Together towards tomorrow resonates deeply with the ongoing work of Mariposa Trails, a cross-cultural education project and part of the Suicide Prevention Network of SA, which aligns with the South Australian Suicide Prevention Plan 2023-2026. Mariposa Trails is built on the belief that progress is made through resilience, unity, and approaches, particularly in the context of migrant and refugee communities. By offering culturally safe spaces, the project enables individuals to explore mental health stressors and suicidality while acknowledging the unique barriers these communities face, such as language challenges, cultural displacement, and trauma from past experiences.
Through creative outlets like learning circles, music-making, and the arts, Mariposa Trails fosters engagement in conversations about grief, loss, acceptance, and recovery. These activities allow participants to reconnect with their cultural roots, drawing on collective resilience to support mental health recovery. By focusing on cultural strengths, the project creates a space for healing that embraces the diverse identities of its participants and nurtures well-being within the broader community.
This initiative goes beyond simply connecting people with services. It aims to create authentic, compassionate interactions that normalize open discussions about mental health and distress. Mariposa Trails empowers participants to take on different roles—whether as leaders, students, or teachers—in their mental health journeys. The project highlights the shared human experience of fragility and vulnerability, which helps to reframe lived (or living) experiences of suicidality through the lens of collective healing and resilience. By doing so, Mariposa Trails encourages a deeper understanding of mental health issues within cultural contexts, helping participants and communities navigate these challenges with empathy and strength.
We are a diverse group, including international students, refugees, migrants with expertise in fields such as psychology, physiotherapy, teaching, arts, political science, entrepreneurship, disability support, counseling, IT, project management, social work, and community development. What unites us is our shared experience of suicidality and our commitment to equipping communities with the skills needed for compassionate conversations about mental health. Through the newly accredited course From Helpless to Hopeful, we use our lived experiences to break the stigma surrounding suicide. Our facilitators, who come from various fields, combine their professional or life insights with personal experiences to help multicultural communities create understanding of the impact of distress and use their experiences of the past to create better responses for tomorrow. We look forward offeringthis training nationally, including regional areas, where the need arises.