Aboriginal 10 year old girl commits suicide

A 10 year old Aboriginal girl from a remote WA community committed suicide on Sunday and there have been 19 Indigenous suicides in WA since Christmas.

In January, the government committed $1 million to find out why but no answers are forthcoming.  

Gerry Georgatos has been chosen by the government with providing crisis support to families who have been affected.

"It's tragic that a young child would be so trapped in a sense of hopelessness....it's a tragedy that needs to be heard across the nation" he said.

"Usually we have 30 or 40 suicides each year in WA but we are already about half-way there" he said.  

The Coroner is preparing to launch a major coronial investigation into why this is happening in remote, isolated communities in the Pilbara and Kimberley and public hearings will begin later this year.  But will we get to the truth?

Why do these children have a sense of "hopelessness?"

Mr Georgatos skimmed around the problem.  "It's not one particular factor....domestic violence is a factor which cannot be understated."

"In some cases, child sexual abuse has been a contributing factor but the majority of these suicides are intertwined with acute poverty that translates completely as hopelessness."

We have to get to the bottom of this and finally tell the truth - that Government health workers and others have found that child sexual abuse and bashing your wife is part of Aboriginal culture.  This shocking statement has already been made and hushed up, but it must be addressed if we are to get to the truth. 

But that's not all - parents who live in these remote communities often refuse to send their children to school so they are perpetuating yet another generation of hopelessness. What possible hope is there for a child with no education?

Government health workers have been silenced from reporting horrific sexual abuse injuries found on small children in these communities, so why are they still there?

Because we are afraid of being accused of orchestrating another 'stolen generation' so Aboriginal children are left alone, utterly helpless.  

We have to save these children, and if it means taking them away from their family, so be it.