Place of Strength: Indigenous Artists and Indigenous Knowledge is Prevention Science

The Place of Strength (PoS) project represents an effort to Indigenize program evaluation with Indigenous communities by melding art with prevention science. We propose that Native artists as evaluators: (a) opens avenues of communication for Indigenous perspectives; (b) provides opportunities to capture spiritual, relational, and emotional impacts of prevention programming; and (c) maintains Indigenous processes, language, and values at the center of knowledge production. The New Mexico Tribal Prevention Project (NMTPP) funded seven Southwestern tribes to develop substance abuse prevention programs. In response to their expressed negative experiences with evaluation of prevention strategies, NMTPP piloted PoS. PoS shifted systematic knowledge paradigms to Tribal thought, values, and perspectives embodied in art. Art exists in Native communities as a way of documenting lifeways and historical experiences through various cultural forms. We share the process of collaborating with Native artists to document the impact of substance abuse prevention initiatives through their art within a community context. We offer concepts derived from this project as a community psychology model for re-conceptualizing evaluation utilizing Indigenous knowledge.