The aim of this paper is to provide an updated description of the level of participation of Indigenous children in early childhood education, as well as an analysis of the differences in outcomes between those children who do and do not attend.

This Topical Issue is based upon a submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Inquiry into language learning in Indigenous communities, and has a specific focus on lessons the authors have learnt from working with Indigenous peoples in remote regions as both educators and researchers. The focus is on the role of Indigenous languages in emergent development activity in remote Australia and the out-of-school language and literacy needs of Indigenous adolescents and young adults, with a focus on the digital economy.

In the present era of evidence-based policy making in Indigenous affairs, where the monitoring and closure of socioeconomic gaps dominates the federal agenda, data have become paramount. Yet with regard to one of the cornerstones of the Labor government’s ‘Closing the Gaps’ initiative—Indigenous education—the reliability of the evidence base has been repeatedly called into question. Further, existing educational administrative data, as they are conventionally reported, fail to elucidate some of the key structural drivers of Indigenous educational disadvantage.