We believe that the five-yearly national census can be better adapted to the circumstances of traditionally-oriented Aboriginal people in northern and central Australia than was the case, as we observed it, in 2001. Adaptation is not a simple task and all methodologies will have their weaknesses and pitfalls. The ABS is to be commended for its openness in allowing us to observe and to constructively criticise its operations in 2001. Interaction between the ABS and academic researchers should be an ongoing relationship in which ideas for improvement of the census methodology for more traditionally-oriented Aboriginal people in northern and central Australia are continually put to the test. This could of course be a more chastening experience for the researchers than for the ABS. Reckoning the Indigenous people of the Commonwealth will never be an easy task.