Doing your family history may help you obtain proof of your heritage. You might find a birth, death or marriage record that traces your family to a particular Aboriginal station or reserve. Or you might have oral history stories that can connect you to a particular area or person or photograph.
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.
You may need to contact an organisation where your family is from – someone in the community might know or remember your family. An Indigenous organisation in the area where you currently live may also be able to provide you with this confirmation.
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.
These are: being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. identifying as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person. being accepted as such by the community in which you live, or formerly lived.
But for Australian Aboriginal people, or those searching their family tree, a DNA test will not necessarily give you confirmation of an indigenous Australian heritage. There's three types of different tests available, but they're not going to yield exact results for very different reasons.
Membership of the Indigenous people depends on biological descent from the Indigenous people and on mutual recognition of a particular person's membership by that person and by the elders or other persons enjoying traditional authority among those people.
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 ...
For Indigenous Australians, Age Pension: 53%, Total: 53%, JobSeeker Payment: 28%, Youth Allowance (other): 20%, Disability Support Pension: 10%, Youth Allowance (student and apprentice): 1%, Parenting Payment (single): 8%, Carer Payment: 3%, Parenting Payment (partnered): 2%, ABSTUDY (Living Allowance): 2%.
The test has three elements, all of which must be proved by the person claiming to be Aboriginal: the person must identify as Aboriginal, the Aboriginal community must recognise the person as Aboriginal, and the person is Aboriginal by way of descent.
In 1943, the Aborigines Welfare Board* allowed Aboriginal people to apply for a 'Certificate of Exemption'. This certificate gave Aboriginal people access to the same previously denied benefits as non-Aboriginal Australians, such as pensions, public education, and housing.
There are some situations where being of Aboriginal heritage indicates the risk of disadvantage. For example, Aboriginal people are more prone to particular health problems, such as kidney disease and diabetes. Knowing about someone's heritage is obviously important in health settings.
There are some amounts don't need to be include as income in your tax return. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and Indigenous holding entities don't need to pay income tax or capital gains tax on native title payments or benefits.
Confirmation of Identity - Verification for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people form (RA010) Use this form to provide confirmation of your identity if you are an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander who has no other identity documents available.
make the following declaration under the Statutory Declarations Act 1959: I confirm that I am of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent, I identify as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and I am accepted as such in the community in which I live or have lived.
About the Birth Certificate Program
The Pathfinders National Aboriginal Birth Certificate Program is making it easier for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to apply for and receive their birth certificate.
The New South Wales Stolen Generations Reparations Scheme provides ex-gratia payments of $75,000 to living Stolen Generations survivors who were removed from their families and committed to the care of the New South Wales Aborigines Protection or Welfare Boards.
By remoteness, the 2021 median gross weekly equivalised household income for Indigenous adults ranged from $982 in Major cities to $459 in Very remote areas (Table D2. 08.12, Figure 2.08. 5).
Doing your family history may help you obtain proof of your heritage. You might find a birth, death or marriage record that traces your family to a particular Aboriginal station or reserve. Or you might have oral history stories that can connect you to a particular area or person or photograph.
“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.
The Confirmation of Aboriginality form is a certificate that acknowledges that you are known to your community as an Aboriginal person. Your Aboriginal confirmation form can be asked of you when applying for Indigenous specific services or programs.
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).
Definition. Aboriginal group refers to whether the person is First Nations (North American Indian), Métis or Inuk (Inuit). These are the three groups defined as the Aboriginal peoples of Canada in the Constitution Act, 1982, Section 35 (2). A person may be in more than one of these three specific groups.
After 3–4 generations you should have original generation dead. You would then be indigenous.
The term Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples or the person's specific cultural group, is often preferred, though the terms First Nations of Australia, First Peoples of Australia and First Australians are also increasingly common; 812,728 people self-identified as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait ...