Welcome to this video on 'Finding Indigenous Data'. Indigenous data is data about people who identify as being of Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin or both. This video will demonstrate how to find Indigenous data and other related information on the ABS website.
When looking for Indigenous data there are two main pathways: one is 'Themes' based; and the other is Census based.
If you want a list of all the main sources of Indigenous data, start from the ABS home page, and follow the path Themes, People. Then select Indigenous. From here the 'Noticeboard' link will take you to new items of interest and introduce you to the State and Territory Indigenous Engagement Managers who, amongst other things, provide support to Indigenous communities and organisations on the use of statistical information.
Under the link 'Using Indigenous Statistics' you will find materials that will help you understand and use Indigenous statistics correctly.
Having a closer look at the 'Statistical Releases' link we find information on Indigenous Census population counts, done every five years, experimental estimates of the Indigenous population between Censuses, and how the Indigenous population may grow into the future. Links to a range of Indigenous health and social statistics are also available from here. For a more comprehensive list of information see 'Statistics by Topic: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People'.
Back at the ABS home page. If you are looking for detailed characteristics of the Indigenous population, particularly for small areas such as a specific Indigenous community, then it is better to start your search using the Census Data link. At this point you'll be given a number of options to choose from, such as: mapping data; summarised key Census data for your chosen location; or generating a spreadsheet on a specific topic for your chosen location. A good starting point is to download an Indigenous community profile for your place of interest. In the following example we will focus on the community of Kunbarllanjnja in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. To start with, choose the '2006 Community Profiles' link. Then, select the Browse tab where you will find a series of option fields to work through. When the option fields have been completed then select 'View Community Profiles'. Switch from the 'Summary' tab to the 'Downloads' tab. Then click on 'Free Download' to get a Zip File containing a 34 sheet Excel file. The 34 sheets present a cross section of Census data on Kunbarllanjnja on things like age, sex, education, employment, income, occupation, religion, and language spoken. The file can be saved to your computer in the normal fashion.
If you are still having trouble finding what you need, please contact our National Information and Referral Service for assistance.
Thank you for watching this tutorial, we hope you found it useful.
This page last updated 16 June 2009