A 10-year-old Aboriginal girl killed herself this week.

It is heartbreaking. It is a tragedy beyond words. My respect goes out to her family and ones who loved her.

Unfortunately, suicide is familiar to many of us in Aboriginal communities. Especially youth suicide. It’s hard to put into words how incredibly worthless this country can make Aboriginal people feel.

I can’t speak for everyone, I can only speak for myself and maybe sharing my experience helps. I don’t want to be attention seeking – I don’t want to make this about me – but I thought this might give some people insight.

I often tell the story about being a fat, bullied, Aboriginal teenager and how when I held my arms up against the white lace curtains in my bedroom I cried. I truly thought – in that moment – the world had no place for me. That I was worthless. All I wanted was to write and act, but was there no one who looked like me in the magazines I read or on the screens I watched.

I always get teary when I tell the story, and my tears go down a treat because I’m very good at making tears funny, and the story I tell ends there.

But it goes deeper than that. That Aboriginal teen I talk about, the one who saw no space for her in this world, thought about killing herself, every day, multiple times a day. I heard “Abo” jokes every day at school. Every day I was made to feel ashamed of who I was. No matter how hard my parents tried to make me proud and strong, you can not turn a blind eye to systematic oppression – especially when you’re a child.

This idea of Australia, an Australia that didn’t include you, that you weren’t meant to be here, was something that existed every day and still does.

We have to live in a country that tried to wipe us out. Try growing up with that.

I still think about killing myself everyday. I still feel worthless. But I’m privileged and have support around me to fight it. And combat it. Just like my mother and father and their grandparents did. Because this is something whole families of Aboriginal people struggle with, whole communities, a whole race.

I feel lucky I’m alive today. That I have enough privilege around me to survive the mental and emotional trauma of being Aboriginal in this country. But whether an Aboriginal person chooses to take their life, whether it is even a choice, should not be a matter of luck. Something needs to change. Drastically and fast. The support and care I have around me as an Aboriginal person should not be a privilege. It’s a human right.

I just don’t want people to think that this problem is separate from them. That the Australia where suicide rates of Aboriginal people are rising is separate from the Australia they live in – because it’s not. Or that it only applies to certain groups of Aboriginal people.

I want non-Aboriginal people to know that the destruction of a people this country depends on surrounds all of you, every day, and it is closer than you think.

Please think about that little girl today and the family and life she has left behind. But do more than think, try to find a way to help the people whose backs your life is built on.

• If you need help, call Lifeline on 131114