An Indigenous health service is calling on the federal government to launch a royal commission into the appallingly high suicide rate among Indigenous people.

The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Care Organisation chairman, Matthew Cooke, said suicide accounted for as many as one in every 10 Aboriginal deaths and that was a national disgrace.

Suicide rates in some remote Kimberley region communities doubled in the past decade – there were 125 suicides, including 102 by Indigenous people, 71% of them young people.

Cooke said in any other country these statistics would be a cause of national shame and soul-searching.

“It’s time there was a full royal commission into failings in the system that are driving so many people in our communities to such levels of despair that suicide is the only answer,” he said.

Cooke said a royal commission would examine what systemic changes were needed to reverse this situation.

“We need one as a matter of urgency into an issue that is costing the lives of too many Australians and devastating entire communities,” he said.

A petition on change.org calling for a royal commission on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide has attracted more than 22,000 signatures.

• Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78