Postcolonial profiling of indigenous populations: Limitations and responses in Australia and New Zealand

Abstract

A contradiction exists in the social construction of Indigenous populations in that the categories and contexts of postcolonial demography inevitably reflect social and economic institutions that frame the lives of the majority populations. Because such categories are rarely inclusive of Indigenous ways of being, key aspects of Indigenous sociality are either missing or misrepresented in official statistics. This paper examines the limitations of official statistics for social profiling of Indigenous people in Australia and New Zealand. Using case studies, it describes ways in which Indigenous polities are themselves responding to these limitations by generating their own demographic profiles and social indicators as a form of community governance. Attention is also given to the in official statistics might be "indigenized" in order to better meet the needs of Indigenous communities and organisations.