David Martin is an anthropologist and Research Fellow (part time) at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University. He has over 25 years of experience working with the Wik people of Aurukun, the location of his case study for this volume. Together with John Taylor, he has previously published an analysis of the assumptions underlying ABS census methodology, based on a comparison between the results of a census he undertook in Aurukun using ethnographic methods with those of the 1986 ABS Census conducted at the same time.

Frances Morphy has a background in anthropology and linguistics. She was a commissioning editor at Oxford University Press, Oxford before returning to Australia in 1997. She is now the academic editor and a Research Fellow (part time) in the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University. She has conducted research on a variety of topics in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory over a period of nearly 30 years.

Will Sanders joined the North Australia Research Unit of the Australian National University in 1981. He has since held positions in the ANU's Urban Research Program, Department of Political Science and Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research where he is now a Fellow. His interest in the adaptation of administrative systems to the circumstances of Indigenous people in north and central Australia also extends to the social security system and to electoral administration.

John Taylor is a Senior Fellow at Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University. He has been researching issues related to the enumeration of Aboriginal people in remote areas since 1986. He has a disciplinary background in geography and population studies, and is the author of numerous papers of relevance to Indigenous social and economic policy development. He is currently a member of the committee overseeing development of the ABS Indigenous Social Survey.