Hoping to shed light on mental health issues and Indigenous culture, north Queensland high schools have opened their doors to educational performance arts workshops.

Pioneer State High School drama teacher, Sarah Ling, welcomed the workshops into her classroom earlier this week as reported by ABC News.

She explained the workshops were run by company members of the Australian Theatre For Young People who are involved in Sugarland — a play which sets out to expose the issues young people encounter in regional areas.

"I chose this workshop because we have a lot of Indigenous students at our school, and this particular performance that they are seeing explores a lot of different Indigenous stories, histories and cultures," Ms Ling said.

"We let the kids explore it at their own will. If they don't want to explore these issues, they don't want to talk about them that's fine we don't push them to do that.

"If they do want to explore them we think 'great' you can explore these issues … through the games they're involved in."

Ms Ling said the workshops also benefited the students by giving them an insight into what it was like to work in the performance arts industry.

Following the workshop, her students will be among 300 other Mackay students from different schools this week to watch the performance. To read more click here.

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This conference will bring together leading clinical practitioners, academics, service providers and mental health experts to deliberate and discuss rural Mental Health issues confronting Australia and New Zealand.

The conference program will be designed to challenge, inspire, demonstrate and encourage participants while facilitating discussion.