twrama 1990_final oc.. - AMA WA

Determined: Associate Professor
Gary Robinson hopes a concerted
approach involving community
action and action across services
and agencies will help diminish
the spectre of suicide.
COVER STORY
Fighting for
life
Menzies researchers traverse the country to speak to
communities about preventing Indigenous suicide
“Our mob don’t like asking for help. We are proud. It takes
a lot of courage to ask for help,” advises a plain-speaking
Indigenous community representative.
He’s talking with researchers from the Menzies Centre
or Child Development and Education (CCDE) who are in
his region to collect information and stories about Indigenous
suicide.
“It can take a fair amount of courage for Indigenous
people from regional or remote communities to stand up and
talk in this environment,” says lead researcher, Associate
Professor Gary Robinson. “Communities can go into denial
about suicide and become too ashamed or
frightened to talk about it openly.”
Battling against the horrors of Indigenous
suicide sounds like a grim task. However
this recent series of consultations were
characterised more by determination to make
things better, than they were by any sense
of despair.
Researchers criss-crossed the country
during August and September conducting
public consultations in 16 capital cities and
regional centres in points as far distant as
Thursday Island, Hobart, Perth and Broome.
Their ultimate task was to seek the
information that may help to reduce
the distressingly high rates of suicide in
Indigenous communities around Australia.
The team, lead by A/Prof Robinson,
has been charged with capturing material
to feed into the development of a National
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Indigenous Suicide Prevention Plan. It has spoken to more
than 500 people and received over 50 submissions to the
consultation website
www.indigenoussuicideprevention.org.au.
There was a steely resolve on the part of the Indigenous
and non-Indigenous people who attended the sessions to
apply themselves to the problem and work hard to develop
answers to the scourge of Indigenous suicide.
“There was a sense of hope on the part of people who want
to be heard,” said A/Prof Robinson. “They want to know
what the options are, and have input into the strategies that
reflect the views of their communities.”
There were some expressions of grief from community
members present who referred to their direct personal
experience of losing loved ones to suicide. The consultations
provided a supportive environment and it seemed that people
drew strength from being able to recount their own stories in
a safe space.
A healthy representation of Indigenous people was present
at all the consultations. As A/Prof Robinson noted, there can
be no suggestion that Aboriginal people are unwilling to take
responsibility for developing solutions to the thorny problems
they face.
This was not an occasion for navel gazing, he added.
People were focused on the distinctly concrete task of
developing a strategy that will help save lives. They were
animated by a sense that something could be done – and that
something would be done to prevent suicide.
“I was blown away by how much people knew and how
willing they were to talk about things,”
recalls Bernard Leckning, a research team
member who attended a number of the
consultations.
“You are talking about people who
are pretty determined to get something
done. People were animated by a belief
that something needs to be done about the
situation.”
Despite the nature of the subject matter,
there were moments of humour. A video
that featured Tiwi Islands crooners B2M
warning against the misuse of social media,
for instance, generated more than a few
laughs.
An Indigenous representatives at one
consultation also regaled those present with
a tale of A/Prof Robinson being chased by
a feral donkey – apparently unimpressed by
academic standing – during an earlier visit
to Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara
lands of South Australia.
Although the consultations have finished, the team still has
an enormous task ahead to distil the wealth of material they
have collected and synthesise it into a cohesive response for
government by the end of October.
They will also be acutely aware of the importance of
honouring the contributions of the many Australians –
Indigenous and non-Indigenous – who gave up their time and
contributed their expertise at locations all across the country.
“Tough topics often bring the biggest rewards in terms of
working with people and finding common ground,” says
A/Prof Robinson.
The work of his team isn’t easy, he adds, but it is
critically important to grapple with the reality of suicide if
governments and research organisations are to partner with
Indigenous communities in finding a way forward.
“This bleak toll of misery must be stemmed,” A/Prof
Robinson says. ■
October MEDICUS 27