The latest Census figures are in and they show an increase in single parents and renters, a decrease in Christians, and that more than half the country is made up of first or second-generation migrants.

The new figures also show a large increase in Australia's Indigenous population, with some age groups showing an almost 30 per cent jump in the numbers since the last Census in 2016.

One of the several reasons for that is a slowly abating fear of identifying as Indigenous and of some of the serious risks that has entailed.

Not identifying 'about survival'

Kris Rallah-Baker, a Yuggera Warangu Wiradjuri man, and Australia's first and only Indigenous ophthalmologist, says the state defines who can and can't identify as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Australian.

The three parts to identity are that "you have to have descended from one of the original groups who were here before British arrival", "you have to identify yourself" and "your community has to recognise you as being Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander", Dr Rallah-Baker tells ABC RN's Saturday Extra.

He has long suspected the number of Indigenous people was larger than what the Census showed and say that in his local community, "we haven't been surprised" by the increase.

There's been "a decreasing fear about identifying as being Aboriginal and an increasing pride to be able to go out there and say, 'Yes, I am Aboriginal. This is a part of me. This is who I am'," he says.

"The identity issue is a large part of this," Dr Rallah-Baker says.

He is from a large Indigenous family in Brisbane and grew up identifying as Aboriginal. But he's known plenty of Indigenous families who didn't.

"Particularly in the darker days, through the [19]50s and '60s, and the Joh [Bjelke-Petersen] era, there were lots of people around who we knew had Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage, but chose not to divulge that," he says.

"A number of those families now do identify. And then further on through my career through medical school, and in the medical system as well, I've certainly continued to see that trend."

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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-07/indigenous-population-census-abo