Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention

The Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention (CBPATSISP) aims to reduce the causes, prevalence and impact of suicide on Indigenous individuals, families and communities. A focus on at risk groups, by identifying, translating and promoting the adoption or adaption of best practice in Indigenous specific suicide prevention activity, including that which is found in emerging national and international research.

The CBPATSISP is located under the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, within the School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Western Australia (UWA). The CBPATSISP has come from the substantial work of the national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project (ATSISPEP).

Acknowlegement of Roma Winmar artwork in the large banner image

Moortang Yoowarl Dandjoo Yaanginy
Families (Cultures) Coming Together for a Common Purpose (Sharing)
Shifting Sands
Artwork Copyright: Roma Winmar 2018

About the artwork:
This artwork represents our people doing business on country that is recovering from colonisation; our lands taken over, our cultures decimated, and our families separated, causing hardship, despair, and loss of hope.

The many years of oppression to our cultures that our families and our Elders have had to endure has meant that we have needed to adapt and learn to engage and address a wide range of issues impacting on our families, in both traditional and contemporary ways. We are concerned with strengthening and reconnecting to our countries, cultures and families; to nurturing cultural identity and pride whilst still trying to carry our immediate and collective business as First Peoples of Country, but, on Shifting Sands.

The strong representation of our connected communities in the foreground of the painting symbolises the strength of our people as a group, displaying a new sense of cultural identity and pride, and a place of belonging while acknowledging the trauma affecting our families in the present.

We are rising to once again, take control of our own destinies, linking up strongly to each other across an uncertain terrain that will once again become solid as we become reconnected at all levels within a spirit of hope.

Disclaimer: "The terms 'Aboriginal', 'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander' and 'Indigenous' are used interchangeably. It is acknowledged that there are many cultural differences between and within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the use of differing terms does not intend to disregard such differences."