Evaluations of programs for Indigenous Australians should reflect the same degree of good practice as all evaluations strive to achieve. These evaluations, however, have additional complexity resulting from the context of Indigenous people’s history and culture and current levels of disadvantage within Australian society. Indigenous Australians comprise 517,000 or 2.5% of the Australian population (Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2006) but generally experience poorer health, lower life expectancy, higher rates of death and disability, and compromised quality of life and well being when compared to the total Australian population. In addition, Indigenous Australians are over represented in incarceration and child protection systems . To address the level of disadvantage, and to ‘close the gap’ for Indigenous Australians, it is important that programs or initiatives designed for Indigenous Australians are fully evaluated to determine ‘what works for whom, in what contexts, and how’ (Pawson & Tilley 1997). Effective and credible evaluations of programs designed for Indigenous Australians should be informed by an understanding of Indigenous history and culture, culturally sensitive, appreciate Indigenous worldviews and differences, operate ethically and reflect good practice in evaluation, and be capable of producing evaluation findings that can inform future program design and social policy. #EvaluationPolicy #HowTo #2009Conference #IndigenousPeoplesinEvaluation