better decisions, improved health and welfare Stronger evidence, better decisions, improved healt... more better decisions, improved health and welfare Stronger evidence, better decisions, improved health and welfare This report examines Indigenous mortality and life expectancy during the period 2001 to 2015, based on evidence from the Enhanced Mortality Database. The study observed increases in life expectancy during the study period for both Indigenous males and females across most jurisdictions. Life expectancy however increased faster among non-Indigenous than among Indigenous males and females. As a result, there was little change in the life expectancy gap.
The prosopography database supporting the Founders and Survivors project comprises a relational g... more The prosopography database supporting the Founders and Survivors project comprises a relational genealogy database integrated with an XML source database. Individual life histories are compiled dynamically from diverse sources, linked by a combination of machine matching and human judgment, and managed by an independent link management module. It is planned to enhance the machine linkage using ontologybased semantic web technology.
Established as a British Colony in 1835, Victoria was considered the leader in Australian indigen... more Established as a British Colony in 1835, Victoria was considered the leader in Australian indigenous administration—the first colony to legislate for the “protection” and legal victualing of Aborigines, and the first to collect statistical data on their decline and anticipated disappearance. The official record, however, excludes the data that can explain the Aborigines' stunning recovery. A painstaking investigation combining family histories; Victoria's birth, death, and marriage registrations; and census and archival records provides this information. One startling finding is that the surviving Aboriginal population is descended almost entirely from those who were under the protection of the colonial state.
Application of the Lee-Carter method to Australian data shows that model assumptions are not alwa... more Application of the Lee-Carter method to Australian data shows that model assumptions are not always met because of age-time interactions. The Lee-Carter method is adapted to take account of departures from linearity in the dominant time component and the failure to satisfy the ...
No time-series of population estimates, births or deaths data for Indigenous Australians over rec... more No time-series of population estimates, births or deaths data for Indigenous Australians over recent decades have previously been available. Although it is apparent that the Australian Indigenous population has very different demographic characteristics to the total Australian population, with a younger age distribution, higher fertility and much higher mortality rates, changes in these characteristics cannot be monitored over recent decades. Information on Indigenous mortality trends, one of the most basic measures of overall health status, is not available to monitor improvements, or lack thereof, in Indigenous health. Demographic data is more reliable, and more readily available, for the Indigenous population of the Northern Territory (NT) than for Indigenous people in other parts of Australia. Using available data from original death registration records and the most recent estimates of the size and age distribution of the NT Indigenous population, reliable and consistent data on population estimates and deaths from 1966 to 2001 have been produced for the NT Indigenous population. These are the only long-term time-series data on recent demographic trends for any Australian Indigenous population currently available. Between 1966 and 2001 major demographic changes occurred in the NT Indigenous population. The total population size more than doubled and the age-distribution became 'older'. The proportion of the population aged 0-9 years decreased from 32% to 24%, while the proportion aged 20-39 years increased from 26% to 34%. However the proportion aged over 65 years did not increase. The general fertility rate declined by 50%. Age-specific mortality rates declined considerably for females, and to a lesser extent for males. Mortality rates declined in all age-groups, by over 85% in age-group 0-4 years for both males and females, and by between 10% and 50% in older age groups. These changes demonstrate that a demographic transition has been under way in the NT Indigenous population for at least the past four decades. Declining Indigenous mortality rates in the middle adult years are particularly encouraging, as previous reports on Indigenous mortality over shorter periods have not demonstrated improvement in adult mortality. v
Using data on the Northern Territory’s Indigenous population and deaths—the most accurate in the ... more Using data on the Northern Territory’s Indigenous population and deaths—the most accurate in the country—this report explores current methods used to estimate Indigenous life expectancy, and found that estimates can change by as much as 10 years merely by making small changes in the data sets used in the analyses. The report recommends the Australian Bureau of Statistics to use a simpler approach to derive official life expectancy estimates for Indigenous Australians.
Chair: Rebecca Kippen, University of Melbourne Speakers: Janet McCalman, University of Melbourne;... more Chair: Rebecca Kippen, University of Melbourne Speakers: Janet McCalman, University of Melbourne; Sandra Silcot, University of Melbourne; Len Smith, The Australian National University
Australia enjoys ninth place out of 190 countries on the United Nations Life Expectancy Index. Ab... more Australia enjoys ninth place out of 190 countries on the United Nations Life Expectancy Index. Aboriginal Australians—as a fourth-world people within a first-world society—rank in the bottom half of the Index, just below Guatemala and Bangladesh. Progress on closing ‘the gap’ in health and wellbeing has been slow, despite initial rapid gains in infant mortality. The barriers are inter-generational trauma, inherited disadvantage, poverty and systemic racism. This paper reports on the Koori Health Research Database, a cradle-to-grave dataset of Aboriginal Victorians from the 1840s. It finds that population recovery after the nadir reached at the end of the nineteenth century, was hindered by high acquired secondary infertility among women vulnerable to sexual abuse, violence and sexually transmitted infections. Improvements in survival and the health transition were ‘blocked’ by barriers to land acquisition and full citizenship, as has happened in New Zealand. The dramatic recovery of the population of people now identifying as Aboriginal in Victoria has come from out-marriage.
This paper describes efforts made in Australia in the use of data linkage to enhance Indigenous m... more This paper describes efforts made in Australia in the use of data linkage to enhance Indigenous mortality statistics. The extent of inadequacies of statistics sourced from death registration is discussed and the improvements made by data linkage are presented. Conceptual, methodological and data issues that may give rise to error and bias in such data linkage are discussed.
Publishers details for: Carey, James R, and Tuljapurkar, Shripad, Life Span: Evolutionary, Ecolog... more Publishers details for: Carey, James R, and Tuljapurkar, Shripad, Life Span: Evolutionary, Ecological and Demographic Perspectives, A supplement to Population and Development Review, Vol. 29, 2003. New York: The Population Council.
Abstract: Over recent decades there has been a burgeoning of individual-level population data ava... more Abstract: Over recent decades there has been a burgeoning of individual-level population data available from historical records, including censuses, and birth, death and marriage registers. These can be linked to other historical material to form rich prosopographical ...
Fractional Identities: The Political Arithmetic of Aboriginal Victorians The debate over the size... more Fractional Identities: The Political Arithmetic of Aboriginal Victorians The debate over the size of the Ab- original population of Australia on the eve of the European invasion has been complicated by the nation's unsavory "history wars." The smaller the number of original inhabitants, the lower is the implied number of colonial casualties and the more defensible appears the claim that a people of the plough had a right to convert a seemingly empty land into a food basket for the empire. However, as scholars have come to understand the complexity of Aboriginal society and its management of plant and animal food resources, they have also gained a new appreciation of the land's carrying capacity. Indeed, the belated discovery of women's signiªcance as food gatherers has revealed the extent to which Aboriginal people were reliant on the gathering of the vegetable and invertebrate food resources to be found in previously unappreciated abundance throughout the continent, as well as the extent to which they systematically managed those resources by ªre, aquaculture, and proto-agriculture. Len Smith has estimated that this
better decisions, improved health and welfare Stronger evidence, better decisions, improved healt... more better decisions, improved health and welfare Stronger evidence, better decisions, improved health and welfare This report examines Indigenous mortality and life expectancy during the period 2001 to 2015, based on evidence from the Enhanced Mortality Database. The study observed increases in life expectancy during the study period for both Indigenous males and females across most jurisdictions. Life expectancy however increased faster among non-Indigenous than among Indigenous males and females. As a result, there was little change in the life expectancy gap.
The prosopography database supporting the Founders and Survivors project comprises a relational g... more The prosopography database supporting the Founders and Survivors project comprises a relational genealogy database integrated with an XML source database. Individual life histories are compiled dynamically from diverse sources, linked by a combination of machine matching and human judgment, and managed by an independent link management module. It is planned to enhance the machine linkage using ontologybased semantic web technology.
Established as a British Colony in 1835, Victoria was considered the leader in Australian indigen... more Established as a British Colony in 1835, Victoria was considered the leader in Australian indigenous administration—the first colony to legislate for the “protection” and legal victualing of Aborigines, and the first to collect statistical data on their decline and anticipated disappearance. The official record, however, excludes the data that can explain the Aborigines' stunning recovery. A painstaking investigation combining family histories; Victoria's birth, death, and marriage registrations; and census and archival records provides this information. One startling finding is that the surviving Aboriginal population is descended almost entirely from those who were under the protection of the colonial state.
Application of the Lee-Carter method to Australian data shows that model assumptions are not alwa... more Application of the Lee-Carter method to Australian data shows that model assumptions are not always met because of age-time interactions. The Lee-Carter method is adapted to take account of departures from linearity in the dominant time component and the failure to satisfy the ...
No time-series of population estimates, births or deaths data for Indigenous Australians over rec... more No time-series of population estimates, births or deaths data for Indigenous Australians over recent decades have previously been available. Although it is apparent that the Australian Indigenous population has very different demographic characteristics to the total Australian population, with a younger age distribution, higher fertility and much higher mortality rates, changes in these characteristics cannot be monitored over recent decades. Information on Indigenous mortality trends, one of the most basic measures of overall health status, is not available to monitor improvements, or lack thereof, in Indigenous health. Demographic data is more reliable, and more readily available, for the Indigenous population of the Northern Territory (NT) than for Indigenous people in other parts of Australia. Using available data from original death registration records and the most recent estimates of the size and age distribution of the NT Indigenous population, reliable and consistent data on population estimates and deaths from 1966 to 2001 have been produced for the NT Indigenous population. These are the only long-term time-series data on recent demographic trends for any Australian Indigenous population currently available. Between 1966 and 2001 major demographic changes occurred in the NT Indigenous population. The total population size more than doubled and the age-distribution became 'older'. The proportion of the population aged 0-9 years decreased from 32% to 24%, while the proportion aged 20-39 years increased from 26% to 34%. However the proportion aged over 65 years did not increase. The general fertility rate declined by 50%. Age-specific mortality rates declined considerably for females, and to a lesser extent for males. Mortality rates declined in all age-groups, by over 85% in age-group 0-4 years for both males and females, and by between 10% and 50% in older age groups. These changes demonstrate that a demographic transition has been under way in the NT Indigenous population for at least the past four decades. Declining Indigenous mortality rates in the middle adult years are particularly encouraging, as previous reports on Indigenous mortality over shorter periods have not demonstrated improvement in adult mortality. v
Using data on the Northern Territory’s Indigenous population and deaths—the most accurate in the ... more Using data on the Northern Territory’s Indigenous population and deaths—the most accurate in the country—this report explores current methods used to estimate Indigenous life expectancy, and found that estimates can change by as much as 10 years merely by making small changes in the data sets used in the analyses. The report recommends the Australian Bureau of Statistics to use a simpler approach to derive official life expectancy estimates for Indigenous Australians.
Chair: Rebecca Kippen, University of Melbourne Speakers: Janet McCalman, University of Melbourne;... more Chair: Rebecca Kippen, University of Melbourne Speakers: Janet McCalman, University of Melbourne; Sandra Silcot, University of Melbourne; Len Smith, The Australian National University
Australia enjoys ninth place out of 190 countries on the United Nations Life Expectancy Index. Ab... more Australia enjoys ninth place out of 190 countries on the United Nations Life Expectancy Index. Aboriginal Australians—as a fourth-world people within a first-world society—rank in the bottom half of the Index, just below Guatemala and Bangladesh. Progress on closing ‘the gap’ in health and wellbeing has been slow, despite initial rapid gains in infant mortality. The barriers are inter-generational trauma, inherited disadvantage, poverty and systemic racism. This paper reports on the Koori Health Research Database, a cradle-to-grave dataset of Aboriginal Victorians from the 1840s. It finds that population recovery after the nadir reached at the end of the nineteenth century, was hindered by high acquired secondary infertility among women vulnerable to sexual abuse, violence and sexually transmitted infections. Improvements in survival and the health transition were ‘blocked’ by barriers to land acquisition and full citizenship, as has happened in New Zealand. The dramatic recovery of the population of people now identifying as Aboriginal in Victoria has come from out-marriage.
This paper describes efforts made in Australia in the use of data linkage to enhance Indigenous m... more This paper describes efforts made in Australia in the use of data linkage to enhance Indigenous mortality statistics. The extent of inadequacies of statistics sourced from death registration is discussed and the improvements made by data linkage are presented. Conceptual, methodological and data issues that may give rise to error and bias in such data linkage are discussed.
Publishers details for: Carey, James R, and Tuljapurkar, Shripad, Life Span: Evolutionary, Ecolog... more Publishers details for: Carey, James R, and Tuljapurkar, Shripad, Life Span: Evolutionary, Ecological and Demographic Perspectives, A supplement to Population and Development Review, Vol. 29, 2003. New York: The Population Council.
Abstract: Over recent decades there has been a burgeoning of individual-level population data ava... more Abstract: Over recent decades there has been a burgeoning of individual-level population data available from historical records, including censuses, and birth, death and marriage registers. These can be linked to other historical material to form rich prosopographical ...
Fractional Identities: The Political Arithmetic of Aboriginal Victorians The debate over the size... more Fractional Identities: The Political Arithmetic of Aboriginal Victorians The debate over the size of the Ab- original population of Australia on the eve of the European invasion has been complicated by the nation's unsavory "history wars." The smaller the number of original inhabitants, the lower is the implied number of colonial casualties and the more defensible appears the claim that a people of the plough had a right to convert a seemingly empty land into a food basket for the empire. However, as scholars have come to understand the complexity of Aboriginal society and its management of plant and animal food resources, they have also gained a new appreciation of the land's carrying capacity. Indeed, the belated discovery of women's signiªcance as food gatherers has revealed the extent to which Aboriginal people were reliant on the gathering of the vegetable and invertebrate food resources to be found in previously unappreciated abundance throughout the continent, as well as the extent to which they systematically managed those resources by ªre, aquaculture, and proto-agriculture. Len Smith has estimated that this
J McCalman, L Smith, S Silcot and R Kippen 2015. in G Bloothooft, P Christen, CA Mandemakers and ... more J McCalman, L Smith, S Silcot and R Kippen 2015. in G Bloothooft, P Christen, CA Mandemakers and MP Schraagen (eds) Population Reconstruction, Springer, Heidelberg, 285–298.
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