This panel session features three Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders from the National Expert Group of First Nations Lived Experience Voices, hosted by the Indigenous Australian Lived Experience Centre (IALEC). Each panellist will share their unique journey—grounded in lived experience of suicide or mental health distress—and how they now use their voice to create meaningful systems change through culturally strong, community-led advocacy.

IALEC is the world’s first self-determined national initiative dedicated to embedding First Nations lived experience into mental health and suicide prevention systems. Formerly hosted by the Black Dog Institute, IALEC is now governed entirely by and for First Nations peoples, with a strong focus on collective healing, culture, and place-based leadership.

This panel will reflect on the barriers and opportunities for lived experience leadership in rural and remote contexts, where access to culturally safe support remains limited and First Nations voices are often excluded from mainstream reform efforts. The panellists—representing diverse communities across the country—will speak to the strength and knowledge embedded in rural and regional communities and what support is needed to nurture local lived experience leadership.

Drawing on findings from IALEC’s recent independent evaluation, the panel will explore the healing and empowerment that emerges through lived experience advocacy, and the critical role of community-led responses in rural areas.

The session will conclude with practical recommendations for rural services, policymakers, and researchers on how to engage meaningfully and respectfully with First Nations lived experience voices. This includes minimum standards for culturally safe collaboration that lead to outcomes reaching rural communities on the ground.

This session centres lived experience, rural equity, and truth-telling—amplifying First Nations voices as a driving force for mental health systems change in regional and remote Australia.