It is a collecting, publishing, and research institute and is considered to be Australia's premier resource for information about the cultures and societies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

[13][14] The mission of the Institute at that time has been described as "to record language, song, art, material culture, ceremonial life and social structure before those traditions perished in the face of European ways".

[13] The founding Principal of the newly formed institute was Frederick McCarthy, a professional anthropologist and graduate of Sydney University who had spent nearly 30 years working in the field.

[16] The creation of the AIAS provided an opportunity for greater cross-discipline interaction in fields relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies in Australia.

[13] The Institute's founding principal, Fred McCarthy, was an advocate of film as an important part of research methodology as early as his tenure as curator of anthropology at the Australian Museum in Sydney in the 1940s.

[20] The early work of the AIAS is credited with increasing interaction between academics in different fields, as well as establishing the foundations for the extensive collections AIATSIS holds today.

[8] The emergence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people filling the role of 'cultural practitioner', travelling to the AIAS to provide advice on projects and research being undertaken, was also documented from around 1976 onwards.

[31] The filmmakers also practised a more collaborative approach to their films, and chose to use translations and subtitles to give direct access to the subjects voice and thoughts rather than the dominant 'voice of god' narration style.

[31] By the following year, the AIAS Film Unit had begun to implement a training program[31] and had started employing trainee Aboriginal filmmakers on productions by the early 1980s.

[8] The lecture is presented by prominent person with knowledge or experience relating to issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia today.

[8] The After 200 Years project was launched in 1985, aiming to fill some of the gaps in the AIAS photographic collection; particularly images of daily life in the southern, urban parts of Australia.

The three-year project culminated in the publication of a book containing hundreds of photographs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and selected by them to represent their community.

[56] Throughout this period, AIATSIS continued to undertake projects focused on the digitisation of collection materials, including their holdings of the complete back catalogue of Koori Mail.

[61] On 2 February 2024, coinciding with its 60th anniversary,[62] AIATSIS opened a new facility in Mparntwe-Alice Springs, building on its long partnership with First Nations Media Australia, which is based in the city.

[142] Previous milestone publications included the book After 200 Years, a collaboration showcasing photographs and stories of Aboriginal people as selected by members of those communities.

The biennial award is named in honour of the anthropologist W. E. H. (Bill) Stanner, who played an important role in establishing the AIAS, and the ongoing development of the institute.

[58] The architect, Howard Ragatt of the firm Ashton Raggatt McDougall designed the building for AIATSIS and for its neighbour on the Acton Peninsula, the National Museum of Australia.

[163] The architect, Howard Raggatt, was quoted as confirming this influence[164] but has also stated that it is designed to be reminiscent of Sidney Nolan's famous paintings of Ned Kelly.

The new precinct A$316.5 million will also include a new centre for learning and knowledge, and a resting place for ancestral remains of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from around the nation who are unable to be located in their Country.

[170][171][172] AIATSIS is the only Commonwealth of Australia institution responsible for collecting and maintaining materials documenting the oral and visual traditions and histories of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

[94] An independent assessment in 2014 confirmed that AIATSIS holds over 6 million feet of film,[173] over 40,000 hours of audio, 12,800 unpublished manuscripts and record series, 653,000 photographs, and 120,000 print and published materials (3,000 of which are rare books) among other miscellanea.

The recordings represent a breadth of cultural and historical information including languages, ceremonies, music, oral histories and interviews with participants in significant events such as the 1965 Freedom Rides and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Apology to the Stolen Generations.

The collection has also been built through deposits of materials, an arrangement which permits the original owners to assign access and use conditions appropriate to the cultural information contained in the items.

[188] This is achieved through a collection management plan that involves processes of recording and cataloguing, and appropriate storage and handling to extend the life of physical items and preserving their content through format shifting.

There are a wide variety of analogue photograph, tape and film formats held in the AIATSIS collection, which pose special preservation and future access risks.

[194] In accordance with its founding Act,[195] and as part of their collection management plan, AIATSIS adheres to strict protocols when handling and processing these sensitive items.

This two-year program was originally funded by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), and involved the creation of digital collections across the institution.

[197][198] Given these limitations, AIATSIS prioritises the selection of materials for digitisation using factors including significance of the item/s, the level of deterioration, cultural protocols, copyright status, and client demand.

[189][191] One of the identified priorities of the program is to digitise and preserve all of the audiovisual collection currently on endangered magnetic tape formats by the 2025 deadline set by UNESCO.

The ABI had its beginnings in 1979 as a non-selective biographical register of names, constructed using information on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from published material in the collection.