<p style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12px">From left: </span><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-size:12px">Maaki</span></span><span style="font-size:12px">&nbsp;Tuatini, Lisa Warner, </span><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-size:12px">Dr</span></span><span style="font-size:12px"> Amohia Boulton, Sharon Clarke, Roberta Williams, Rachel McClintock</span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Whakauae&rsquo;s Dr Amohia Boulton and Lynley Cvitanovic recently took part in the Aotearoa New Zealand Evaluation Association&rsquo;s (ANZEA) 2016 national conference&nbsp;held in Wellington from 18-21 July 2016. The theme of this year&rsquo;s conference was &#39;Next generation evaluation:&nbsp;Shaping&nbsp;better futures in Aotearoa New Zealand&#39; with presenters being encouraged to share their work in the context of changing evaluation landscapes across diverse and pluralist communities.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Dr Amohia Boulton, Gill Potaka-Osborne and Lynley Cvitanovic contributed to the preparation of two presentation abstracts submitted to the organisers for inclusion in the conference programme; &#39;Feeding the fires of occupation: Using evaluation to build capacity in a marae space&#39; and &lsquo;Principles for the Future? The <span style="font-size:16px"><strong>ST</strong></span>rengthening <span style="font-size:16px"><strong>E</strong></span>valuation <span style="font-size:16px"><strong>P</strong></span>ractices and <span style="font-size:16px"><strong>S</strong></span>trategies (STEPS) in Indigenous settings in Australia and New Zealand&rsquo; Project. Both abstracts were accepted.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">On the opening day of the conference Whakauae joined with Indigenous Australian colleagues Lisa Warner and Sharon Clarke, along with Associate Professor Margaret Cargo (University of South Australia), to present the work carried out to date on the STEPS Project. Later in the conference programme we co-presented &#39;Feeding the fires of occupation: Using evaluation to build capacity in a marae space&#39; with Maaki Tuatini and Roberta Williams.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">This second presentation explored the evaluation of Te Puawai o te Ahi Kaa, an innovative project developed in partnership by the Raetihi Pah and Te Oranganui Iwi Health Authority (Whanganui) and funded by the Ministry of Health. Gill Potaka-Osborne is leading the evaluation of the project working alongside project kaimahi Maaki Tuatini and Roberta Williams.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Te Puawai o te Ahi Kaa is based on the marae and aims to strengthen the health and&nbsp;wellbeing of the wh&#257;nau of Raetihi Pah - those who maintain the ahi&nbsp;kaa. The project kaimahi described the work of Te Puawai o te Ahi Kaa to conference participants highlighting the importance of using the marae setting to bring wh&#257;nau together. &nbsp;Gill Potaka-Osborne has been working closely with the project kaimahi to collect evaluation data using a range of methods that &lsquo;work&rsquo; for the kaimahi and wh&#257;nau including&nbsp;muralling, narrative inquiry and story-telling. Some of these&nbsp; methods, along with early evaluation findings, were presented at the conference.&nbsp;</p>

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<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:16px"><img alt="" src="/uploads/images/TPoTAK1(7).jpg" style="height:633px; width:650px" /></span></p>

<p style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12px">Te Puawai o te Ahi Kaa kaimahi working with wh&#257;nau to collect project evaluation data.</span></p>

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