Statistics about Indigenous youth suicide are startling, with young Aboriginal people five times more likely to take their own lives than non-Aboriginal people.

Key points: Yulga Jinna is a self-managed community more than 100km from the nearest town

Yulga Jinna is a self-managed community more than 100km from the nearest town There have been no suicides in the town since it was established in 1992

There have been no suicides in the town since it was established in 1992 The community is using music and song to engage young Aboriginal people at risk

But in Western Australia there is one stark exception — Yulga Jinna.

At this self-managed community more than 900 kilometres north of Perth, with 72 residents and a school that enrols children from kindergarten to Year 10, there have been no suicides since it was established in 1992.

It is using music and song to engage young Aboriginal people at risk.

Song a door to talk about other issues

Robert Binsiar uses music to engage with young Aboriginal children. ( ABC Midwest Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis )

Robert Binsiar is a youth engagement coordinator with Youth Focus, which delivers mental health services and programs across WA to help at-risk people aged between 12 and 25.

Along with clinical manager Delroy Bergsma, he regularly travels to Yulga Jinna from Meekathara, about 130 kilometres to the north.

It was during one trip, while strumming his guitar, that Mr Bergsma inadvertently discovered the ability of music to engage young people in the community.

"[The kids] came out of school just as I was singing pop songs, I guess," he said.

"They knew the songs and they came up and heard us playing and they came up and started singing along … and they said, 'Let's write a song about Yulga Jinna'."

The students helped write and record the song about their home and it opened the door to communication about other issues.

"We all went back and sat down asked them, 'What do you like about living here? What do you enjoy? What do you do when you're feeling good? What do you do when you're feeling sad? Who do you talk to?'" he said.

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Mr Binsiar said there was unresolved intergenerational trauma that continued to create issues in regional and remote communities, but music was a powerful way of engaging people.

"I have a strong belief that art and music are foundations to Aboriginal culture," he said.

"That's how we tell our stories, it's how we pass on knowledge, so to me, that was a perfect opportunity to start doing music and the fact that Delroy is a really good musician."

The children are proud of their recording which has been shared online, but also regularly use music to express themselves and address issues.

'Self-determination is at the heart of the issue'

Just 72 people live at the remote community of Yulga Jinna in WA's Midwest. ( ABC Midwest Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis )

University of Western Australia professor and Bardi woman Pat Dudgeon said creative and alternative methods to provide mental health services were needed in rural and remote Australia, but that there also needed to be fundamental changes.

"We need a suicide prevention plan," she said.

"Self-determination of Aboriginal people is imperative, any initiatives need to involve the local community.

"We know from international research that self-determination is at the heart of the issue, whether it's for Indigenous people or other groups, but people need to be part of defining what the issue is and drawing out the solutions, and then being resourced to implement those solutions."

Mr Bergsma echoed the sentiments of Professor Dudgeon on the need for service providers to find new ways to address the issue.

"The medical model has been top down, you know, 'We know what you need and we're going to give it to you'," he said.

"That's something that colonisation has brought to this country and to the local people.

"We just can't assume that's what's needed or that's what's wanted."

Yulga Jinna sits more than 100km from the nearest town. ( ABC Midwest Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis )

He said communities needed to be involved in planning and delivering programs.

"Suicide is the biggest killer of young people in Western Australia, there were 51 deaths in 2017, and that hasn't reduced," he said.

"So we need to start thinking differently, and Robert and I and the research kind of backs us up on this, if we work really well together and develop programs that are being utilised by the community and enjoyed, we're more likely to see some more long-term changes."

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 5 minutes 19 seconds 5 m After a close friend took their own life, Robert Binsiar wrote this song

Earlier this year, this issue of suicide became even more personal for Mr Binsiar when his close friend and colleague Alex took his own life.

He used the medium he had been teaching the children to express himself, writing a poem that he later turned into a song.

"I sat down one night and I thought I'll just put my feelings on paper," he said.

"So I sat down with this piece of paper and it took me, I'd say, about two hours to write the whole poem.

"I struggled with the fact that I didn't know where Alex was going in his mind for him to think that ending it all was the only way, you know. And I still struggle with that."