Kindness Company

14/09/2025

What a week! The Compassionate Communities Australia Forum and Dying to Know Dinner with Mama Saba set the scene for community at the heart of conversations and action. As You n' Taboo has rightly stated, many have paved the way, reminding us that our collective work is built on decades of dedication, courage, and care.

A central highlight at for me was the lived experience leadership shared by Jodie Clarkson, who reminded us of the deep equity and communication challenges in healthcare. As she powerfully noted, “Interpreters are a bridge between languages and cultures… everyone has a right to be linguistically present, to fully understand what’s happening to them, to fully express themselves.’’

Jodie’s call powerfully underscored that compassionate care must be grounded in culturally safe language and a steadfast commitment to human rights. As someone receiving palliative care, her courage, storytelling, and wisdom were not only moving, they were a profound privilege to witness.

The gathering also strengthened the case for a public health palliative care approach and Compassionate Communities, where care extends beyond hospitals into networks of families, neighbours, and civic life.
We were invited into the depth of storytelling:
• Professor Brian Dolan reminded us that “care will always be more important than cure… mortality remains at 100%” and reframed hospital time as “days away from home,” urging us to focus on dignity, humanity, and legacy.

• Chris Hall moved us with love stories of grief, showing how families oscillate between knowing and hoping: “Death ends a life, it doesn’t end a relationship”
His words affirmed that grief is not an enemy of care, but its companion.

Through these voices, the gathering affirmed the centrality of storytelling, compassion, and equity in shaping the future of palliative care.

Heartfelt thanks to Dr Joanne Doran for being the glue that brings compassion, humanness, and joy into spaces that are often heavy.

New friends were made and old connections energised. Shout out to the wonderful PCA consumer and carer panel members, with special acknowledgment to PCA fellow carer and consumer panel members Debra Letica and Shannon Calvert, who reminded us of the urgent need for lived experience leadership and co-creation in shaping services and Simon’s skilful hosting. Thank you to PCA for your support and the efforts of all organisers. PCQ the Jacaranda was incredible! Thank you to the compassionate community that supported me in caring for our daughter while being present, the juggle is real.

We are stronger together, and must continue to authentically collaborate, evolving systems and processes so they meet the needs of all, especially those most often pushed to the margins. By grounding care in equity, presence, and humanity, we can ensure that every community is included and supported with compassion.

11/08/2025

🧡Love, Loss & What Matters Most 💛

This year’s Before You Go – Dying to Know Day on the Gold Coast was more than a beautiful event, it was the result of years of slow, steady, often unseen community building. Hours of relationship-building, trust-guiding, and collaboration have created a strong foundation where supporters are now investing their time and resources, and for that, we’re so grateful.

We breathed together with Caroline Brunne and Louie the Therapy Dog, then journeyed through the end-of-life rituals of Sikh, Hindu, Māori, and Buddhist traditions — sharing stories, art, music, and creating space for difficult conversations.

We also want to acknowledge the “village” who made it possible: our venue Currumbin RSL, plus those who provided welcome, catering, face painting, arts & crafts, breathwork, cyanotype, sound healing, and generous staff time.

Grassroots community movements take time, investment, and genuine collaboration. Over the past three years, we’ve built a space where community and service providers come together to create real change.

If you feel called to join this small but growing movement, reach out. We’d love to welcome you.

Thank you: Amanda McClelland Amardeep Singh Carol Peach Caroline Tremayne Carla P. Sabrina Cleghorn Katherine Richards Rhee Duthie Joanne Doran Emma Beattie Gina Connolly Annie McGrath Anna DeVoigt supported by:
Currumbin RSL | Multicultural Communities Council Gold Coast Ltd.| Karuna Hospice Services Ltd | Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service| Gold Coast Primary Health Network | Dovida Australia | Volunteering Queensland | Proveda |Before & After Life | Kindness Company

11/08/2025

Love, Loss & What Matters Most 💛This year’s Before You Go – Dying to Know Day on the Gold Coast was more than a beautiful event, it was the result of years of slow, steady, often unseen community building. Hours of relationship-building, trust-guiding, and collaboration have created a strong foundation where supporters are now investing their time and resources, and for that, we’re so grateful.We breathed together with Caroline Brunne and Louie the Therapy Dog, then journeyed through the end-of-life rituals of Sikh, Hindu, Māori, and Buddhist traditions — sharing stories, art, music, and creating space for difficult conversations.We also want to acknowledge the “village” who made it possible: our venue Currumbin RSL, plus those who provided welcome, catering, face painting, arts & crafts, breathwork, cyanotype, sound healing, and generous staff time.Grassroots community movements take time, investment, and genuine collaboration. Over the past three years, we’ve built a space where community and service providers come together to create real change.If you feel called to join this small but growing movement, reach out. We’d love to welcome you.Thank you: Amanda McClelland Amardeep Singh Carol Peach Caroline Tremayne Carla P. Sabrina Cleghorn Katherine Richards Rhee Duthie Joanne Doran Emma Beattie Gina Connolly Annie McGrath Anna DeVoigt supported by:Currumbin RSL | Multicultural Communities Council Gold Coast Ltd.| Karuna Hospice Services Ltd | Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service| Gold Coast Primary Health Network | Dovida Australia | Volunteering Queensland | Proveda |Before & After Life | Kindness Company

24/07/2025

📣 Event Update – You're Invited!

We’re thrilled to welcome Caroline Brunne and the one and only Louie the Therapy Dog to Before You Go: A Gold Coast Dying to Know Day Community Gathering 🐾💛

Caroline, survivor coach and breathwork facilitator will open the day with a calming, heart-centred breathwork session to help us land in presence and connection. Afterwards, you’ll get to soak up some soulful cuddles from Louie. 🐶

From there, we’ll dive into powerful conversations about End-of-Life Rituals from around the world, featuring stories and insights from:

💫 Amardeep Singh – Sharing Sikh, Hindu, and multicultural perspectives, Amardeep has supported countless families through the depths of grief and loss.

💫 Rhee Duthie – A proud Māori and Swiss advocate, artist, and Volunteering QLD staff member who brings healing through heritage, creativity, and community.

💫 Tsultrim – A Buddhist practitioner and Karuna Hospice Community Connection Advisor, Tsultrim offers wisdom on grief, spiritual care, and the spaces between life and death.

💫 Dr Jo Doran – Our incredible MC with over 30 years in palliative care, bringing compassion, clarity, and leadership to end-of-life conversations.

🌿 This FREE community gathering is a beautiful space to reflect, connect, and explore what truly matters—before you go.

Here’s what else you can experience on the day:
✨ 1:1 Sound Healing with Caroline Tremayne
✨ Creative spaces: Cyanotype art + clay work
✨ The Human Library – hear real stories, ask real questions
✨ Family-friendly fun including free face painting for kids

🎤 Plus: You’ll be invited to share one end-of-life wish that no one knows… because if nobody knows, they never will.

Let’s get more comfortable with the uncomfortable. Because while only 53% of us talk about death… 💯% of us will face it.

👉 Mark your calendar and join us for a day of courage, connection, and compassion.



This event is brought to you by a passionate working group and supported by:
Currumbin RSL| Multicultural Communities Council Gold Coast - MCCGC| Karuna| Gold Coast Health | Gold Coast Primary Health Network | Dovida Australia | Volunteering Queensland| Align by Caroline| Before & After Life| Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation| Shoutout to Dying to Know Proveda and the Wicking Trust in their support of Caroline Brunne, Louie and Cyanotype making
🙌🏽Share with your networks
📩 Register now to save your spot. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/before-you-go-a-gold-coast-dying-to-know-day-gathering-tickets-1475398299029?utm_experiment=test_share_listing&aff=ebdsshios

15/07/2025

Join us for Before You Go: A Gold Coast Dying to Know Day Community Gathering
Let’s talk about the one thing we all share…
Life. Death. Grief. And everything in between.

Now in its third year, this FREE community event brings together creativity, culture, and compassion for a meaningful day of connection and reflection. This years gathering features:
✨Embodied Practices
✨ Art-making + Interactive Spaces
✨ Human Library with powerful storytellers
✨ Panel on End-of-Life Rituals with speakers from Sikh, Māori, Buddhist & Aboriginal perspectives
✨ Hosted by the fabulous Dr Jo Doran – bringing humour and heart to the day
✨ Family-friendly with free face painting for kids

You’ll be invited to share one end-of-life wish that no one knows — because if nobody knows, they never will.

Let’s become more comfortable with the uncomfortable.

Because while only 53% of Aussies talk about death with loved ones… 100% of us will face it.
This event is brought to you by a passionate working group and supported by:
Currumbin RSL| Multicultural Communities Council Gold Coast - MCCGC | Karuna| Gold Coast Health| Gold Coast PHN | Dovida Volunteering Queensland | Before & After Life| Align by Caroline|Kindness Company| Dying to Know
📌 Tag a friend who should come.
📩 Register now to save your spot. https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/before-you-go-a-gold-coast-dying-to-know-day-gathering-tickets-1475398299029?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

16/06/2025

It’s difficult to write a post about refugee week with the current and escalating atrocities taking place across the world resulting in more internally displaced people and refugees day by day.

As my friend and colleague Liliana Sanchez who arrived to our shores as a refugee reminds us all ‘we are not a headline, a statistic or a slogan, we are human beings.’

I encourage you to take time to reflect on what action you can take not just this week but every week to be truly inclusive, to actively create spaces to hear from refugees within your own communities, hear their stories.

What you will hear and bear witness to might make you uncomfortable, but as Marwa El Ansary has written in her recent piece
‘What we are witnessing right now is not only the repression and annihilation of a people but rather the slow collapse of the systems that once claimed to uphold truth, protection, and dignity.’ Sitting in discomfort is a privilege few currently have.

14/05/2025

This morning, I had the honour of facilitating a space for the Kalwun Development Corporation Ltd Seniors Services team to pause and acknowledge the loss of many Elders and community members connected to their aged care services.

Grief is not something we “get over”—it’s something we walk alongside. It teaches us about the depth of our love, our connections, and our shared humanity.

As part of the ceremony, we incorporated sound healing—using gentle tones and vibrations as a way to move what words cannot express. Sound becomes a bridge, allowing grief to shift through the body, gently and without force.

In community and aged care, creating time to sit with sadness, to honour, and to feel deeply is not just healing—it’s vital. These moments of collective stillness make it possible for us to continue showing up with presence, care and strength.

To those working in community, health, or healing—make space for grief.

Honour it. Let it move.

It’s not a sign of weakness, but a pathway to deeper connection, renewal and service.

For those close to the Gold Coast theres still a few spaces for our deep rest gathering this Sunday 2pm https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/kindness-and-deep-rest-gathering-tickets-1340616663529?aff=oddtdtcreator&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAad6OYAWPvSR_h_9wB0YuLqR6l15eFWIe7d_JeyeuDW720OdHR3ieNujabSWMg_aem_WcQThwFTd72CV5uMlFMhXA

04/05/2025

It’s time to stop, rest and exhale…

We are moving at pace to mid-winter and the first half of this year has been a lot.

Creating space and time to deeply rest, connect with ourselves and community is essential to our health, wellbeing and ability to show up fully in our day to day lives and contribute to meaningful change.

I invite you to join us for an afternoon of Kindness and Deep Rest

A heartfelt gathering to rest deeply, nurture self-kindness, and build warm, compassionate connections with others amidst life's chaos.

21/03/2025

Today marks the International Day for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, community members from across Queensland share their words of strength and resilience in continuing the work that must be done. We must stand together

All other videos can be found at: https://qpastt.org.au/voices-for-peace/

20/03/2025

Yesterday, I sat with friends and bi-cultural health promotion colleagues from Myanmar, Vietnam, South Sudan, Rwanda, China and South Korea who work at the ECCQ - Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland. They work closely within their communities to support health and well-being issues that are often seen as taboo including end of life and palliative care.

As an initial workshop we gently opened the door to sharing information and talking about the complexities, along with grief and loss that comes with supporting migrant and refugee communities with serious illness.

As one participant stated, using simple and accessible language is critical, especially given that in some communities there is no translation for palliative care and indeed even mentioning it can be seen as harmful and culturally inappropriate. We discussed how best to overcome these challenges with much more to continue to explore.

There is no doubt much more work to be done. Understanding the many different forms that need to be completed including advanced care directives can be seen as overwhelming.

The people that stay with me the most are those who arrived as refugees, who survived war and persecution only to be diagnosed with a life limiting illness in a country and system they don’t completely understand. Thankfully there is support from bicultural workers.

This was the first step. There is a great need for more knowledge sharing and training on how to navigate health systems, how to advocate, understanding palliative care, supporting communities and family and importantly self-care.

27/02/2025

Compassionate Communities Australia is excited to partner with Compassionate Communities UK - charity number 1167511 to offer their public health palliative care short course for palliative care professionals working in multidisciplinary teams. This course is limited to 30 people who see themselves taking a leadership role in public health palliative care. For more information and to register go to https://compassionatecommunities.au/event/public-health-palliative-care-short-course/

17/02/2025

If you are or know an Aboriginal and / Torres Strait Islander young person aged 18-26 living in QLD who wants to share their thoughts about va**ng with us we would love to hear from you! Dets below :-)

Deadly Choices has partnered with Carbon Creative and The Kindness Company to conduct a focus group with young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, aged 18–26. We want you to share your thoughts and opinions about all things va**ng, and in return you’ll receive a prepaid gift card. Register quick, there’s only 12 spots available!

To register your interest, email engagement@carbon-creative.com.au.

UPDATE: Thank you everyone! All spots have now been filled.