She was only 10: Inquest highlights devastating suicide epidemic in the Kimberley
Another coroner's report has exposed the needless deaths of young Indigenous people. What, if anything, can be done to stop the sadness?
“The tragic individual events were shaped by the crushing effects of intergenerational trauma and poverty upon entire communities. This community-wide trauma generated multiple and prolonged exposures to individual traumatic events for these children and young persons.”
— Ros Fogliani, WA state coroner
These words are the broad findings of an inquest into what you can describe as a mundane catastrophe.
It’s a catastrophe because it’s about the needless deaths from suicide of 12 young indigenous people — including one girl who was just 10 years old — and it’s mundane because such deaths in the Kimberley have been, are and will probably continue to be common.
