Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island suicide has been an issue of national public health & mental health concern for only one decade, having increased dramatically from levels that were very low in the late 1980s to levels of young adult male suicide that are now substantially higher than for the non-indigenous population. In this review, the authors socially & historically contextualize these changes, identifying the causal frameworks adopted in developed interventions, & present an explanation in narrative & pictorial form that draw on critical family-centered trauma. (71 refs)