Black Rainbow are crowdfunding to be Australia's only Indigenous suicide prevention and mental health support source for LGBTI people. Black Rainbow aims to create new ideas and deliver solutions to prevent suicide in Indigenous LGBTI Australians. The foundation also aims to provide funding to conduct research into suicide in Indigenous LGBTI communities, and create a Black Rainbow National Leadership Group.
QUITE tragically, as you are reading these first few words there is a high probability somebody will attempt to end their life by suicide. There is even a higher probability that that somebody is part of the LGBTI community, particularly if they are at the point of self-realisation and disclosure. If that person is an Indigenous Australian, the probability amplifies yet again.
Suicide in first nations LGBTI community has not been widely spoken of, or included in health promotion - Radio Interview on @LivingBlakSBS
http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/aboriginal/high...
How do I know this? Because that’s what the evidence suggests. LGBTI people are said to have the highest rates of self-harm and suicide of any population in Australia. Same-sex attracted Australians are said to exhibit up to 14-times-higher rates of suicide attempts than their heterosexual peers. Yet, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there were 996 suicides reported across Australia between 2001 and 2010 among Indigenous peoples. We are told that 1.6 per cent of all Australians die by suicide but for Indigenous peoples, this rate is more than 4.2 per cent, or one in every 24.
As mentioned, the evidence only suggests this because we are coalescing the data from two different groups and hypothesising the math. In other words we aren’t really sure.
But we need too be sure. We need to know.
Internationally we know that 47.3% American Indian and Alaskan Native adolescent men in Minnesota who identified as gay had considered suicide, compared with 23.6% of their straight peers, and that 23.2% of gay youth had attempted suicide, compared with 11.1% of their straight peers. These are fearful statistics of lives lost and lives in distress.
Determining the size of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender population is difficult. However, recent studies by Gates and Newport (2012) in the United States estimated the percentage of Americans who identify as LGBTI at approximately 3 to 4 per cent.
According to the ABS, “Within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population there were an estimated 294,000 children and young people, representing 4.2 per cent of the total Australian population aged 0 to 24 years.” Therefore in using the American figure of 3 to 4 per cent, there is potentially 10,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander who are LGTBI and whose needs are yet to be identified and met.
Phase 1
Creation of The Black Rainbow National Leadership Group
*** A national scoping project will be facilitated by myself and relevant stakeholders to engage a reference group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who identify as either Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, Trans and/or Intersex (LGBQTI); Including Brotherboy and Sistergirl. Membership will also extend to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person who identifies as Heterosexual.
*** The name of this group will be The Black Rainbow National Leadership Group.
The Black Rainbow National Leadership Group will:
*** Connect and identify key stakeholders to generate discussion with and create relationships.
*** Identify a national support stakeholder network that is able to undertake half-day workshops to determine the health issues, healing needs and the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBQTI persons, and
*** As a group we will travel to Canberra in the second half of 2015 to meet with government and non-government departments and organisations for guidance and financial assistance and to make The Black Rainbow Living Well Foundation a reality.
*** The Monies raised above and beyond $25,000 will go toward a national gathering for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTI persons. The gatheirng will be to workshop reponses to the health issues, healing needs.
Phase 2
To date my (joint) proposal “Intersecting Indigenous Rainbows - International LGBT First Nations and Two-Spirited People in Suicide Prevention” has been accepted for presentation and workshop by the Scientific Committee of the International Association for Suicide Prevention. This is a collaborative international workshop to be co-facilitated by a Two-Spirit Aboriginal Canadian.
I will attend the 28th World Congress of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) to be held from June 16th to 20th, 2015 in Montreal.
I intend to visit with other leaders in Indigenous suicide prevention across Canada in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg and Ontario including those working specifically with Two-Spirit people. These plans are already underway.
In 2015 a self funded insider research paper I undertook and wrote titled “Voices from the Black Rainbow: The inclusion of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBQTI Sistergirl and Brotherboys people in health, wellbeing and suicide prevention strategies” will also published.
Phase 3
Co-write a report and produce the first ever, international document on the comparative analysis of social determinants of health facing Indigenous LGBQTI and how to best enhance resilience, at a global and community level. We will draw on the preliminary findings of the workshop in Montreal.
We intend to deliver this report, in person, to the United Nations for consideration.
Phase 4
The Black Rainbow National Leadership Group will identify a national network of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and stakeholders to support and assist in a national gathering of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBQTI persons that will determine, and unpack appropriate and agreed healing activities which can generate empowerment, healing and leadership that will inform national health plans and strategies.
This will also be when we will travel to Canberra.
Phase 5
If successful in meeting with these stakeholders the national workshops will be rolled out and will inform a localised briefing paper identifying the issues facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBQTI community.
This paper will be used as an advocacy tool for the national gathering with members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBQTI community.
This gathering will be an opportunity to unpack the issues (highlighted in the briefing paper) and identify best practice responses.
A Call to Action
The suicidality of the Aboriginal and Torrres Strait Islander LGBQTI people is an unknown. International analysis shows that at the intersection of being both Indigenous/First Nation/Native and of LGBQTI identify places us as the most at risk group in the world.
Your support can help respond to that. It will help save lives and increase the quality of life for so many.
You can follow us at Black Rainbow on Facebook www.facebook.com/BlackRainbowAustralia
We are also on Twitter @BlkRnBow
Coming soon on Instagram blackrainbowaus
