Agenda
Day One | Tuesday| 24 March 2026
7.30
Registration open – light refreshments provided
8.10
Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony
8.50
Welcome from AIPA and housekeeping
Vanessa Edwidge, Chair, AIPA
9:00
Chairperson opening address
Change from the Top Down
9.10
Opening Keynote: Indigenous suicide prevention and community solutions
Join Professor Pat Dudgeon as she unpacks community-led solutions to preventing Indigenous suicide and explores elements of the 2025 AIHW report ‘Preventing Suicides of First Nations People’.
Pat Dudgeon, Professor of Indigenous Studies, University of Western Australia; Project Director, Centre for Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention (CBPATSISP)
9.40
Elders panel
Looking to the wisdom of Elders is an important aspect of Social and Emotional Wellbeing and Suicide Prevention initiatives. Join this panel of local Elders as they impart their cultural knowledge and lived experience to continue guiding this important work.
Moderator: Yvonne clark, Principal research Fellow, Aboriginal Communities and Families Health Research Alliance, SAHMRI Women and Kids theme; Director, AIPA
Reserved
10.20
Morning tea
10.50
Concurrent streams
** Attendees can move between the sessions listed under the three streams **
Stream A: Strengthening Connections
10.50
Centring Aboriginal Voices in Suicide Prevention
How Aboriginal workers are at the heart of suicide prevention in Aboriginal communities
Alice Campbell-Jones, Suicide Prevention Manager, Central Australian Aboriginal Congress
11.20
Guided by Elders
Transforming Suicide-Prevention Education for Future Indigenous Mental Health Professionals
Dr Judith Crockett, Postgraduate Head of Discipline, First Nations Health School of Nursing, Paramedicine and Healthcare Sciences, Charles Sturt University
Aunty Mary Atkinson, Cultural Knowledge Holder
11.50
Understanding Deep Yarning
Deep Yarning is a practice-based evidence approach of psychological therapy based on Indigenous standpoints and relational processes
Mary Goslett, Psychotherapist, Clinical Psychologist; Professional Practice Fellow, University of Western Australia; Director, AIPA
Belle Selkirk, Research Fellow, Clinical Psychologist, School of Indigenous Studies, University of Western Australia
12.20
Lunch
1:10
Concurrent streams
** Attendees can move between the sessions listed under the three streams **
Stream A: Spotlight on Youth
1.10
From wellbeing to opportunity
Embedding social and emotional wellbeing in work and study support Hannah Halliburton, First Nations Advisor Work and Study Online, Headspace National
1.40
Decolonising First Nations Youth Social and Emotional Wellbeing
Exploring the research to practice continuum
Julianne Kealey, PhD Student and Psychology Researcher/Academic, University of Southern Queensland
2.10
Between Binaries
Life Story Interviewing of Plurisexual Non-Binary Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People
Amber Johnson, PhD Candidate, University of Southern Queensland; Senior Social Worker, Queensland Health
2.40
Yarning Circles
A: Youth-led yarn: Join the voices of our next generation and yarn about what’s needed for young people to thrive.
B: Boorai Dreaming Project: Yarn with Aboriginal Elders and Senior Women who are working tirelessly in their community about the three stages of the Boorai Project.
C: Walking with Knowledge: Join Tammy Hatherill and explore the role of Australian First Nations Traditional Healing, a vital, yet under-recognised, system within contemporary healthcare.
Tammy Hatherill, Psychologist, Tribal Psychology; PhD Candidate
D: Engaging Young People: Join this yarn about the Tangka Marnirninthi Group, a therapeutic art group embedded within a youth mental health service, designed to engage young people.
E: 4-Directions, One Path to Healing: Explore a medicine methodology with Nawiishtunmi Nightgun helping First Nations people out of homelessness and into healing.
Nawiishtunmi Nightgun, B.S.P., Founder, Brown Bear Woman LLC; Cultural Knowledge Practitioner; Indigenous Data Analyst Expert
Veronica Owens, Operations Leader, Indigenous Data Sovereignty, Process Improvement
3.40
Afternoon tea
Pathways to Healing
4:00
Healing and recovery from complex trauma
Developing culturally responsive therapeutic support
Transforming service pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
Graham Gee, Associate Professor, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne
4.30
Advancing Indigneous Rights and Resilience
Join Professor Marcia Langton AO, Indigenous rights advocate, academic, and anthropologist as she shres insights on paving the way foward for future generations through education, cultural preservation, and resilience.
Professor Marcia Langton AO, Associate Provost and Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies, University of Melbourne; Director, Indigenous Studies Unit, Onemda, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health