Rowans Walk: Pilbara Community to unite for mental health and suicide prevention on October 8

The Pilbara community is set to unite behind Rowan Dann as part of his annual walk to raise awareness for suicide prevention and mental health this month.

Mr Dann first held the walk in 2018 to remember his aunty Geraldine Petula Maher, who took her own life in 2016, aged 34, and this year the event will begin on October 8.

Since then the event has become a mainstay on the local calendar with 300 people joining him last year on his 15km walk from Port Hedland to South Hedland.

It stops each year at the Redbank Bridge and then at the local cemetery, where special songs are played while the walkers, in a powerful moment turn to face and honour those who have been lost.

Now in its fourth year, the Port Hedland event will begin on October 8 with residents encouraged to join Mr Dann on his walk from the Red Bank Bridge.

For the first time, it will be followed by a two-day basketball tournament with teams of all ages invited to participate at the JD Hardie Youth and Community HUB outdoor courts.

Speaking to the West Australian earlier this year, Mr Dann said the walk had changed him as a person.

“I’m definitely feeling wiser and understanding more of my own feelings as well as everyone else’s and getting a better understanding about how everyone’s life is. It’s like a life upgrade that makes you a better person,” he said.

“People come up to me now for a yarn and it’s like they’ve got a needle in a haystack. Every time I talk to them, I just pull that needle out and bang, they open up and that’s all I’m after.

“Ever since we started doing it, it’s all been giving us more meaning and it became a real mission. Sometimes I just wish it was our family members who we have lost who had been the ones opening up.”

An event will also be held in Newman at 6am on October 8 with to walk from Radio Hill and make their way to the Town Square.