“Why Don’t Indigenous Suicides Matter?” The deafening silence of our political leaders following the suicide deaths of 13 Aboriginal youth in WA has continued to ignore the intolerable pain of these young ppl, who saw death as their only option. Their only escape 1/17

It took 13 months for the WA Govt to respond to the Coroners’ Inquiry into 13 deaths by suicide of Aboriginal youth in the Kimberley. During which time 6 young black kids took their lives. 2/17

There is no greater injustice in this world than to be invisible. To feel as if you do not matter. That your pain matters less. Black lives matter – the lives of our children matter. Leadership on this issue has failed, & it has failed our most vulnerable 3/17

We know the 1st step to healing comes from your trauma being validated through acknowledgment. If this doesn’t happen trauma develops whole new dimensions & is magnified. Trauma becomes systemically generated when govt bodies & societal structures fail to show they care 4/17

Empathy should be applied EQUALLY & this must start with our elected leaders showing they care about what is happening to our Aboriginal children.5/17

They should be stepping forward, leaning in, acknowledging the tragedy happening on their watch & responding with compassion and urgency; as you’d expect with the death of any child, let alone 13 of them. 6/17

There has been no call to action to look deeply within ourselves, within our society, within the systems that have contributed to such intergenerational devastation. Just silence.7/17

Politicians respond to public pressure which is often media generated. Studies show there exists a ‘hierarchy of newsworthiness’ in which ‘cultural proximity’ to audience plays a crucial role in the extent of empathy generated for victims
8/17

The more an audience relates, the greater the newsworthiness. If the broader community can’t connect in a “this could happen to me or my family” manner, there is less outcry & less pressure on politicians to respond as they are aware there will be no backlash about it 9/17

One doesn’t even have to wonder if this were 13 non-Aboriginal children if the silence would be commensurate with the silence that has followed the suicide deaths of 13 Aboriginal children? 10/17

The Govt response was 36 pages in length, with vlarge font & 1/2 taken up by artwork, pictures & ‘cultural’ infographics. This is a Govt response to 13 youth suicides! 11/17

Once you extract yourself from the blinding headline of $266 million ‘allocated’ & past buzz words like “culture driven” & “community co-design of programs”, it is a response predictable in its failure to address the significant gaps in Indigenous suicide prevention. 12/17

What is significantly distressing is that 13 children died on the Govts watch. Their response has been not to respond for 13 months. When they finally did, it was such a disgrace to bereaved families that I broke down the “financial allocation” in an Opinion Piece 13/17

I initially thought it was rebadged money; it’s worse, it’s claiming credit for funding essential services or services for all West Austs & claiming it as their response to the deaths of 13 beautiful Aust children, who just happened to be black. Let’s see what they claimed 14/17

Of the $266M, $208.9M (or 78% of the ‘pledge’) is for housing & infrastructure-money the Govt spends on housing is not suicide prevention. Just to be clear

15/17

$32.3M claimed is for the WA Suicide Prevention Strategy. This is an action plan for ALL West Australians. I am confused as to how it became counted in the Governments ‘allocation’ in their response to the Coronial Inquiry. 16/17

The reasons the Govts response was an abject failure, why Coroners Inquiries never provide solutions to Indigenous suicides; where the gaps are & a measurable road map to fixing it (which continues to be ignored) can all be found here: https://indigenousx.com.au/enough-lip-service-where-is-the-accountability/