The Mental Health Foundation says Maori authorities are now recognising they need to help bring down the suicide rate.
Recent figures from the chief coroner show 105 Maori took their lives last year.
A manager at the foundation, Witi Ashby, says iwi organisations recognise they're losing future leaders.
He says tribal authorities are slowly putting their hands up and taking ownership of the problem.
Mr Ashby says the organisations are discussing the issue, when they weren't before.
He says as communities lose people to suicide, kaumatua or elders are stepping forward to say enough is enough.
