Indicators of Risk to the Wellbeing of Australian Indigenous Children

This paper uses a range of indicators established in the literature to examine the risk of exclusion from mainstream Australian society for Indigenous Australian children. Most of the indicators have been taken from the Population Census of 2001, enabling us to break down our results according to the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The results show that Indigenous children continue to be among the most socially disadvantaged in Australia, and this is particularly the case for those living in remote and very remote areas. The conclusion raises the possibility that this exclusion may also have a negative effect on the ability of these children to participate in Indigenous culture in the long run.