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

‘These aren’t just figures we’re talking about, these are members of our families,’ says Victorian Aboriginal Health Organisation chief executive Jill Gallagher. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

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.