Since the start of this year, 62 Aboriginal people – 15 of them children – have died by suicide. More than half of them were under 25 years old, and the youngest was only 12.
The national critical response trauma recovery project, which supports families and communities after a death occurs, said a 17-year-old boarding school student from a remote Queensland community took her life in Brisbane last weekend, and there have been another two since then.
The suicide rate is an “unspeakable tragedy”, Australia’s three major medical organisations have said. They wrote to the Morrison government pleading for action in March, after four young Aboriginal people died in a single week, in Queensland.
There have been investigations, reports and additional funds pledged by the major parties during the election campaign.
But there is no national strategy for Indigenous suicide prevention. There was one drafted under Labor in 2013, but it was abandoned by the Abbott Liberal government in 2014.
“This is a crisis and it has been for a long time,” Greens senator Rachel Siewert said. “I am ashamed at the level of crisis we are at in 2019.”
The Aboriginal health sector has long put forward a number of initiatives aimed at suicide prevention.
Prof Pat Dudgeon, from the Bardi people of the Kimberley in Western Australia, is a psychologist and leads the centre for best practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide prevention at the University of Western Australia.
Dudgeon was director of a 2016 research project evaluating Indigenous suicide prevention in Australia and overseas to identify what works, and what needs to improve.
“The big message from our research, and one that is close to our heart, is that in any kind of work local communities need to be involved,” Dudgeon said. “Self-determination is very, very important at all levels.”
Dudgeon cites research done in Canadian First Nations communities by the late Prof Michael Chandler, who found there was a “sore tooth effect”.
“Some communities had very few suicides, while others were off the chart. So they went to communities which had no suicides and took a look at why not.”
They saw protective factors: communities who were healthy and functional, in charge of their own civil services, with high levels of self-determination and cultural reclamation, fared better.
“I think suicide is very complicated,” Dudgeon said. “There’s a whole matrix of different reasons that come into play, but there’s a feeling of hopelessness and despair, a feeling that you don’t have a future.
“We have to be aware that suicide is the tip of the iceberg too. If there’s high youth suicide, it’s like the miner’s canary – it’s a warning signal that things aren’t good.
“When there’s a young suicide, fingers are pointed at the families, and that’s not the way to go forward. It just makes the grief and loss that much more intense and horrible. We need to help families and communities and empower them so they can look after their own people.
“I think the possibility of suicide is there for us all. If you see it, you know it’s do-able. But research shows it’s better to talk about it and be frank, you know. If we can save one young person’s life, it’s worth everything.”
Dudgeon wants people to know there are programs in Aboriginal communities that work using the principles her project developed: identifying broader risk factors like housing, health and employment; enhancing protective factors like family, culture and identity; targeting at-risk groups like young people and within those groups, wrap-around services for high risk individuals.
She talks about two communities – the Tiwi Islands off the coast of Darwin, and Yarrabah in Queensland, both of whom turned their situations around in different but remarkable ways.
“This publicity around Indigenous suicide – we do need it – but the publicity is often about the tragedy. If Indigenous communities are supported to explore what works, they will come up with the answers, we need to support them to do it and listen carefully.
“Media coverage that doesn’t focus on the positive things that are going on makes it look like communities don’t care, but they care deeply.
“I remember the Leonora bus of hope – it shows communities are deeply concerned. They might feel powerless but when they can, they do step up and make change.”
The Kimberley has Australia’s highest youth suicide rate.
Western Australian coroner Ros Fogliani’s 2018 report on 13 Aboriginal youth suicides said the “situation in the region is dire”.
“The considerable services already being provided to the region are not enough. They are still being provided from the perspective of mainstream services, that are adapted in an endeavour to fit into a culturally relevant paradigm.
“It may be time to consider whether the services themselves need to be co-designed in a completely different way, that recognises at a foundational level, the need for a more collective and inclusive approach towards cultural healing for Aboriginal communities.”
Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service (KAMS) is three-quarters of the way through a suicide prevention trial. Begun in August 2016, it is one of 12 trial sites nationally, and one of two Indigenous-specific sites: the other one is Darwin.
The KAMS deputy chief executive, Rob McPhee, said the issues were deeper than dealing with depression or mental health.
“We found that what we’re dealing with in communities is much deeper than depression. There are broader issues around intergenerational trauma, exposure to negative life influences, poverty, unemployment, lack of education outcomes.
“But having somebody in those communities, starting to talk about suicide, is really building momentum.
“We’re a long way from reducing rates of suicide and self-harm, but it’s started a conversation we’re keen to see built upon, that will extend beyond the trial.”
“It’s our expectation that regardless of which government is elected, the commitment will continue, to invest in those programs we’ve shown to have worked.
“We get caught up in the deficit reporting and we gloss over the amazing strength that exists within our communities, the richness of families and cultural connections, our sense of community.
“It’s easy to paint a picture of this dire situation, and that’s not helpful for our young people who only see in the media the negative approach, that has a negative impact on your own sense of identity.
“So I think it’s critical that the narrative changes.
“There is hope. There are lots of good things happening, looking at how we can ensure kids are finishing year 12 with a strong cultural foundation because that’s what we have to equip our kids to be: operators in two worlds.
“Aboriginal society is here, been here forever, and will be here for thousands of years to come, but we have to work across those two worlds and maintain our cultural strength and dignity.”