As a cross-cultural community project dedicated to suicide prevention, Mariposa Trails works to foster wellbeing and mental health through cultural diversity and collective learning. The annual conference is grounded in the lived realities of how racism, discrimination and social exclusion impact wellbeing and mental health. It is also an invitation to imagine a different future, centred around a simple question: what does suicide prevention look like when it's shaped by community?
“Suicide prevention must include listening to communities, addressing social barriers and creating culturally safe spaces where every person feels seen, heard and valued”
Fay Fuller Foundation is grateful for our opportunity to partner with Mariposa Trails over the past three years and to participate in the conference.
Communities in Action
In its second year, the conference was yet again a powerful showcase of communities in action – coming together to share voices, cultural approaches to wellbeing and learn from one another. A truly diverse community in one room, there were five continents represented and 30+ cultural and country-linked identities.
Tamara Noel opened the day sharing how the Northern Adelaide Suicide Prevention Collaborative Aboriginal Voices Project is putting Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing first – not an add on at the end. Caroline Wilson of A-OK NZ put the spotlight on the importance of and strategies for self-care, especially when carrying the load of shifting across cultural worlds.
The Forum Theatre connected the room in action with their piece Breaking the Stigma, as we explored the world of a carer stretched past breaking point, the scene resetting, and an invitation to step in to change the narrative. And the Community Voices panel demonstrated collaboration in action, with church networks as frontline support for faith communities, working alongside culturally grounded clinical care.
Learning from cross-cultural voices
Too often, South Australian systems, services and funding treats culturally diverse communities as one group or “priority population”, with one set of needs. Conference voices pushed back against this narrative, demonstrating a different way through coming together to listen and learn from diversity within diversity.
Participants shared in their survey responses what’s at stake in these conversations, naming the ways that racism, discrimination and exclusion affect belonging, identity and trust in systems. People were equally clear about what helps: genuine connection, cultural safety (not just tolerance, but real respect), culturally responsive services, and a say in decisions rather than a reaction to them after the fact.
Alongside learning from diversity, cross cultural voices brought forward shared messages and experiences. How wellbeing is relational and cultural, not only individual and clinical. That losing connection to language, culture or community role means losing something that protects you. And prevention works best inside structures communities already trust, like churches, sporting clubs and cultural associations.
Messages for change
A word that did a lot of work throughout the day was safety, and it didn't mean the same thing to everyone.
Conference voices highlighted how, for services, safety tends to mean risk identified, documented and managed. Whereas for community members, it often means concerns for their privacy, stigma related to mental health or fear of putting their family or visa status at risk. This difference in understanding what safety means – and how to create it – results in many people managing safety risks by holding back. Too often, this is read as disengagement when it’s someone trying to stay safe on their own terms.
The same message applies equally to funders, like ourselves. What might be seen as “good governance” or genuine engagement from a funder's side of the desk isn't automatically what safe relationship looks like for communities.
Voices called for systems built around the person, with organisations working together rather than in separate lanes. On funding, the messages were consistent: recognise and fund cultural leadership and expertise; fund the relationship, trust and network building that takes time, not only visible programs; put money directly into community-led work; and in clinical settings, back services that are culturally led from the ground up.
Reflecting with the Mariposa Trails team, we also discussed a challenge familiar to many cross-cultural communities: suicide prevention priorities and actions are often built on evidence with little representation of culturally diverse communities. More than half of Australian residents (51.5 per cent) were born overseas or have a parent born overseas (ABS, 2021). Evidence that doesn’t reflect that diversity leaves much of the picture out.
“Evidence should be shaped with the communities it serves. At Mariposa Trails, we build trust, listen to community readiness and bring cultural knowledge and lived experience into prevention”
As we take our learnings and these messages into our work, we're grateful to everyone who spoke, from the stage or from their seat, and to Mariposa Trails for building a room where that felt possible.
How to learn more or be involved
Mariposa Trails have announced that Cross Cultural Voices will be coming back next year – save the date for Thursday 9 and Friday 10 September 2027!
Mariposa Trails continues to run community learning circles and events, as spaces for community to gather and connect; and offer From Helpless to Hopeful training, which helps community members and services to recognise distress early and prepare for difficult conversations.
To find out more or get involved, visit Mariposa Trails website: http://www.mariposatrails.com.au/ or follow them on social media: Facebook & Instagram