Oral Presentation National Suicide Prevention Conference 2026

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continue to experience suicide at rates far higher than the non-Indigenous population. Each loss is not only a personal tragedy but a collective wound that reverberates through families, kinship networks, and communities. Suicide bereavement for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in not an individual matter it is a whole-of-community experience that is shaped by intergenerational trauma, systemic inequities, and cultural responsibilities. Yet within this reality lies the enduring strengths of culture, kinship and collective healing.

Thirrili, as the national Indigenous-led organisation providing suicide postvention support, walks alongside families and communities in their most vulnerable moments. Our Model of Care is grounded in Indigenous knowledges, cultural authority, and lived experience. It integrates trauma-informed practice, cultural safety, advocacy, and system navigation, ensuring that families are not only supported in their immediate grief but also empowered to lead their longer-term healing journeys.

Central to the Thirrili Model of Care is the recognition that postvention is prevention. Supporting families after a traumatic incident reduces the immediate risk of further harm while strengthening pathways of recovery across entire communities. This presentation will explore:

• How lived experience voices and cultural leadership transform suicide bereavement support.
• How collective healing, kinship, and cultural continuity strengthen communities after a loss.
• The systemic barriers such as coronial processes, health systems, fragmented funding, workforce gaps, and structural racism that often retraumatise families instead of supporting them.
• Opportunities for reform, including trauma-informed coronial processes, embedding cultural safety across services, long-term flexible funding, investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce development, and dismantling structural racism in policy and practice.

The session will also highlight the critical role of non-Indigenous allies, clinicians, policymakers, community leaders, and researchers who stand in solidarity with Indigenous peoples. Allies are essential in dismantling systemic barriers, amplifying lived experience leadership, and embedding culturally safe practices within mainstream services.

Aligned with the theme United Voices, Brighter Futures, this presentation demonstrates that the future of suicide prevention in Australia must be shaped in genuine partnership. When cultural authority, lived experience, and allyship are centred, postvention becomes a pathway to prevention, healing, and hope. Together, united in purpose, we can ensure that no family or community walks alone.