ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER-LED TRANSFORMATION PHOTO: Professor Gracelyn Smallwood, Adam Hennessy, Scott Wilson and Nash Wall presenting back to the group at the first Lived Experience Centre gathering in Cairns, Queensland The Centre’s yarning circles have supported Gayaa Dhuwi’s development of the revised National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Strategy, and it is working with the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) on aligning lived experience with the rollout of local suicide prevention networks through NACCHO affiliates. For Leilani and Vicki, one of the Lived Experience Centre’s biggest strengths is its ability to stand strong when mainstream mental health and suicide prevention organisations or agencies work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It enables them “to speak our truth, when systems and structures are failing our communities and families,” Vicki said. “Most importantly, the key message that the Centre drives home is that all engagements with our people and communities must be meaningful and purposeful,” she says. “We are very serious about the work we do, we don’t want anyone thinking they can just call on us as tokenistic representation.” Through strong co-design, the Lived Experience Centre has developed a universal definition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s lived experience in mental health and suicide prevention. The Lived Experience Centre’s definition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s lived experience is: “A lived experience recognises the effects of ongoing negative historical impacts and or specific events on the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It encompasses the cultural, spiritual, physical, emotional and mental wellbeing of the individual, family or community. This definition is now informing national suicide prevention efforts through its inclusion in the National Suicide Prevention Advisor’s Final Advice and the National Lived Experience Workforce Guidelines released recently by the National Mental Health Commission. Amid all this progress, Leilani said the Lived Experience Centre has made sure it takes the time to listen to, learn from and be present with its networks, stakeholders and communities “because this work hadn’t been done before, we didn’t know enough about it and we wanted to get it right”. People with lived or living experience of suicide are those who have experienced suicidal thoughts, survived a suicide attempt, cared for someone through a suicidal crisis, been bereaved by suicide or having a loved one who has died by suicide, acknowledging that this experience is significantly different and takes into consideration Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s ways of understanding social and emotional wellbeing.”9 Transforming Power: Voices for Generational Change 23