By Annabel Stafford
SEXUAL abuse of children is contributing to high suicide rates among young Aborigines, according to a paper throwing a chilling light on their trauma.
The paper, presented to a Canadian conference last month by three mental health workers from the Kimberley region, is a warning of the dire consequences if child sexual abuse is not stamped out in indigenous communities.
High rates of suicide among the Kimberley's young people were previously thought to be the result of depression. But the paper, by Naomi Ralph, Kathy Hamaguchi and Marie Cox, suggests the cause is more likely to be exposure to trauma.
"Child sexual abuse is the core social and emotional wellbeing issue impacting on Aboriginal communities," they say.
Ms Ralph, who is completing a PhD on the trauma exposure and suicide, said: "We found … that particularly for the young Aboriginal girls, there was a clear link between levels of trauma exposure, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and suicide."
While working at the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services Council up to 2005, Ms Ralph and her fellow authors "came into contact with a lot of people for all kinds of social issues, mental health, drug and alcohol, family violence, suicide attempts or completed suicides … Generally … we would find child sexual abuse was the central underlying issue."
Likewise, when the authors worked with victims or witnesses of child abuse, they found that "suicide attempts were a feature".
Although it is impossible to tell the precise reason why a young person commits suicide, Ms Ralph said: "Instinctively … and from what was confirmed so often in daily work, I do believe that child sexual abuse was more than likely one of the reasons, if not the main one."
Almost 30 per cent of Aboriginal teenagers surveyed in the Kimberley in 2001 reported a family member had committed suicide. This compared with 8 per cent of non-Aboriginal teenagers. Ten per cent of Aboriginal teenagers said they had tried to commit suicide, compared with 7 per cent of their non-Aboriginal peers.
The survey was described in the paper for the Healing our Spirit Worldwide conference.
There was low reporting of sexual abuse in the survey, but the paper says this clashed with the experience of the authors and suggests teenagers did not admit sexual abuse because of shame and fear.
Ms Ralph said "child sexual abuse has either directly or indirectly affected most young Aboriginal people and families in the Kimberley. In the same vein, I could not think of a single Aboriginal person, family or community that has not been affected by … youth suicide."
It was not until a young Aboriginal woman approached the medical services council in 2002, asking them to "do something" about the problem, that they felt they had community permission to raise the issue.
The workers were told by elders that sexual abuse was not part of Aboriginal culture and must be stopped. But it was also suggested that the abuse had become institutionalised "where it was known that adults were abusing adolescents and children, and in turn, the youth were abusing young children", the paper says.
The authors suggest the abuse is the result of trauma experienced since colonisation and passed through generations. But they also point out that sexual abuse is not a problem unique to indigenous communities.
For help call Suicide Helpline Victoria on 1300 651 251 or Lifeline on 131 114.