Defined Terms and Documents      'Aboriginal Teenager Life Skills' RTV Social Inclusion Early Intervention Programme 

Indigenous Australians are people who are descended from groups that lived in Australia and surrounding islands before British colonisation. They include the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia. The term 'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' is preferred by many.  'First Nations of Australia', 'First Peoples of Australia' and 'First Australians' are also increasingly common terms.

The Australian Census includes counts of Indigenous peoples, based on questions relating to individuals' self-identification as Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, or of both origins. As of 30 June 2016, the count was 798,365, or 3.3% of Australia's population.[1] Since 1995, the Australian Aboriginal Flag and the Torres Strait Islander Flag have been among the official flags of Australia.

 

The Australian Government observes the below three criteria when determining whether an Australian is Indigenous:

1.    Are of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent.

2.    Identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.

3.    Are accepted by the Indigenous community in which he or she lives.

Many Disadvantaged Indigenous Australians live within Aboriginal communities in remote areas.

Summary of Australian Indigenous health notes 'inter alia' that "......669,736 Indigenous people (were) living in Australia in 2011..." which represented 3% of the Australian population.

Much greater proportions of the Indigenous Australian population are found in age groups under 20 years, compared with corresponding proportions in the non-Indigenous population, and lower proportions are found in age groups 40 years and over.

In 2001 the median age of Indigenous Australians was 21 years, compared with 36 years for other Australians.

More than half of all Indigenous Australians live in New South Wales and Queensland, with the majority residing in urban areas.  New South Wales has the greatest number of Indigenous Australians (134,900) and the Northern Territory had the highest proportion, with around 29% of its population reporting being Indigenous.  Around 25% of the Indigenous Australian population live in areas classified as 'remote' or 'very remote', compared with only 2% of the non-Indigenous population.

Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are Disadvantaged across a range of socio-economic factors reported upon in the 2001 Census.  They experienced lower incomes than the non-Indigenous population, higher rates of unemployment, poorer educational outcomes and lower rates of home ownership - all of which can impact upon health and QOL.

Below is an extract from "Key findings" of Australian facts Diabetes 2008 Diabetes series no. 8 


Some population groups are more susceptible to diabetes than others  -  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

In 2004–05, the prevalence of diabetes among Indigenous people was estimated to be over 3 times the rate of non-Indigenous people.

In the same year, 62% of Indigenous people aged 15 years and over were estimated to be either overweight or obese, compared with 51% of non-Indigenous people.

Diabetes hospitalisations for Indigenous people were nearly 11 times as high as for other Australians in 2004–05. Hospitalisations for kidney complications among Indigenous people were 29 times as high as for other Australian people.

The death rate from diabetes among Indigenous people was almost 12 times that experienced by non-Indigenous Australians.

Death rates from renal complications among Indigenous people were 19 times that of non-Indigenous people and deaths from CHD, stroke, PVD and lower limb ulcers were approximately 7 times as high.