Suicide remains "one of our biggest killers and biggest challenges", says the long-standing host of Albury-Wodonga's Winter Solstice ahead of the June 21 event.
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Australia's beloved word nerd and crossword king David Astle has been a stalwart of the annual community gathering since it began "on a blue-knuckle night" in 2013.
Introducing speakers and performers with warmth, wit and wisdom, Astle's words radiate into the darkness of Albury's QEII Square on the longest night of the year.
This year he will welcome to the stage media personality Osher Gunsberg, former AFL player, coach, and transgender advocate Danielle Laidley, and lauded Vietnamese-born Australian writer and poet, Nam Le.
While Astle knows "the scourge" of suicide and mental illness is a puzzle we have yet to solve, he says the Winter Solstice offers a safe space for those affected to gather in shared solace.
"Everyone comes together in this jamboree of togetherness," he reflects.
"The Winter Solstice puts suicide front and foremost, diluting its taboo.
"It's a place where people are sharing - absolutely unguarded - the pain they have."
Some days, you do wonder if you are making a difference, Astle admits.
We're still losing eight to nine people to suicide every single day.
"But then people take the time to come up and say hello, and to tell you their story of why they came (to the event)," he says.
"I know people are carrying very heavy luggage.
"It's a very powerful thing ... to think we can help lighten that load.
"That's our reason for continuing."
Rhythm of 'body, breath and blood'
Nam Le admits he was "one of those tossers" who was really into writing poetry in high school.
"I was always drawn to it, he says.
Indeed, the local library was his "de facto child care centre" as a boy.
"I was often dropped there in the morning and picked up at the end of the day," he says.
"It was heaven. I trawled the shelves and gobbled it all up."
The acclaimed poet and author will join the "tide of courageous and candid speakers" who have been moved to add their voices to the Albury-Wodonga Winter Solstice over its 12-year history.
Melbourne-based Le says it's not often he sticks his head up beyond "publicity obligations for my books".
But the Vietnamese-born author of The Boat and 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem says he was so touched by the story of Mary Baker and the courage of her family and local community to speak up, that "I broke my own rule".
He describes a package sent to him by Solstice co-founder Annette Baker - which included poetry written by her 15-year-old daughter, who died by suicide - as a "gift of trust".
And he says Mary's work resonated with him.
"There was this sense of immediacy - like she was speaking to me," Le says.
"There was the sense that the conversation was very much alive."
Le reflects that "when something really bad happens, our language always falls short".
He agrees poetry "captures that shortfall best", for it is comfortable with confusion and contradiction.
"It gives you permission to stay in the unknown," he offers.
And so, "in times of intense emotion or tribulation", we return to poetry.
"It's the rhythm of our body, breath and blood," he declares.
There was a time when Le, a former lawyer, had "kind of banned myself from writing poetry", seeing it as a distraction from his other work.
But when he lost a good friend "too soon" on New Year's day some years ago, he returned to it.
"(Poetry) came the closest to holding what I felt," he explains.
"I needed to intensely articulate something but to also hold it in silence."
Le will share excerpts from the poem he wrote as a lament for Che with this year's Solstice audience.
"I felt as if that memory and feelings were safe in those words for me," he says of the elegy he penned.
He says it's an honour to be invited to the event.
In fact, he says, it has given him the impetus to start a conversation with his own family about trauma that has not been "typically talked about or shared" from their refugee history.
He describes a "cultivated silence that needs to be carefully challenged".
Ending silence and stigma has been one of the cornerstones of the Albury-Wodonga Winter Solstice.
Between the campaign - that has grown and gathered speed in Mary's name - and the words she wrote, Le says two powerful legacies have been left behind.
"A lot of us live many more years without making a contribution of this magnitude," he says.
An event to emulate
David Astle's fervent hope is that one day the Albury-Wodonga Winter Solstice will be an event replicated in communities far and wide.
"That this is seen as something to emulate," he says.
He vividly recalls that first Winter Solstice gathering on what he says was the coldest night he can recall - "a blue-knuckle night".
But he says nothing can dampen the fire that's been ignited by the brave champions of the event that aims to acknowledge and give voice to the pain and grief of suicide and mental illness.
From the "outstanding" Stan Grant to the "open-hearted" vulnerability of Samuel Johnson and "funny, wise" Clare Bowditch, Astle says he's hard pressed to choose his favourites from the illustrious line-up of speakers that have graced the stage over the years.
But it's clear he has a soft spot for "Uncle Archie" (Roach), a staunch supporter of the event from its inception.
"We miss him," Astle says of the indigenous singer-songwriter and guitarist who passed away in 2022.
"He was a wonderful supporter from the start and he brought so much dignity to the event," Astle reflects.
- The Albury-Wodonga Winter Solstice is at Albury's QEII Square on Friday, June 21 from 5pm or join online from the warmth of your home from 6pm on the Facebook livestream.
