indicators from Indigenous communities, in the form that Governments are more accustomed to (measurable and quantifiable information) hopes to inform how Governments can better work with Indigenous communities and organisations to realise their aspirations and achieve wellbeing for Indigenous peoples.
• By grounding the indicators and measures to a community perspective or story, this project aspires to create a sense of ownership amongst Indigenous women and men in the communities and in programs which they participate in as a way of achieving and maintaining wellbeing.
• By generating new knowledge to understand the pathways to which sports, nation building and art contributes to wellbeing, a resulting impact is that Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners are better informed to design and deliver programs which are more align with Indigenous aspirations as identified by the program beneficiaries.
• For the three partner Indigenous organisations, their role in society involves maintaining and sustaining the social and cultural fabric of communities they live and work in. This project seeks to empower them to lead their own research and have access to external support as they require, equipping themselves with their own data for planning and development purposes.  

The co-developed methodology can also serve as a blueprint for other Indigenous organisations to adapt and implement to develop their own evaluation framework.