‘Enough is enough’: 121 Indigenous Victorians have died by suicide in the past five years

Royal commission recommended First Nations healing centres in 2021 but the Indigenous health service says the state has ‘done nothing’ to fund it Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast On the steps of Victorian parliament stood 121 empty chairs, marking the number of Indigenous lives lost to suicide in the state in the past five years. All of these deaths, the state’s peak body for Aboriginal health said, came after the final report of the royal commission into mental health in March 2021 . Its key findings heavily emphasised Aboriginal self-determination, social and emotional wellbeing, and the establishment of two cultural healing centres. The state government accepted all 65 recommendations from the final report and nine from the interim report, but is yet to fully implement those directly related to First Nations people who remain three times more likely to die by suicide.

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