Data politics and Indigenous representation in Australian statistics

Abstract

Accepting the philosophical premise that numbers exist, as perQuine (1948), is ontologically different to accepting that numbershave a fixed reality. This differential is the essence of the reality ofnumbers as they are applied to indigenous populations. In First Worldcolonised nations such as Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Canadaand the United States, the question is not just 'are these numbers real',but also 'how are these numbers deployed and whom do they serve'.The reality query is not of the numbers themselves but of what theypurport to portray. Numbers, configured as population or population sample data, arenot neutral entities. Rather, social and population statistics are betterunderstood as human artefacts, imbued with meaning. And, in theircurrent configurations, the meanings re.fleeted in statistics are primarilydrawn from the dominant social norms, values and racial hierarchy ofthe society in which they are created. As such, in colonising nation-states,statistics applied to indigenous peoples have a raced reality thatis perpetuated and normalised through their creation and re-creation (Walter 2010; Walter & Andersen 2013). The numerical format of thesestatistics and their seemingly neutral presentation, however, elidetheir social, cultural and racial dimensions. In a seemingly unbrokencircle, dominant social norms, values and racial understandingsdetermine statistical construction and interpretations, which thenshape perceptions of data needs and purpose, which then determinestatistical construction and interpretation, and so on. Just as importantis that the accepted persona of statistics on indigenous people operatesto conceal what is excluded: the culture, interests, perspectives andalternative narratives of those they purport to represent-indigenouspeoples. This chapter investigates how Australia's racial terrain permeatesstatistics on Indigenous Australians. I examine the shape and contextof these statistics as currently 'done' in Australia (Walter & Andersen2013) and also the absences-how they are 'not done'. Within this,I interrogate the construction and dissemination of the contemporaryAustralian statistical Indigene and its wider social and culturalcontexts and consequences. The chapter also challenges researchersto consider how reversing the analytical lens to generate dataconceptualised through an Indigenous methodological frameworkmight alter the narrative, concepts, discourse and, ultimately, policydirections of Indigenous Australia.

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