The latest figures from the Census are found and show an increase in single parents and tenants, a decrease in Christians and that more than half of the country is made up of first or second generation migrants.
The new figures also show a large increase in Australia’s Indigenous population, with some age groups showing a jump of almost 30% in the figures since the last 2016 census.
One of the various reasons for this is the fear of slowly declining to identify as indigenous and some of the serious risks it has entailed.
Not identifying “about survival”
Kris Rallah-Baker, a man of Yuggera Warangu Wiradjuri, and Australia’s first and only Indigenous ophthalmologist, says the state defines who can and cannot be identified as an Aboriginal Australian or from Torres Strait.
The three parts of identity are that “you must have descended from one of the original groups that were here before the British arrival”, “you must identify yourself” and “your community must recognize you as to aboriginal or islander of the Straits of Towers “. , says Dr. Rallah-Baker on ABC RN’s Saturday Extra.
He has long suspected that the number of Indians was larger than the census showed and says that in his local community, “we were not surprised” by the increase.
There has been “a diminishing fear of identifying myself as an aboriginal and a growing pride in being able to go out and say, ‘Yes, I’m aboriginal. That’s a part of me. That’s who I am,'” he says.
“The identity problem is a big part of that,” says Dr. Rallah-Baker.
He comes from a large Brisbane Indigenous family and grew up identifying as an Aboriginal. But he has met many indigenous families who did not.
“Especially in the darkest days, through the [19]50s and 60s, and the Joh [Bjelke-Petersen] At the time, there were a lot of people around who knew we had Aboriginal or island heritage from the Torres Strait, but chose not to disclose it, ”he says.
“Some of these families are now being identified. And later in my career through medical school, and also in the medical system, I have certainly continued to see this trend.”
Choosing not to identify as aboriginal had nothing to do with data collection.
“Originally, it was about survival,” says Dr. Rallah-Baker.
“That’s how basic it was. If you identify as an aboriginal, you were at greater risk of your children being taken away, more discrimination. [and] fewer opportunities presented to you in life.
“So there was an engine for people not to identify themselves to try to move forward in Western society. And a lot of those drivers are now seeing us significantly reduced.”
Fast growth, but there is still work to be done
The number of Australians who identify as Indigenous has increased by around 25 per cent from the 2016 census count, says Nicholas Biddle, associate director of the ANU Center for Social Research and Methods. He is also a member of the Aboriginal Demographic Statistics Expert and Torres Strait. advisory group of the Australian Statistical Office.
This means that Australia now has an estimated Indigenous population of “between 952,000 and one million Aboriginal Australians in the Torres Strait, therefore just under 4% of the total population,” says Professor Biddle.
He describes it as “fairly rapid growth.” He attributes this to several factors, including the high fertility rates of indigenous communities compared to the rest of the population, and that a child in a family with one indigenous and one non-indigenous parent is likely to be identified as indigenous.
“This is an additional growth [and] a relatively young population … so most Indigenous Australians are in age groups where mortality rates are quite low, ”says Professor Biddle.
Government and social changes (the apology of the stolen generations of 2008, for example) also have an impact.
In fact, there was another increase in people identifying themselves as indigenous in the census after making the apology.
“It simply came to our notice then [that the Apology] it seemed to be a factor for people to feel this [identifying as an Indigenous person] it wasn’t necessarily so detrimental to them, ”says Professor Biddle.
“Remember that the census is a state apparatus and therefore people need to feel comfortable making that decision to identify themselves or be identified by their family.”
He says that despite this great growth, the figure of Australian Indigenous people is still “probably an understatement”, as there are likely to still be people who, for “already personal family”. [reasons] or a negative experience in the past with government services, you may not yet feel comfortable identifying. “
Rallah-Baker says there are “some communities and some people who don’t want to join the electoral census and participate in activities like the Census” for philosophical reasons.
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“A number of aborigines say, ‘Well, I’m an Australian Aborigine not an Australian Aboriginal.’ They make that distinction.”
Each indigenous community is different and each community is influenced differently by their “variable experiences with colonial activities,” he says.
Professor Biddle believes that the different influences on someone who decides to identify their indigence mean that policymakers and governments need to do more to get accurate data, so that all Australians are represented.
“We still need to work harder and make sure our accounts and estimates are as accurate as possible, and people who don’t feel comfortable doing so can feel comfortable identifying themselves,” he says.
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