Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Indigenous demography and public policy in Australia: population or peoples?

  • Published:
Journal of Population Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper reviews the application of demographic analysis to Indigenous Affairs public policy in Australia as an exemplar case of the demography of disadvantage. Demography has found a natural and successful role using census, survey and administrative data, but for the most part this is restricted to a series of gap analyses based on a deficit model of Indigenous well-being as measured by standard social indicators. While useful for macropolicy settings, translation of these research findings into coherent policy on the ground is thwarted by a lack of ethnographically informed data that account for the intercultural world in which many Indigenous people exist and operate. This is because the categories and contexts deployed are uncritically those of the mainstream, and not those reflective of Indigenous social structures or life projects. This inadequacy is explored against the background of an emerging dialogue between demography and anthropology. Ironically, Australian demographers pioneered such a dialogue but so far it has failed to penetrate demographic research that informs Indigenous public policy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arthur, W., & Morphy, F. (Eds.). (2005). Macquarie atlas of indigenous Australia: Culture and society through space and time. Sydney: The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2004). Calculating experimental life tables for use in population estimates and projections of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 1991 to 2001, catalogue no. 3106.0.55.003. Canberra: ABS.

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2007). ABS directions in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander statistics, catalogue no. 4700.0. Canberra: ABS.

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2008a). Discussion paper: Assessment of methods for developing life tables for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, catalogue no. 3238.0.55.002. Canberra: ABS.

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2008b). Experimental estimates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, June 2006, catalogue no. 3238.0.55.001. Canberra: ABS.

  • Bhat, P. N. M. (2002). General growth balance method: A reformulation for populations open to migration. Population Studies, 56(2), 23–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birdsall, C. (1988). All one family. In I. Keen (Ed.), Being black: Aboriginal cultures in settled Australia (pp. 137–159). Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blaser, M. (2004). Life projects: Indigenous people’s agency and development. In M. Blaser, H. Feit, & G. McRae (Eds.), In the way of development: Indigenous peoples, life projects and globalization (pp. 26–44). London: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bledsoe, C. H. (2002). Contingent lives: Fertility, time and aging in West Africa. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borrie, W. D. (1994). Progress in Australian demography. Journal of the Australian Population Association, 11(1), 1–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, D., Taylor, J., & Bell, M. (2008). The demography of desert Australia. The Rangeland Journal, 30(1), 29–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caldwell, J. C. (1996). Demography and social science. Population Studies, 50(3), 305–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caldwell, J. C. (2002). Aboriginal society and the global demographic transition. In G. Briscoe & L. Smith (Eds.), The Aboriginal population revisited: 70,000 years to the present (pp. 160–169). Canberra: Aboriginal History Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caldwell, J. C., Caldwell, B., & Caldwell, P. (1987). Anthropology and demography: The mutual reinforcement of speculation and research. Current Anthropology, 28, 25–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cass, A., Cunningham, J., Snelling, P., Wang, Z., & Hoy, W. (2004). Exploring the pathways leading from disadvantage to end-stage renal disease for Indigenous Australians. Social Science and Medicine, 58(4), 767–785.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics. (1973). ‘The Aboriginal population’, bulletin 9, census of population and housing, 30 June 1971. Canberra: Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cowlishaw, G. (2009). The city’s outback. Sydney: UNSW Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham, J. (1998). Implications of changing Indigenous population estimates for monitoring health trends. Australasian Epidemiologist, 5(1), 6–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dodson, M. (1994). The Wentworth lecture: The end in the beginning: Re(de)fining Aboriginality. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 1994(1), 2–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dugbaza, T. (1994). Recent trends and differentials in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander fertility: 1981–1991. Demography Working Paper 94/1. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.

  • Falkenberg, J. (1962). Kin and totem: Group relations of Australian aborigines in the Port Keats District. New York: Humanities Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaminiratne, K. H. W. (1992). Estimating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander fertility from census data. CAEPR Discussion Paper No. 31. Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University.

  • Gardiner, G., & Bourke, E. A. (2000). Indigenous populations: ‘Mixed’ discourses and identities. People and Place, 8(2), 43–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham, S., Jackson-Pulver, L. R., Wang, Y. A., Kelly, P. M., Laws, P. J., Grayson, N., et al. (2007). The urban-remote divide for Indigenous peri-natal outcomes. Medical Journal of Australia, 186(10), 509–512.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, A. (1985). Some myths in the demography of Aboriginal Australians. Journal of the Australian Population Association, 2(2), 136–149.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, A. (1990). Aboriginal fertility: Trends and prospects. Journal of the Australian Population Association, 7(1), 57–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, A. (1998). Parentage and Indigenous population change. CAEPR Discussion Paper No. 166. Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University.

  • Gray, A., & Tesfaghiorghis, H. (1991). Social indicators of the Aboriginal population of Australia. CAEPR Discussion Paper No. 18. Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University.

  • Gray, A., & Tesfaghiorghis, H. (1993). Aboriginal population prospects. Journal of the Australian Population Association, 10(2), 81–101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, A., & Vesper, J. (1986). Description of disadvantage: The households of Aboriginal children. Aboriginal Family Demography Study Working Paper No. 2. Canberra: Department of Demography, The Australian National University.

  • Greenhalgh, S. (Ed.). (1995). Situating fertility. Anthropology and demographic inquiry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halfacree, K. H., & Boyle, P. J. (1993). The challenge facing migration research: The case for a biographical approach. Progress in Human Geography, 17(3), 333–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill, K., Barker, B., & Vos, T. (2007). Excess Indigenous mortality: Are Indigenous Australians more severely disadvantaged than other Indigenous populations? International Journal of Epidemiology, 36(3), 580–589.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Historical records of New South Wales. (1982). (Vol. 1, Part 2, pp. 1783–1792). Sydney: Government Printer. Resource Document available at http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/resources/transcripts/nsw2_doc_1787.pdf. Accessed 4th March 2008.

  • Ivory, B. (2008). Indigenous leaders and leadership: Agents of networked governance. In J. Hunt, D. Smith, S. W. Garling, & W. Sanders (Eds.), Contested governance: Culture, power and institutions in Indigenous Australia (pp. 233–265). Canberra: ANU E Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jain, S. K. (1989). Estimation of Aboriginal fertility, 1971–1986: An application of the own-children method of fertility estimation. Occasional Paper, ABS catalogue no. 4127.0. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.

  • Jones, G. (2004). The demography of disadvantage. Journal of Population Research, 21(2), 107–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jordan, D. E. (1985). Census categories—enumeration of Aboriginal people, or construction of identity? Australian Aboriginal Studies, 1985(1), 28–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keen, I. (Ed.). (1988). Being black: Aboriginal cultures in settled Australia. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kertzer, D. I., & Fricke, T. (Eds.). (1997). Anthropological demography: Toward a new synthesis. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinfu, Y. (2006). Aboriginal child mortality in Australia: Recent levels and covariates. In B. Hunter (Ed.), Assessing the evidence on indigenous socioeconomic status: A focus on the 2002 NATSISS (pp. 69–78). Canberra: ANU E Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinfu, Y., & Taylor, J. (2005). On the components of Indigenous population change. Australian Geographer, 36(2), 233–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kraly, E. P., & McQuilton, J. (2005). The ‘protection’ of Aborigines in colonial and early federation Australia: The role of population data systems. Population, Space and Place, 11, 225–250.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kreager, P. (1982). Demography in situ. Population and Development Review, 8(2), 237–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kukutai, T., & Pool, I. (2008). From common colonization to internal segmentation: Rethinking indigenous demography in New Zealand. Paper presented at the workshop Canadian Aboriginal Population in Transition: Social, Demographic and Epidemiological Dimensions, University of Alberta, Edmonton, 16–18 October.

  • Langton, M. (1981). Urbanizing aborigines: The social scientists’ great deception. Social Alternatives, 2(2), 16–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Madhavan, S., Collinson, M., Townsend, N. W., Kahn, K., & Tollman, S. M. (2007). The implications of long term community involvement for the production and circulation of population knowledge. Demographic Research, 17(Article 13), 369–388.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, D., & Taylor, J. (1996). Ethnographic perspectives on the enumeration of Aboriginal people in remote Australia. Journal of the Australian Population Association, 13(1), 17–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • McHugh, K. E., Hogan, T. D., & Happel, S. K. (2008). Multiple residence and cyclical migration: A life course perspective. Professional Geographer, 47(3), 251–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Memmott, P., Long, S., & Thomson, L. (2006). Indigenous mobility in rural and remote Australia. Brisbane: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, The University of Queensland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Menham, J. G. (1992). ATSIC’s requirements for social statistics in the 1990s. In J. C. Altman (Ed.), A national survey of indigenous Australians: Options and implications (pp. 35–48). Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morphy, H. (1999). The Reeves report and the idea of the region. In J. C. Altman, F. Morphy, & T. Rowse (Eds.), Land rights at risk? Evaluations of the Reeves Report (pp. 33–39). Canberra: CAEPR Research Monograph No. 14, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morphy, F. (2004). When systems collide: The 2001 Census at a Northern Territory outstation. In D. F. Martin, F. Morphy, W. G. Sanders, & J. Taylor (Eds.), Making sense of the census: Observations of the 2001 enumeration in remote Aboriginal Australia (pp. 29–77). Canberra: ANU E Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morphy, F. (Ed.). (2007a). Agency, contingency and census process: Observations of the 2006 indigenous enumeration strategy in remote Aboriginal Australia. Canberra: ANU E Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morphy, F. (2007b). Uncontained subjects: ‘Population’ and ‘household’ in remote Aboriginal Australia. Journal of Population Research, 24(2), 163–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newbold, B. (2004). Data sources and issues for the analysis of Indigenous peoples mobility. In J. Taylor & M. Bell (Eds.), Population mobility and Indigenous peoples in Australasia and North America (pp. 117–136). London, New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson, N. (2004). Myth of the ‘walkabout’: Movement in the Aboriginal domain. In J. Taylor & M. Bell (Eds.), Population mobility and Indigenous peoples in Australasia and North America (pp. 223–239). London, New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson, N. (2005). What can pre-colonial and frontier economies tell us about engagement with the real economy? Indigenous life projects and the conditions of development. In D. Austin-Broos & G. Macdonald (Eds.), Culture, economy and governance in Aboriginal Australia (pp. 7–19). Sydney: Sydney University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillip, A. (1787). Governor Phillip’s instructions 25 April 1787. Resource document. National Archives of Australia. http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/resources/transcripts/nsw2_doc_1787.pdf. Accessed 4 March 2008.

  • Prout, S. (2008). On the move? Indigenous temporary mobility practices in Australia. CAEPR Working Paper No. 50. Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University.

  • Reid, J., & Kerr, C. (1983). Trends in Aboriginal mortality. The Medical Journal of Australia, 1, 348–350.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riedmann, A. (1993). Science that colonizes: A critique of fertility studies in Africa. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross, K., & Taylor, J. (2002). Improving life expectancy and health status: A comparison of Indigenous Australians and New Zealand Maori. In G. A. Carmichael & A. Dharmalingam (Eds.), Populations of Australia and New Zealand at the millennium (pp. 219–238). Canberra, Wellington: Joint Special Issue of the Journal of Population Research and New Zealand Population Review.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowse, T. (2005). Towards a history of Indigenous statistics in Australia. In B. H. Hunter (Ed.), Assessing the evidence on Indigenous socioeconomic outcomes: A focus on the 2002 NATSISS. Canberra: ANU E Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowse, T. (2008). The politics of ‘the gap’ in Australia and New Zealand. Paper presented at the CAEPR Seminar Series 1 2008, May 28. Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University. http://online.anu.edu.au/caepr/events08.php#sem1. Accessed 15 June 2008.

  • Sahlins, M. (1999). What is anthropological enlightenment? Some lessons of the twentieth century. Annual Review of Anthropology, 28, i–xxiii.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sanders, W. (1991). Destined to fail: The Hawke Government’s pursuit of statistical equality in employment and income between Aborigines and other Australians by the year 2000 (or a cautionary tale involving the new managerialism and social justice strategies). Australian Aboriginal Studies, 1991(2), 13–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanders, W. (2008). In the name of failure: A generational revolution in Indigenous affairs. In C. Aulich & R. Wettenhall (Eds.), The fourth Howard Government (pp. 187–206). Sydney: UNSW Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, J. C. (1998). Seeing like a state: How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seltzer, W., & Anderson, M. (2001). The dark side of numbers: The role of population data systems in human rights abuses. Social Research, 68(2), 481–513.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sims, G. (1992). A national survey of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population: The proposal. In J. C. Altman (Ed.), A national survey of Indigenous Australians: Options and implications (pp. 26–35). Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, L. R. (1980). The Aboriginal population of Australia. Canberra: Australian National University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, D. E. (1991). Toward an Aboriginal household expenditure survey: Conceptual, methodological and cultural considerations. CAEPR Discussion Paper No. 10. Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University.

  • Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples. London, New York: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanner, W. E. H. (1936). Aboriginal modes of address and reference in the north-west of the Northern Territory. Oceania, 7(4), 301–315.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutton, P. (1995). Country: Aboriginal boundaries and land ownership in Australia. Aboriginal History Monograph No. 3. Canberra: Aboriginal History Inc.

  • Sutton, P. (2003). Native title in Australia: An ethnographic perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Szreter, S., Sholkamy, H., & Dharmalingam, A. (Eds.). (2004). Categories and contexts: Anthropological and historical studies in critical demography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, J. (1998). Measuring short-term population mobility among indigenous Australians: Options and implications. Australian Geographer, 29(1), 125–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, J. (2004). Social indicators for Aboriginal governance: Insights from the Thamarrurr Region, Northern Territory. Canberra: ANU E Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, J. (2006). Population and diversity: Policy implications of emerging Indigenous demographic trends. CAEPR Discussion Paper No. 283. Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University.

  • Taylor, J. (2008). Indigenous peoples and indicators of well-being: Australian perspectives on United Nations global frameworks. Social Indicators Research, 87, 111–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, J., & Bell, M. (1996). The mobility status of Indigenous Australians. In P. L. Newton & M. Bell (Eds.), Population shift: Mobility and change in Australia (pp. 392–412). Canberra: AGPS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, J., & Bell, M. (2004). Continuity and change in Indigenous Australian population mobility. In J. Taylor & M. Bell (Eds.), Population mobility and Indigenous peoples in Australasia and North America (pp. 13–44). London, New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, J., & Biddle, N. (2008). Locations of Indigenous population change: What can we say? CAEPR Working Paper No. 4. Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University.

  • Taylor, J., & Hunter, B. (1998). The job still ahead: Economic costs of continuing Indigenous employment disparity. Canberra: Office of Public Affairs, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, J., & Kinfu, Y. (2006). Differentials and determinants of Indigenous population mobility. In B. Hunter (Ed.), Indigenous socioeconomic outcomes: Findings from the 2002 NATSISS (pp. 57–69). Canberra: ANU E Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomson, N. (1983). Aboriginal infant mortality, 1976–1981. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 1983(1), 10–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warchivker, I., Tjapangati, T., & Wakerman, J. (2000). The turmoil of Aboriginal enumeration: Mobility and service population analysis in a Central Australian community. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 24(4), 444–449.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, T., & Barnes, T. (2007). Continuing challenges in attempting to measure the size, and changing size, of Australia’s Indigenous population. People and Place, 15(3), 12–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, T., Condon, J., & Barnes, T. (2007). Northern Territory Indigenous life expectancy improvements, 1967–2004. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 31(2), 184–188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young, E. A. (1990). Aboriginal population mobility and service provisions: A framework for analysis. In B. Meehan & N. White (Eds.), Hunter-gatherer demography: Past and present (pp. 186–196). Sydney: Oceania Monograph 39, University of Sydney.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, E. A., & Doohan, K. (1989). Mobility for survival: A process analysis of Aboriginal population movement in Central Australia. Darwin: North Australia Research Unit, The Australian National University.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University, Acton, ACT, 0200, Australia

    John Taylor

Authors
  1. John Taylor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Taylor.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Taylor, J. Indigenous demography and public policy in Australia: population or peoples?. J Pop Research 26, 115–130 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12546-009-9010-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12546-009-9010-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation