An eleven year child died last year, but by suicide. Nine months later, only days ago, his 37 year old mother took her life. In the last year I have had to look into the eyes of parents who have buried a child aged 11 years, 12 years, 13 years, 14 years, 15 years, 16 years and 17 years. We were not put on this earth to bury our children, but we do. This tragedy and the underlying issues are the pressing issue of our time and they must become the most pressing priority of every government.
When this little boy took his life in the coastal Western Australian town of Geraldton in October of last year, I learned about it the next morning. However when I notified certain service providers, so as to standby for the family, they stated to me that my source was wrong because they would have known about it. But they were wrong and it took more than a week before they realised that this little boy had taken his life.
I worried about his family members, and urged for a through-care plan for the family, the same type of plan that the young boy should have been wrapped in long before he ultimately took his life. Extended family should have been involved to breakthrough the potential for assistance to the immediate family, to the most affected family members. People need people, far too often they just cannot do it alone and the whole self-responsibility mantra is a dangerous dicing with people’s lives.
Over the last several years, I have written widely about the suicides crises and I have delved closely with families who have lost their young to this crisis. My mind’s eye will never forget them, they remain solid in my thoughts, and so too remain with me the suffering of their loved ones. This morning I spoke to a good friend of mine in Adelaide, Narungga Elder, Tauto Sansbury – the incumbent NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement award recipient. Tauto is driving to a funeral as I write this piece – to the funeral of another young life lost to suicide. Before commencing this article I was talking to another friend in Canberra as we discussed the loss of three young people to suicide within a week earlier this year. Those suicides rocked various Canberra communities. Yesterday, a friend in Queensland discussed with me the youth suicides that have rocked families and communities throughout Queensland. I can keep on writing about the loss of life, and what leads to it and I can write about the obscene neglect of all this by one government after another but I have done this. I have shifted my focus to the requisite urging for comprehensive response, and I do so because we do know the ways forward. I have been writing about the extensiveness of the suicides crises and the ways forward for years – more than 200 articles in the last couple of years alone and alongside numerous meetings with parliamentarians.
In recent weeks there have been two important national meetings, both of which I attended and strongly participated in, urging governments to respond to the crises. One was a national critical response meeting calling for bona fide suicide prevention. This meeting was held on July 17 in Perth. At that meeting the Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs Nigel Scullion flew in to attend alongside leaders and experts from across Western Australia and from around the nation. Urgency was the signature piece of their statements. On July 22, a national meeting was convened in Canberra – at parliament – with three federal ministers present, the Minister for Health, Sussan Ley, the Minister for Indigenous Health, Fiona Nash and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Nigel Scullion – with 25 of the nation’s leading experts in mental health and suicide prevention and prominent Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander leaders. Both roundtables were whole day meetings and the most important message was to implement ways forward known to work – not down the track, not in the weeks or months or years ahead, but now.
In delaying ways forward known to work, well this is a moral abomination and because the suicide crises are reprehensibly racialised, any delay or passing of the buck is in fact a veil and layer of racism.
There is no greater legacy that any government can have, than any of us can have, than to improve the lot of others to the point of saving lives.
We cannot lay claim that any of our governments have delivered comprehensive responses to various wholesale psychological and psychosocial distresses of families, extended families and to communities as a whole. Not when destructive behaviours, suicidal ideation and suicide take the toll they continue to take.
Our governments have a responsibility to repair the damage that they and their predecessors have done. We can definitely state that the social determinant levels and the social health quotients of far too many communities throughout the nation have been degraded by one government after another.
Last year following the death by suicide of Peter ‘Rabbit, a child who should have been wrapped in support 24/7, I warned of a disconnect between the various services, between responders and I warned of the fact that certain services which should have a 24/7 capacity in fact do not. The young boy should never have been lost. The other day, just nine months after the loss of Peter, his 37 year old mother took her life. She could not cope with the loss of Peter. There should have been the constant of support for her, a through-care plan and long-term, for the family.
His troubled mother had plunged into often unbearable pain after the loss of her son. She leaves three remaining sons behind, the youngest eight years old. They are being cared by grandparents. One grandparent said that the family had received no counselling. They are worried about the impacts on the children after the loss of their brother and their mother.
The mother wrote of suicide on her Facebook but stated she would not go through with it for the sake of the remaining children. But the fact that it was stated should have alerted others and galvanised various vital support because it was indeed a cry for help. She was effectively stating that she was struggling with coping. If you are struggling then your resilience is being tested.
We know that the people most at risk after a suicide are the family members. These are the people who need to be wrapped in care 24/7.
If they do not want to be, you do not give up on them, you do not walk away. You break through with the help and love of extended family. People need people and this has to be an unassailable tenet.
A significant proportion of suicides are of a second or third family member taking their life, and the most vulnerable period is within the first year after the loss of a loved one.
We have a humanitarian crisis in Australia among Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples, with suicide accounting for at least one in 20 deaths of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders. However because of under-reporting issues I estimate that the real suicide toll is closer to one in 12 deaths.
For Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders aged 15 to 35, who should be in the prime of life, nearly one in three deaths of this age group is by suicide. If this statistic, this moral abomination does not startle the nation into a critical response then what will?
The whole self-responsibility mantra has to be dropped, it is rubbish – people need people and we need to get out there and help them. Their circumstances are Australian made and we have to recognise this imperative and hence respond accordingly and continue to do so till such time as we have reduced at least to parity between the two populations of this continent the suicides rates.
If you are an Aboriginal male in this country you are at least a one in fifteen chance of taking your life by suicide. If you are an Aboriginal child aged less than 14 years of age you are at least eight times more likely to suicide than a non-Aboriginal child. This is a moral abomination. I can only emphasize, that there is no greater legacy that any government can have, than any of us can have, than to improve the lot of others to the point of saving lives.
A Critical Response is being developed urgently by us at the ATSISPEP (the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project) in addition to a volume of other work and with the support of the Federal Minister of Indigenous Affairs and relevant stakeholders and community leaders and it will soon be ready. But the sooner it is launched then at long last the journey begins to facilitating some of the ways forward that matter most. We must go forward and with no politics, no egos and no penny-pinching getting in the way.
If we do not act now, the humanitarian crisis that is at hand, generally missed by the national consciousness, will reach catastrophic levels. When we couple the suicides crises with unnatural and premature deaths, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples are facing that catastrophe. The worst racism in this nation, which already has a hostile aversion to dealing with the veils and layers of racism, is the one where we are silent about this tragedy and do not respond in the ways that matter.
Declaration – Gerry Georgatos is a researcher in suicide prevention and racism and is involved with various national and community projects in suicide prevention.
Lifeline’s 24-hour hotline, 13 11 14
Crisis Support and Suicide Prevention Beyond Blue – 1300 22 4636
Other articles and media on the suicide crisis and suicide prevention by Gerry Georgatos:
Understanding the abominable jail and suicide rates
The issue of our time – 1 in 3 deaths by suicide
When the right people lead then lives will be saved
Truth, not lies on Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander suicide prevention rates
A moral abomination – a narrative that is racialised; of human suffering and misery
Plato said engage with our politicians or risk being governed by the dumb – the suicide crises
Another misguided reductionist plan to reduce rates of suicide self-harm
The leading cause of death – for 15 to 44 year old Australians – is suicide | The Stringer
People strengthening people focus on suicide prevention
Understanding difference and unfairness is a first step in suicide prevention | The Stringer
Taboo, stigma and shame need to get out of the way for suicide prevention | The Stringer
Suicide is heading to a humanitarian crisis – it is a leading cause of death | The Stringer
Suicides are preventable – here is what we must begin to do | The Stringer
The extensiveness of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander suicides – 1 in 20 | The Stringer
Preventing suicide – “no greater legacy” | The Stringer
Understanding Australia’s suicide crises
Shame job Australia – they came through the gate with my boy’s body
Suicides, high among overseas born and second generation Australians
Child suicidal ideation on the increase
It is racism killing our people – suicides born of racism
Kimberley suicide rate – one of the world’s highest – Yiriman is the way to go
My Country – But look how I am forced to live
What will it take to end Aboriginal disadvantage, the inequalities and the various crises?
What sort of Australia is this? Seven homeless children in an asbestos slum
Six homeless children fighting for a better tomorrow
Quality of life for Australians 2nd only to Norway but for Aboriginal Peoples 122nd
Dumbartung convenes suicide crisis summit
Suicide attempts among women on the rise
Australia’s Aboriginal children detained at the world’s highest rates
Culture should not be denied – change needs unfolding, not impost
Everyone in the Territory doing well, except for Aboriginal Peoples
Australia’s Aboriginal children, the world’s highest suicide rate
Wes Morris slams government suicide prevention programs
How many more suicides will it take? How many more deaths?
Hopelessness in suicide riddled communities
More government neglect of Aboriginal children
In identity lay the answers – ATSI suicides
$25.4 billion spent on Aboriginal disadvantage is a lie
Beagle Bay to State Parliament – Farrer speaks out on suicides
Government to address Aboriginal suicides
996 Aboriginal deaths by suicide – another shameful Australian record
996 deaths by suicide – one in 24 die by suicide
Australia’s Aboriginal suicide epidemic – whose child will be the next to die?
77 Aboriginal suicides in South Australia alone
Kimberley’s Aboriginal peoples old at 45 years
Australia, the mother of all jailers of Aboriginal people
Tumult of death – 400 suicides in last three years
30 suicides in the last three months as we wait for promises to be kept
Suicide crisis – genocidal numbers
Suicide crisis – from tragic to catastrophic
Suicide crisis needs real funding and actions
Hundreds more will suicide if we wait for 2015
Nothing will be done about suicides crisis
Elders across Australia say governments need to listen to them on how to address youth suicide
Suicides – western society and ancient cultures clash
If we are serious about suicide prevention
Australia’s suicide crisis should not be played down – the media must highlight it
From my father’s death bed to the must-do to end the suicides
Governments promise on ending suicides must come good now
More confirmation of what everyone knows, was suicide prevention inadequate
The must-do need to listen and trust if suicides crisis is to end
Working together – mental health and suicide prevention roundtable
Break the taboo around suicides, we reduce suicides
Suicide crises born of Australia’s inhumanity
Suicides crisis linked to incarceration
Wes Morris urges funding for cultural methodologies
The betrayal of our children – the Northern Territory
New project offers hope to reduce Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicides
Depression and suicide prevention must be top of the agenda this century
World Suicide Prevention Day – suicide takes more lives than war
Western Australia – 1 in 13 in a jail, a bullshit state of affairs
Yiriman saving lives in the midst of the Kimberley’s suicide crises
The smaller a community, the less likely a suicide
Overcoming disadvantage report shows disadvantage not overcome
600 Black deaths in custody by 2025 – jail numbers to soar
Get out of the way – Aboriginal suicide rates will drop
A nation shamed when the solution for its children is homelessness
Christmas, a period of vulnerability for many
Stop peddling lies $30 billion spent on Indigenous disadvantage is a lie
To end our trauma government must stop the assault on our people and our culture
In Australia there is the Aboriginal rights struggle
Kirstie Parker, Mick Gooda say enough of fine words – close the gap a big fat lie
Highest child removal rates in the world worse than Stolen Generations
Stop examining the oppressed – instead examine the oppressor
Other media:
Youth suicide at crisis levels among Indigenous population
A nation shamed when child sees suicide as the solution
Families urged to look after each other as suicide rates soar
Response to rash of suicides in remote WA regions
ABC 7:30 Report – Deaths in custody and jail rates
Mother takes own life after losing beloved son, Peter Rabbit to suicide
Radio:
Tiga Bayles and Gerry Georgatos discuss the suicide crises
Unpaid fines leading Indigenous over representation
Researcher says poverty is driving incarceration of Aboriginal people
One in twenty First Peoples deaths classify as suicide
CAAMA Radio – Gerry Georgatos Speaks out on Aboriginal Suicide.
After 25 years working remote, I have left and although my Yolngu family will always connect, I cannot help anymore. I am convinced that Government are purely interested in the statics only and are flaccid, contemptible. No “helpline” is going to do any service what so ever….I have called for backup so many times. I have seen the dead and cried with families….and it is only getting worse. Hanging, cutting your own throat, whatever…let’s talk graphics…and they were only children…Beyond shame…this story needs to become global …although Tony Abbott has no shame at least the truth will be said.
So utterly, utterly tragic. I agree with the premise of your article; people need people. And people’s pain needs to listened to and treated seriously. Having been personally touched by suicide, I have always considered suicide a failing of the larger society not the individuals suffering. What does the suicide rate of young Aboriginal children and youth say about Australia dealing with racism? That maybe we should wake up, yes? Horrible tragedy, very sad.
I very much agree with what is said here. It takes alot more than some crisis phone line to prevent this carnage. People take their own lives because life has simply become too unbearable. It takes respect and resources and handing people some control over their lives. I cannot believe the current stupid policies of this or previous governments. Every other day we hear of some stupid cock eyed new idea they come up with from banning vegemite to closing down communities and evicting homeless people from a certain space. The affects of incarceration at such a young age does life long damage to people and teaches people they do not own their own lives. Handing control and slowing some decent coal face resources to work with is a no brainer. Instead the government persists in managing, directing and organising people as if they were cattle that can be shifted from paddock to paddock. When people do come up with good ideas and programs that work and take control and responsibility they are promptly shut down. Many of us find this attitude by governments just plain arrogant, hostile and something out of the dark ages. It really does smack of the old poor laws from which our welfare system was built. The difference between Norway and us is they are a bit more enlightened in their approach in relation to basic welfare of their peoples and social support systems. We are now abusing people who have the least.