At IALEC, we believe that knowledge should be shared, celebrated, and used to create real change in our Communities. Everything here is grounded in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lived experience, cultural strength, and community knowledge.
This is your space to access free resources made by and for mob, allies, and anyone working to support social and emotional wellbeing, mental health and suicide prevention for First Nations Peoples.
Across the continent, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples continue to experience profound levels of distress, loss and grief due to suicide. Yet within every community, there is also extraordinary strength, courage and knowledge. The voices of lived experience – those who have journeyed through distress, survived an attempt, supported a loved one, grieved a loss, or carried community healing responsibilities – remain our most powerful guides for change.
In October 2025, members of the National Indigenous Lived Experience Group (NILEG) came together on Waiben (Thursday Island) for the IALEC Annual Gathering.
This paper presents 10 Priority Areas identified collectively by the NILEG. These priorities are for government, for services, and for every system that has a responsibility to our people and our collective wellbeing.
In July 2024, our Centre (previously known as ILEC) proudly shared its work on the global stage at the World Indigenous Suicide Prevention Conference (WISPC), hosted by the Seneca Nation in the United States.
The conference brought together over 300 Indigenous Nations and 751 attendees, reinforcing the importance of global Indigenous collaboration and shared learning to strengthen culturally grounded suicide prevention efforts. Our Centre delivered a presentation, “Harnessing Lived Experience for Community Change”, highlighting the importance of using lived experience leadership as a critical tool in shaping culturally grounded responses to mental health challenges and suicide prevention.
We are proud to share this report as a resource for communities, practitioners, and organisations committed to strengthening Indigenous-led mental health and suicide prevention efforts locally and globally.
The development of the Guide was a true partnership between the Mental Health Commission and the Black Dog Institute’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lived Experience Centre. This Guide is part of the additional resources created to support the implementation of the Western Australian Lived Experience (Peer) Workforces Framework.
The Guide describes the flow and interconnectedness of peer work with the following analogy:
“Picture a river, like the Derbarl Yerrigan, or any river of significance. The water moves upstream, downstream, moving over stone and sustaining life. Often parts of nature such as plants, leaves, bark, and wildlife enter the river, but the river keeps moving, manoeuvring in and around the environment in the direction it needs to go, but rarely forceful. There is a fluidity or flow to the river, navigating through nature, but does this with ease. The flow of the river is peer work.
Peer work is the flow between different knowledge systems, different worlds, and different environments. It navigates the space in between First Nations and western knowledge systems and the many worlds that First Nations Peoples must find their way through every day. Peer work flows with an exceptional strength and capacity to understand, negotiate, and balance the difference of often competing systems.”
The development of this Guide aligns with the Mental Health Commission’s broader strategy to enhance the quality and accessibility of mental health services. We are focused on integrating culturally appropriate practices and promoting the inclusion of lived experience in all aspects of mental health care.
This resource is designed for both peer workers and organisations to assess organisational progress of getting peer work right. It has questions relating to the 7 domains of peer work outlined in the guide and can be used as both an audit tool, or a foundation for discussion. Each domain has additional questions for consideration to prompt organisations and people to think deeper about their commitment to peer work. You can find this checklist in our resource list below.
This report documents a project that included a literature review and focused workshop to explore the specific and unique experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with suicide, and the inadequacy of a mainstream model.
It recommends that Indigenous people have the agency to lead their own lived experience of suicide efforts, and the need for an Indigenous-led Lived Experience Framework and Network.
Developed in partnership with the Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention.
This literature review examines the question ‘How is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lived experience of suicide the same or different to that of other Australians?”
It investigates the surrounding issues of genuine involvement of Indigenous peoples within the suicide prevention field.
Review by Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention, and the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health.
This guide supports Primary Health Networks or any other local health body to work with Indigenous people and organisations to co-design and co-implement an integrated approach to suicide prevention.
Guide developed in partnership with the Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention, and the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health.
Is your organisation ready to meaningfully engage with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lived Experience Centre and National Network?
As part of our work, we connect the Lived Experience voices in our National Network with opportunities to influence the suicide prevention sector- these could be contributing to reports, recording podcasts, guest speaking, sitting on advisory boards etc. We screen organisations for their suitability to work with the Lived Experience voices. We wanted agreed upon standards/considerations for our discussions with external organisations who approach us with ideas and scopes of work.
Why do we use the term ‘Organisation Readiness’- this puts the onus back on organisations to meet our minimum standards. If they can’t meet the standards to respectfully engage in First Nations Lived Experience expertise, then they simply aren’t ready.
A lived experience recognises the effects of ongoing negative historical impacts and or specific events on the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It encompasses the cultural, spiritual, physical, emotional and mental wellbeing of the individual, family or community.
People with lived or living experience of suicide are those who have experienced suicidal thoughts, survived a suicide attempt, cared for someone through a suicidal crisis, been bereaved by suicide or having a loved one who has died by suicide, acknowledging that this experience is significantly different and takes into consideration Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples ways of understanding social and emotional wellbeing.
By becoming a member of ILEC, you’ll unlock access to even more tools, support, and opportunities to connect:
We acknowledge all Traditional Custodians of this vast and diverse continent now known as ‘Australia’. We honour the Ancestors, Elders, and Knowledge Holders who have cared for Country, its ecosystems, waterways, skies, and cosmos since the beginning of time. Their connection to Country is sovereign and enduring, and will forever remain unchanged by the impacts of colonisation.
We want to acknowledge First Nations Lived Experience. For First Nations Peoples, experiences of living have been passed down for thousands and thousands of years. It is how we survive, thrive, care for each other and Country. Our experiences are the foundation of relationships, of knowledge, that we carry in our Spirit. We acknowledge all lived experiences of First Nations Peoples that are brought to this work, and recognise the power and impact these experiences have on creating meaningful and impactful change for our Communities.
Always was, always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land.
