Indigenous Wellbeing Frameworks in Australia and the Quest for Quantification

There is an emerging global recognition of the inadequacies of conventional socio-economic and demographic data in being able
to reflect the relative wellbeing of Indigenous peoples. This paper emerges out of a recent desktop study commissioned by
an Australian Indigenous organization who identified a need to enhance local literacies in data collection and interpretation
in order to monitor the wellbeing of the Indigenous people within their region, manage governments in respect of their civic
responsibilities to this population, and proactively and imaginatively plan for the future of the Indigenous people in their
region. In canvassing available data and the growing Indigenous wellbeing literature, it became apparent that conventional
statistical collections used to report on the status of populations are governed by a series of assumptions regarding three
related concepts: wellbeing; demography; and economic productivity and prosperity. These assumptions have direct implications for how Indigenous peoples are represented to governments and broader society.
The paper draws together the existing threads of literature regarding Indigenous wellbeing research to posit a possible broader
framework for organising various kinds of Indigenous wellbeing analyses. In doing so, it identifies important shortcomings
and deficits in the kinds of data that are available to Indigenous peoples in presenting themselves and their aspirations
to governments with. It also opens up a critical analysis of the opportunities and obstacles for Indigenous communities in
undertaking such research.