Ken Wyatt says tackling Aboriginal youth suicides is grave challenge

One of Australia’s leading indigenous voices says there would be public outrage if the spate of Aboriginal youth suicides involved non-Aboriginal kids.

Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt’s comments come as crisis talks focusing on how to tackle the alarming issue will be held in Perth today.

Since the start of this year there have been eight suspected suicides of young Aboriginal people and at least six who were all under the age of 15.

Mr Wyatt said if those deaths occurred in the more affluent areas of Australia and affected non-Aboriginal young people it would be treated differently.

“The high rate of suicide among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people is one of the gravest and most heartbreaking challenges we face, one I am deeply and personally committed to confronting,” Mr Wyatt wrote in an opinion piece for The Australian.

“I suspect that if these were non-Aboriginal kids dying in affluent suburbs, the public outrage and media coverage would be far greater.

“But the scale of this tragedy will not be found in those areas because it is born of many factors far less common in average Australia.

“Listening to locals — especially the young — must be the first step towards overcoming the sense of futility that too often culminates in death.”

Kununurra woman Montana Ahwon and Broome man Jacob Corpus have flown down from the Kimberley, which has the highest Aboriginal suicide rate in the country, to present findings to the meeting from a youth forum.

Ms Ahwon said she got the call the meeting was on last week and it was good to know the issue was now being talked about and “not swept under the rug”.

“I think there’s a lot of improvement that needs to be done and to come up with the most action based solution and a grass roots one,” she said.

Kimberley MP Josie Farrer this week expressed her frustrations at the lack of change or improvement in the region in stopping the suicides.

She called to bring back traditional law to help address some of the social issues happening in the region such as child sex abuse.

Mr Wyatt did not weigh into the debate over whether their should be an integration of traditional law and Australian law, however, he said respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditions and culture was critical.

“(It) has been identified by our young people as a significant factor in tackling youth suicide rates,” he said.