Beyond metrics: Centring Indigenous Knowledges in higher education equity evaluation

Abstract

Evaluation in Australian higher education is often presented as objective and neutral, yet dominant frameworks remain deeply embedded in Eurocentric epistemologies that privilege compliance, standardisation, and quantifiable metrics. These approaches marginalise Indigenous knowledges and risk reducing equity to a technical rather than structural and justice-oriented concern. In this article, we critically examine how such frameworks entrench epistemic exclusion in the evaluation of equity programs. Drawing on Indigenous-Pacific epistemologies, including fa’afaletui, vā, talanoa, and tok stori, we argue for relational, culturally grounded, and community-led approaches to evaluation. Case studies from the University of Technology Sydney, Western Sydney University, and Griffith University demonstrate how Indigenous-Pacific methodologies are embedded in program design, delivery, and evaluation, generating indicators such as cultural identity, belonging, and intergenerational aspiration that remain invisible in mainstream evaluation logics. We show how Indigenous-Pacific frameworks not only expand what counts as rigour but also reposition evaluation as a practice of reciprocity, accountability, and justice. Our contribution is both critical and hopeful and a call to reimagine evaluation not as a tool of control, but as a relational and transformative practice that honours Indigenous sovereignty and community-defined success.