Indigenous community leaders are concerned that census data showing a surging Indigenous population could result in resources being misdirected.
Just before the pandemic hit, Amanda Newton, a sales and marketing manager, decided to pursue the long-unanswered question of her grandfather’s heritage.
Newton herself does not self-identify as Indigenous and did not tick the box in the census that asked if she was Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Since then, Newton has spent time researching where her grandfather came from and teaching her children about their newly learned ancestry.to determine a person’s Indigenous status. The “working definition” deems that in addition to self-identifying, a person must be of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent and also be recognised as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander by the community.
“In the south-east, particularly along the coast, an increasing number of middle-class liberal progressives are self-identifying, claiming their Aboriginality through a distant relative,” says academic Suzanne Ingram, a Wiradjuri woman.The distortion of demographic statistics has real-world implications for disadvantaged Indigenous communities, says Denise Bowden, chief executive of the Yothu Yindi Foundation , which represents Yolngu people in Arnhem Land.
While the census does not require respondents claiming to be Indigenous to provide evidence, the ABS says it believes the vast majority of people complete the census truthfully.