Page 7 - Comites Aboriginal Italian People in SA

Research Findings
Italian Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People in South Australia
According to the 2021 Australian Census conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), there are 9,554 people in Australia who have both Italian and Indigenous ancestry, where Indigenous ancestry implies Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander ancestry.1 This represents 0.9% of all people in Australia with Italian ancestry.
In South Australia (SA) there are 614 people who have both Italian and Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander ancestry. This represents 0.6% of all people in South Australia with Italian ancestry, i.e. for every 1,000 South Australians with Italian ancestry, 6 people will also have Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander ancestry.
As per the ABS a person’s ancestry does not necessarily imply their birthplace, but instead relates to the cultural groups that person most closely identifies with. “The intent of the question is to capture the cultural context in which people were raised, however some people may respond according to how they may identify with a particular cultural group”.2
Sex
There are more females than males across each of the four cultural groups of relevance in SA with slightly more females having both Italian and Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander ancestry (52%), compared with 51.2% for those with Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander ancestry, 50.7% of all people in SA and 50.2% of people with Italian ancestry.
1 The Census uses the term “Indigenous” in their reports, however, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people find this term too generic and prefer Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, particularly in South Australia. The Aboriginal language term ‘Nunga’ is used also used to refer to Aboriginal peoples who reside in and around the area of Adelaide. However, it is not appropriate to presume to have the right to use the term “Nunga”. Therefore, in the rest of the report we will use Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. For further information, see Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) 2015, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, last viewed May 2025.
2 https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/detailed-methodology- information/information-papers/understanding-and-using-ancestry-data