Until 2 years ago when I took the position of Indigenous Art lecturer at TAFE the lives of Indigenous people didn’t really touch me. Last year I didn’t even have any students so taught in Graphics instead. This year looks more promising but the year is off to a slow start, partly because Indigenous people as always have a different and healthier understanding of time-frames to their non-Indigenous compatriots, but more tragically because in the last 3 weeks two 15 year old girls have committed suicide. It has left the community reeling and the grief emanating from my Indigenous friends is palpable.
I am vigilant about not being a patronising wadjella and I am not pretending that this could ever affect me as deeply as it does them, but the enormity of these events and its impact on my Noongar friends has left me feeling unbelievably sad. I went looking for a way to understand the dynamics behind these suicides and discovered the following.
Suicide is not a traditional practice in Aboriginal culture. When I asked my Indigenous friend about this yesterday she confirmed it. It is something that seems to have evolved from the interaction between European and Indigenous cultures. Sadly it is a learnt behaviour - a response to the practice of ‘hanging as a stark symbol of Aboriginal punishment from colonial days’. Until the 1960s it was rare, but has steadily increased to become a ‘significant contributor to premature Aboriginal mortality’ in the last decade. It is also thought to be a ‘political statement’, a way of regaining, restating lost power.
It is no surprise to discover that it is driven by
a lack of a sense of purpose in life; a lack of publicly recognised role models and mentors outside of the sporting realm; the disintegration of the family and lack of meaningful support networks within the community; sexual assault; drug and alcohol misuse; animosity and jealousy evident in factionalism; the persistent cycle of grief due to the high number of deaths within many communities; and illiteracy, which results in exclusion and alienation.
We all know that alcohol and drugs are often involved in Aboriginal suicides, but we know too that they are also just a way of coping with desperation, not the cause of the final act. In psychological terms the murder of a culture has been transferred to individual self destruction. Fundamentally this is a lethal response to disempowerment and the only weapon these people feel they have left.
When I spoke to my friend yesterday we agreed that the solution would have to come from Indigenous people themselves. No matter how much I want to help, I am not an appropriate role model for her people. Unfortunately, as she also confirmed, ‘Aboriginal family members reported….that there were no warning signs to alert them of the impending suicidal behaviour’. My friend talked about how the grandmother of one of the girls was even more distraught because the girl had seemed happy, a sign to the trained eye that resolution of the internal conflict has been reached. This accounts for the misleading behaviour, the buoyant mood. As my friend pointed out – these are the signs we should be teaching people to look for. There is also a general ‘lack of premeditation and planning’ because Aboriginal suicides ‘…constitute more of a reactive emotional response to a particular situation or set of events’.
There are several entrenched cultural behaviours that add to the difficulties in dealing successfully with Aboriginal suicides. One of them is the notion of shame. In my predictably European way I said to my friend that we should be talking openly about this, white and black together. But as I also recognised, ‘shame’ presents the biggest barrier to tackling this issue head on. She wisely pointed out that Indigenous people now need to be educated and know that there is no shame in asking for help.
Aboriginal suicide is different to suicides that occur in the general population – the research indicates that the aetiology is different because it is rarely associated with mental illness. As a result it is suggested that it should also be dealt with under a ‘separate framework’. It is also no surprise to discover that ‘programs that connect young Indigenous people with their traditional culture and spirituality have been highlighted as important in suicide prevention’.
At the request of and out of respect for my Indigenous friends I have not told the whole story. As we were parting all I could say to her was, White people need to know about this too, they need to understand. I don’t know what I can do, but I want to help. Maybe just having somewhere else to go will help.
When I see the grief in the face of my friend I can feel how connected these people are to each other. It is something rare and precious and in stark contrast to my own culture which is driven by greedy, demanding self-centred individuals. I can’t pretend that I can be like them, but I think I can learn from them.
