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Sharon Barnes (IPSOS, -),Eliziah Wasaga (DSS, )

We don't always get it right - we listen, we learn, we give our people a voice.

As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers, through our anti-colonial eyes we see the diversity of impact, through walking, living and talking with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the communities we visit. Our experience empowers us to give our people a voice in dealing with issues in our country.

We are not the experts in every place we visit.  We are a mere drop in the ocean, a small leaf on a tree or a pebble in a creek. Our own landscapes can make or break research or evaluation - how do we walk across the many roads that we need to cross? We all have our own standards, beliefs, stories, how do we as researchers and evaluators stop our own bias from clouding the voices of our people?

Listening doesn't just involve the spoken word; it includes the many landscapes of people's body language, sign language and the silence.  We will give some examples of where we and others haven't quite got it right, how did we fix it and how did this affect the research or evaluation.

How do we build the trust and relationships for the real voices of our people to be heard and how do you know when you have the trust and right knowledge of the people?

How do we as researchers and evaluators knock down our own walls to allow the real voices of the people in and when do we know if we have pushed the wrong buttons?

The expectations of the Community verses the funder, are not always aligned and we are in the middle. Some call this "walking in two worlds".  How did we track our way through the complexities?