Estela Fuentes
“From my lived experience, I wanted to start a project to address stigma around mental health and mental illness”
Estela Fuentes
Country of Origin: Whyalla, South Australia from Chilean parents.
Occupation: Community development worker, Youth Support worker at Aboriginal Family Support Services and learning and development officer at Mariposa trails. State of Residency: SA. Favourite place in Australia: Tasmania.
Estela is the founder and learning and development officer of Mariposa Trails , a project that seeks to address stigma around mental health and mental illness and also provides referral services. Alongside this she is a community development worker and Youth Support Worker for Aboriginal Family Support Services. Her passion is to contribute to suicide prevention in the community sector particularly with a focus on multicultural mental health which stems from her personal experiences. Last year she was entered into the SA Women’s’ Honour Roll along with 19 other women from SA for their contributions, acknowledging and celebrating women from diverse backgrounds and their causes and contribution to safer communities.
TELL US YOUR STORY
I am the daughter of Chilean migrants who came to Australia in 1971. I was born in a little town called Whyalla. I am fluent in Spanish and English as I was fortunate that my mother would make me write letters to her brothers while she was cooking, I would sit at the kitchen table and she would dictate to me her messages, she would also play folkloric music which helped me have an appreciation of language, culture, traditions and have a strong connection to my maternal language.
I studied Indigenous studies at Uni and then went on to study social work, where I gained over 20 years’ experience in the human services field. I have worked in various roles and learnt from a range of disciplines with migrant and refugee communities as well as with various mainstream organisations. I have worked as a trainer/facilitator in various roles including teaching community services at TAFE SA.
Community radio and suicide prevention have been an interest of mine for a while. In 2008 I worked as a community educator with Relationships Australia SA where I co facilitated in a suicide training program called SQUARE. As a human services worker I started noticing similarities in my personal story and realised I was touched and impacted by many similar issues of the people I was supporting, in particular experiences of intrafamily violence and suicidality. I also had what is generally referred to as “lived experience”, which I refer to as human experiences. Despite this I know so many survivors (of intra family violence, suicidality, childhood or complex trauma) who are leading their lives despite challenges and adversities and are still humans of influence, compassion and stand out to me as remarkable human beings that deserve recognition and visibility.
In 2018 I was in Temuco Chile volunteering as I had been connected to this community since my University days here in Australia. We went there to work on a range of projects including Valpo Surf Project and working with carers of senior people. While I was there, an adolescent connected to one of the projects we were there to work with, suicided and we had to put the project on hold. This left a lasting impression on me and with time I realised many of us are impacted by suicide and I wanted to do something about it.
Back in Australia I spoke to people about this experience and realised I had also experienced this feeling of suicidality. So my friend Lola and Claudia supported the idea to start a project to address stigma around mental health and mental illness. And so, The Mariposa Trails project was born from an idea of promoting diversity in cross-cultural approaches to wellbeing, social/mental health and suicide prevention.
Elena ( middle ) and friends
Our contributors and supporters appreciate our approach and the learning circles we seek to continue to develop. We are thrilled to have been invited to start our own suicide prevention network thanks to Wellbeing SA. We have a great team of contributors, committee members, music facilitators (including Jorge & Diana from Colombia and Bortier Okoe from African Soul) who bring a rich cultural perspective, high energy and dynamics to the conversations on “the 5 ways to wellbeing and suicide prevention”.
We create community capacity building to learn and address mental health issues. So far six of our session participants have been trained through CORES Australia to deliver 2 programs related to selfcare, mental health and suicide prevention/intervention courses. This means we now have six bilingual and bicultural trainers in our community. We are proud of our bilingual website which includes personal stories in audio project, links to resources and services, and bilingual information sheets
We will continue to offer workshops in SA and interstate. We will be visiting Melbourne during the first weeks of September to promote suicide prevention through our lively workshops and delivering a workshop on Sat 10th of September in the city area.
I am in awe of what our project is doing and creating, sharing moments that recognise our strengths, struggles, unique responses and creating a project that harmonise our energies, powers and stories and bring us together to explore possibilities, healing and new friendships. Importantly we create community and connection for people impacted by mental health issues including carers, family and community member.
CHALLENGES
Living with depression and suicidality thoughts - In my personal experience before shame, blame and stigma comes to any one’s mind, the challenge in a positive light is that through your personal experience you can understand others, there is a lot of personal wisdom and insight that comes from these experiences, depression and suicidality teaches you many things and lessons that not only serve you but others. I have recently aligned myself to training that looks at the lessons for society from these experiences which state suicide prevention is a social health and social justice issue, and the suicidal person has wisdom and messages that the community can learn from. These conversations really challenge us and bring judgement but talking suicidality as an issue that can impact all of us.
Evolving identity - Owning my progressive and evolving identity, we operate in two words, the superficial world where we are following competitive markets and processes, and the other where we are humans making sense of this material world and our experiences by holding on to some traditions, culture, dreams, responsibilities and new experiences.
CONTRASTS AND SIMILARITIES
Diverse communities - Community is diverse, I love the language and expressions of different communities, the sweetness in language, the folklore, learning cultural resilience and cultural expressions, Latin American warmth and the ways second and third generations often work to reclaim those connections.
Patriotism - I have no need for patriotism and that is something very ingrained in Latin American cultures. I take the culture and its influences and I celebrate the different identities and cultural intelligence.
Connection moments - Our family was brought up with many other Latin American families around and created moments for connection, sharing food and dancing. I have deep respect for people who have culture, and this was embedded in me from a young age. Growing up in a cross-cultural environment, being bilingual and bi-cultural was not always easy. It did take me some time to grow in my own identity and build my own personal protective factors.
PIECE OF ADVICE
Remain Brave - Migrating is such a brave thing to do, I know of many people who come as economic migrants or international students and I know it is not easy to re-invent yourself and leave the known behind. Be open to ask for help and make sense of the processes, which no one prepares you for. Be open to meet people with new perspectives and lifestyles, be open to learn from people from different walks of life.
Do not put pressure on yourself - There is so much pressure to be a “success story “ . Everyone has a dream, a struggle and a purpose so explore what those are for you. I believe in the small things and the happiness that is shared. I would say to be open to the possibilities and new experiences, have many plans, many alternatives (including work, recreation, faith experiences, volunteering, friends) many people have been through similar stories, processes and sometimes hardships you would not expect. Be around people that give you different perspectives and from all walks of life. Be light and travel far.
Make the most of the small things that bring you peace - One day at a time, one day you, one day me. The struggles are going to test us in deep ways where we need to constantly reinvent ourselves. Try and release those big things and make the most of the small things that bring you peace. Be, do and stay in touch with things, people, places, activities that make you happy and matter to you. Give your self-time to pause and rest.
IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS…
Estela sees herself working with social enterprises and partnering with businesses to further the work on suicide prevention. On a personal level, she wants to be a Tai Chi instructor and if she has time to learn to saw. She would also love to return to doing overseas volunteer work. Later this year she plans to revisiting an audio project she produced over 15 years ago where she interviewed 5 women from different continents of refugee and migrant backgrounds who shared their insights, advice, wisdom and life experiences.
You can find more about Mariposa Trails Senderos de Maripose here ( link ) and their instagram
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100079453812193 Mariposa Trails Senderos de Mariposa
https://www.instagram.com/mariposatrails/
Hope you liked in feel inspired like us with this awesome story!
Shared shared with your friends and if you like this and other stories, we invite you to support us by following us via Instagram
With love and gratitude - Latin Stories team.
If you like this story and want to stay update with more content, especial events and be an active member of our community, you can subscribe below :)