Every Australian's birthright includes the expectation of a healthy and possibly happy life of some longevity, assisted by all the services which a civilised society can make possible. But this is not yet within the Aboriginal (or Maori, Pacific Islander, Canadian Inuit and American Indian) grasp. That so many young Aboriginal people prefer death to life implies a rejection of what people in the broader Australian society, have on offer. It reflects a failure, as a nation, to provide sufficient incentives for young Aborigines to remain alive. This is a study of youth who have, or feel they have, no purpose in life -- or who may be seeking freedom in death. It is a portrait of life, and of self-destruction, by young Aboriginal men and women. To comprehend this relatively recent phenomenon, which occurs more outside than inside custody, one has to appreciate Aboriginal history -- the effects of which contribute more to an understanding of suicide today than do psychological or medical theories about the victim. Aboriginal youth at risk are suffering more from social than from mental disorder. Adopting a historical and anthropological approach to suicide in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand, this book documents rates of suicide that may well be the world's worst. It tries to glimpse the soul of the suicide rather than merely his or her contribution to our national statistics.
Professor Colin Tatz AO researches, teaches and writes in the fields of Aboriginal affairs, comparative race politics, Holocaust and genocide, Jewish studies, migration, suicide, and sports history. In 1964 he founded and was the initial director of what is now the Monash Indigenous Centre. He has held chairs of Politics at the University of New England and at Macquarie University and is currently Visiting Fellow in Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University. He is the founding director of the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Sydney.
