Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Stolen Generations and Descendants
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Stolen Generations and descendants Numbers, demographic characteristics and This report provides estimated numbers and demographic selected outcomes characteristics of the Stolen Generations and descendants using a series of ABS surveys. It also presents a range of health and socioeconomic outcomes for the Stolen Generations and descendants, and differences with Indigenous and non-Indigenous comparison groups, to examine the effects of removal from families. The findings in the report will be useful to assess the needs of the Stolen Generations and their families. aihw.gov.au Stronger evidence, better decisions, improved health and welfare Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Stolen Generations and descendants Numbers, demographic characteristics and selected outcomes Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Canberra Cat. no. IHW 195 The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare is a major national agency whose purpose is to create authoritative and accessible information and statistics that inform decisions and improve the health and welfare of all Australians. © Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2018 This product, excluding the AIHW logo, Commonwealth Coat of Arms and any material owned by a third party or protected by a trademark, has been released under a Creative Commons BY 3.0 (CC-BY 3.0) licence. Excluded material owned by third parties may include, for example, design and layout, images obtained under licence from third parties and signatures. We have made all reasonable efforts to identify and label material owned by third parties. You may distribute, remix and build upon this work. However, you must attribute the AIHW as the copyright holder of the work in compliance with our attribution policy available at <www.aihw.gov.au/copyright/>. The full terms and conditions of this licence are available at <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/>. A complete list of the Institute’s publications is available from the Institute’s website <www.aihw.gov.au>. ISBN 978-1-76054-349-5 (PDF) ISBN 978-1-76054-350-1 (Print) Suggested citation Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2018. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Stolen Generations and descendants: numbers, demographic characteristics and selected outcomes. Cat. no. IHW 195. Canberra: AIHW. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Board Chair Director Mrs Louise Markus Mr Barry Sandison Any enquiries relating to copyright or comments on this publication should be directed to: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare GPO Box 570 Canberra ACT 2601 Tel: (02) 6244 1000 Email: [email protected] Published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare This publication is printed in accordance with ISO 14001 (Environmental Management Systems) and ISO 9001 (Quality Management Systems). The paper is sourced from sustainably managed certified forests. Please note that there is the potential for minor revisions of data in this report. Please check the online version at <www.aihw.gov.au> for any amendments. Using data from surveys conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it is possible to identify Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born before 1972 and who have reported being removed from their families. In this report, this subgroup is used as a proxy measure for what we know as the ‘Stolen Generations’, with analysis providing a picture of the population size, demographic characteristics and health and welfare outcomes for the surviving members of the Stolen Generations. Out of respect for the experiences of the Stolen Generations, where possible, the report uses the term ‘Stolen Generations’ or ‘Stolen Generations proxy population’ to describe the subgroup in the cohort born before 1972 who reported being removed from family, as derived from analyses of Australian Bureau of Statistics data. Contents Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................ v Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................... vi Symbols ............................................................................................................................... vi Overview ............................................................................................................................. vii 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................1 1.1 Data sources ............................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Study cohorts .............................................................................................................. 4 1.3 Report structure .......................................................................................................... 7 2 Estimates and demographic profile of the Stolen Generations proxy population and descendants ............................................................................................................. 8 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 9 2.2 Estimates of the Stolen Generations proxy population ................................................ 9 2.3 Characteristics of the Stolen Generations proxy population ...................................... 10 2.4 Estimates of the family members and descendants of all people removed ................ 15 2.5 Characteristics of the descendants ........................................................................... 18 2.6 Consistent time series estimates of the Stolen Generations proxy population ........... 23 2.7 Consistent time series estimates of the descendants of all people removed ............. 24 3 Health and socioeconomic outcomes of the Stolen Generations proxy population ...................................................................................................................... 27 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 28 3.2 Health and socioeconomic outcomes: 2014–15 NATSISS ........................................ 28 3.3 Time series analysis: 2002 to 2014–15 ..................................................................... 41 4 Health and socioeconomic outcomes of descendants ............................................... 50 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 50 4.2 Health and socioeconomic outcomes: 2014–15 NATSISS ........................................ 51 4.3 Time series analysis: 2002 to 2014–15 ..................................................................... 60 5 Effects of being removed or being a descendant ........................................................ 70 5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 71 5.2 Effects of being removed .......................................................................................... 74 5.3 Effects of being a descendant ................................................................................... 76 6 Comparisons with the non-Indigenous population ..................................................... 79 6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 79 6.2 Comparison between Stolen Generations proxy population and non-Indigenous Australians ................................................................................................................ 81 iii 6.3 Comparison between descendants of all people removed and non-Indigenous Australians ................................................................................................................ 83 7 Social and emotional wellbeing and Link Up services ................................................ 86 7.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 86 7.2 Social and emotional wellbeing services ................................................................... 87 7.3 Link Up services ........................................................................................................ 88 Appendix A: Full typology of removal from family reported in the 2002 and 2014–15 NATSISS.............................................................................................................................. 90 Appendix B: Method for census-based estimates of Stolen Generations proxy population ........................................................................................................................... 94 Component (1): base population denominators................................................................ 94 Component (2): rate of removal multiplier ........................................................................ 96 Consistent time series estimates of the Stolen Generations proxy population in the cohort born before 1972 ................................................................................................... 96 Appendix C: Components of the composite health variable ........................................... 98 Appendix D: Summary of multivariate regression results by outcomes .......................