(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
A group of young African-Australians in Melbourne is working to bring cultural taboos out into the open.
They're hoping not only to provoke debate about mental health inside their communities, but to bring the issues affecting them into the mainstream.
Kristina Kukolja reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
Some are here to meet old friends, and others to make new ones.
But this BBQ on a mild Autumn afternoon is just a prelude to more serious conversations to come.
"Mental wellbeing is not something that we speak about very openly and it is not often that we actually have a space in which we can do that safely. The topics surrounding mental wellbeing or that create the umbrella of mental wellbeing are often quite taboo in our community. And that leaves certain individuals who are suffering from certain illnesses or going through certain experiences without a place to come and feel safe within their own community."
Soreti Kadir runs an organisation called "In Our Own Words", and is one of the organisers of the inaugural 'Inside African Minds' event.
It's a series of moderated discussions and activities exploring mental health and identity issues in some of Australia's African communities.
Ms Kadir says the gathering has one important point of difference.
"The fact that we don't actually have access to mental health professionals of our own background and we really wanted this kind of event to mirror our community. So, when you are going into a workshop and talking about depression and suicide we wanted it to be an African-Australian person standing there and talking from a place of cultural relevance. It's needed. It's totally needed."
Among the invited speakers is William Abur, a social worker of Sudanese background.
"A young boy was telling me, I don't want to be diagnosed by somebody who does not understand my culture. This is the simple thing that
the African community always distance themselves from the services because they are more likely to be wrongly diagnosed."
Domestic violence is William Abur's area of specialisation.
But other topics -- including suicide, intergenerational conflict, and even black masculinity -- made for vibrant debate.
Mr Abur says there's much more to be discussed.
"A lot of African community members are struggling to integrate and one of the things a young person was telling me is that he faced some bullying issues in school, discrimination in the school, in the workplace, on the street. They feel that even if they have been here more than 20 years, some of them feel that they are not part of this multicultural society because of the issues they are facing."
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