Uncle Gabriel Bani is working on the Steering Committee with Wakai Waian Healing as the Aftercare consultations begin across Zenadth Kes. These conversations are about listening, learning, and finding the right path forward. The work starts with Apasin – respect.
Aftercare is the support that follows a suicide attempt, a suicide death, or a serious mental health crisis. It includes care from hospitals, counsellors, and community workers, but it also includes the love and strength that come from families, churches, and kin. True Aftercare helps people and communities stay connected, safe, and strong long after the crisis has passed.
Uncle Gabriel explains that in the Torres Strait, this idea of Aftercare already exists in culture. “We already have a system that takes care of families after loss or crisis,” he says. “It’s called Buway. It is the kinship and knowledge system that has guided us for thousands of years.”
Buway is how families care for one another through duty, respect, and shared presence. It shapes how people sit, speak, and support each other when there is grief, illness, or trouble. Under Buai, no one sits alone. Presence itself is medicine.
Uncle Gabriel says this is the spirit that will guide the consultations now taking place across the islands. “We want to make sure the voices of our people shape what comes next,” he says. “This process is not about blame or programs. It’s about coming together again under Buway, under culture.”
The consultations invite Elders, families, young people, and service staff to speak about their experiences with grief, loss, and healing. It is not a space for judgment but a space to listen. The hope is to rebuild trust, share stories, and remember that healing starts in the community long before it reaches a clinic.
“In our way, when someone is struggling or when a family loses a loved one, Buway activates,” Uncle Gabriel says. “The family, the in-laws, the church, the young ones, they all come together. There are rules for how we care for each other, and that law has never gone away.”
There are no simple answers yet. The consultations are the beginning of the journey. Wakai Waian Healing will sit beside families, churches, and clinics to learn what support feels safe and what trust looks like on each island. The story of Aftercare will come from the people themselves. As Uncle Gabriel says, “We don’t need to invent something new. We need to remember what we already have and strengthen it. Let’s make sure every family, on every island, feels supported when hard times come.”
The consultations are open to everyone. Islanders are encouraged to take part, to share their experiences and their ideas for how care and healing should look in their community. This is how we build something real – together, through buway, culture, and Apasin.
Where we’ll be
- Inner Islands: in progress now – October
- Mer (Murray Island) 10–14 November
- Masig (Yorke Island) 17–21 November
- Poruma (Coconut Island) 24 – 28 November
- Badu, Boigu, Dec/Jan dates TBC
To learn more, contact the TI Team from Wakai Waian Healing, on Thursday Island 1800 732 850