Not even AncestryDNA, which has amassed more than 10 million samples, has enough to offer a “direct estimate of Aboriginal Australian ethnicity”. This means Aboriginal ancestors can only be reliably detected through direct maternal or paternal lines (using mitochondrial and Y-chromosome tests).
Ancestry's current database, which it calls its “reference panel”, has 56,580 DNA samples that divide the world into 77 overlapping regions and groups. The panel now has 53 samples of people with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage.
One of the researchers, the geneticist Dr Ray Tobler, said the samples meant Aboriginal ancestry could now be genetically traced back in time to a point that pre-dated European colonisation, when Aboriginal people were still living in their traditional areas, supporting what the archeological evidence already shows.
Who Should You Contact to Find Out if You're of Aboriginal Descent? You'll need to contact an incorporated Indigenous organisation where your relatives are from–someone in the community may remember or know your family. An incorporated Indigenous organisation where you live might also give you a letter of confirmation.
Letter from an Indigenous organisation or Community Elder
We prefer a letter from an Indigenous organisation to confirm your heritage. However, we will also accept a letter from a Community Elder. Use the Confirmation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent letter to confirm your heritage.
Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC)
A letter, on LALC letterhead and signed by either the LALC Chairperson or Chief Executive Officer confirming your acceptance as a member of a LALC, can be provided as proof of Aboriginality.
Since legislation for Indigenous people was a state matter, each state found its own definition for 'Aboriginal'. Examples: Western Australia: a person with more than a quarter of Aboriginal blood. Victoria: any person of Aboriginal descent.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs uses a blood quantum definition—generally one-fourth Native American blood—and/or tribal membership to recognize an individual as Native American. However, each tribe has its own set of requirements—generally including a blood quantum—for membership (enrollment) of individuals.
Aboriginal people can be dark-skinned and broad-nosed, or blonde-haired and blue-eyed. Let's get rid of some myths!
Indeed, by 31,000 years ago, most Aboriginal communities were genetically isolated from each other. This divergence was most likely caused by environmental barriers; in particular the evolution of an almost impassable central desert as the Australian continent dried out.
Results: The Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations had significantly different ABO and RhD distributions (P < 0.001). For Aboriginal individuals, 955/1686 (56.6%) were group O and 669/1686 (39.7%) were group A. In non-Aboriginal individuals, 1201/2657 (45.2%) were group O and 986/2657 (37.1%) were group A.
Four sub-phenotypes were predicted in ABO blood groups among this population: O (81.18%), A1 (18.38%), A2 (0.22%), and B (0.22%). The distribution of the O phenotype was very high compared with the other populations (Caucasian: 44%, African: 49%, and Asian: 43%).
Some are near-white like the F1; but none darker than either parent have been seen. Study of the various crosses leads to the conclusion that a single main gene for melanin in the skin is present in the aborigines, together with a minor gene which alone produces brunet-white skin colour.
The genetic analysis suggests that the first Australians arrived from Asia by about 50,000 years ago. This is broadly in line with most archaeological evidence and previous genome studies2 (see 'Mapping ancestors'). Australia's Indigenous groups also say their connection to the continent is ancient.
By comparing Aboriginal genomes to other groups, they conclude that Aborigines diverged from Eurasians between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago, after the whole group had already split from Africans.
"There is greater genetic diversity in Aboriginal people living in the east and west of Australia then there is between people living in Siberia and the Americas. "[And] that great genetic diversity in Aboriginal populations reflects the huge amount of time they have occupied the continent."
A woman named Trugernanner (often rendered as Truganini) who died in 1876, was, and still is, widely believed to be the last of the "full-blooded" Tasmanian Aboriginal people.
The rarest eye colour is green, with only 2% of the population having them. Even rarer than green eyes is heterochromia, a condition where a person has two different coloured eyes.
"It's rare, but it happens. There are more red-headed Aborigines around the place than a lot of people realise. "I knew when he was four he was going to be good. You could kick a ball as high as you could, and he'd never drop it.
At seven generations back, less than 1% of your DNA is likely to have come from any given ancestor.
If you just want to confirm whether you have Native American ancestry, an autosomal test like you find with AncestryDNA is sufficient. However, if you want to know which side of your family has Native American roots, you'll need mtDNA and Y-DNA tests.
Aboriginal ancestry refers to whether a person reported ancestry associated with the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. Aboriginal peoples of Canada are defined in the Constitution Act, 1982, Section 35 (2) as including the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.
“An Australian Aboriginal genome does not exist and therefore to even propose that a test is possible is scientifically inaccurate,” Ms Jenkins said. “The two companies which currently offer this 'service' use sections of DNA called single tandem repeats (STRs) that vary in the number of copies each person has.
A leading judgment by Justice Brennan in the 1992 Mabo v Queensland (No 2) case (which relates to Indigenous of the Torres Strait exclusively) stated that an Indigenous identity of a person depends on a three-part test: biological descent from the Indigenous people; recognition of the person's membership by that person ...
If you receive the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander region in your DNA results, this tells you that you probably had an ancestor who was an Indigenous Australian. If you are Indigenous Australian and do not receive this region in your DNA results, this should not subtract from your identity in any way.