In July 2016, the National Indigenous NAIDOC forum was held at the Darwin Convention Centre.

Over 30 speakers from around Australia and local areas covered current issues for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples such as Health, Education and Employment. The discussions formed part of the theme for NAIDOC 2016 ‘Songlines: The living narrative of our Nation’.  This was a free event encouraging people from across Australia who were in Darwin for NAIDOC week to attend a day of education, networking and discussions about ways forward.

Centre for Remote Health Mental Health Academic Tanja Hirvonen co-facilitated an interactive session focused on suicide prevention. Within this session there were sensitive discussions about holistic, culturally safe and culturally appropriate ways of working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples around social and emotional wellbeing concerns.  Tanja articulated that we are working well, when we are all working together and working within a trauma informed framework.

The forum was beneficial and was well attended by many people and it was clear that suicide continues to be a concerning issue for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.