So-called “box-tickers,” who assert a recently discovered Indigenous identity but have no true cultural ties to Aboriginal communities, are to blame for the dramatic rise in the number of Aboriginal people in Australia.
According to Suzanne Ingram, a Wiradjuri woman and anthropologist at the University of Sydney, data from the most recent Census showed a sharp increase of “middle-class liberal progressives” self-identifying as Indigenous due to a very distant relative.
In 2021, there were 812,728 persons in Australia who identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, or 3.2% of the total population.
This was an increase of more than 25 per cent since census data was last collected in 2016 and considerably outstripped the general population increase of 8.6 per cent.
While some of the growth can be attributed to natural fertility or the decision of children of mixed unions to identify as Indigenous, it also reflects a growing interest in using home testing kits to uncover Indigenous DNA.
People looking to locate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander DNA so people can identify as Indigenous are increasingly using home-testing kits from US companies like AncestryDNA.
According to Ms. Ingram, a growing number of middle-class liberal progressives are self-identifying as Aboriginal and claiming their ancestry through a distant relative in the south-east, particularly near the coast.
Although the tests are thought to be accurate, there are concerns that they may skew the distribution of Indigenous resources by diverting them from the regions who face the greatest disadvantage.
Yolngu people in Arnhem Land are represented by the Yothu Yindi Foundation, which claims that “lax census data” led to a lower GST allocation to the Northern Territory than was appropriate.
‘My analysis in health communication shows how it affects policy.’ Ms Ingram told an an academic conference in Canada earlier this year.
‘It seems to have started in housing policy – but it has soared in the education sector, and the stats show, probably unsurprisingly, that the east coast of Australia is the epicentre.
She said there is a ‘performative element’ that these claims for legitimacy rely on.
‘How we recognise each other is up to mob locally, within our kinship networks. We are doing something about it now and I know mobs elsewhere are, too, but the discussion is more open in North America than it is here.’
There is no requirement for anyone declaring themselves to be Indigenous in the census.
Governmental organizations and other organizations use a so-called “working criterion” to determine eligibility for grant applications, initiatives, or posts devoted to Indigenous people.
This includes having Native ancestry, identifying as Native, and having your acceptance by a community ratified by a letter or certificate.
The vast majority of people who identify as Indigenous do so sincerely, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
‘Box-ticking’ was the theme of tackled by playwright and Palawa man Nathan Maynard in his widely acclaimed play At What Cost, which debuted in Sydney earlier this year.
‘We are in vogue at the moment,’ Mr Maynard said.
‘We’re trendier than smashed avocado on toast. In this world, people want to have something special about them and they see being Aboriginal as a point of difference.’