Acting on the recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, the Federal government allocated funds to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to conduct a national survey of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The survey commenced design in 1992 and went into the field during early 1994. The first publication from that survey, released in February 1995, reveals some interesting information about families and service usage. The author discusses some of the findings of the survey which covered households and families, health issues, family violence, culture and language, and employment and other sources of income.