Welcome to the Journey Within

Welcome to my blog about Fragments of Service: the Stories within. This is my journey - pulling my stories, and this amazing adventure, out into the open.

Whether you are a veteran, a family member, part of a veteran organisation or simply curious about what is being created here - thank you for being here.

This project began with a simple question: How do I get out all of these stories, these feelings, these moments that sit so heavily in my heart out into the world?

After 20 years serving in the Royal Australian Air Force, I felt hurt by my experience of leaving, yet still strongly connected with my military identity. Caring for people has always been part of my DNA, and as a military nurse I fortunate to live that purpose every day. To say that my medical discharge left me isolated, lost and disconnected would be putting it lightly.

So as I explored life after the military, I found peace - and permission to be still - through art.

I shaped clay like I was in a movie.

I danced paintbrushes across canvas.

My clothing became dusty with charcoal as I drew my work boots, my children, my uniforms, places I had been.

I made ugly pots.

Then I made beautiful ones. Then I broke them apart and turned them into mosaics.

Art became my safe place, my way of speaking about the turbulence I felt in my chest without using words. And through that process I realised that I had to get the storm inside me out.

I started making small pinch pots this year, vessels that fit snugly in the palm of your hand. Initially I thought that I’d make 1,000 to share the stories of veterans that lived within me. But as I reconnected with other veterans, sat with people and just listened to them, I knew that this project was never just about my stories. It’s about ours.

Veterans are out there, carrying stories within. Stories that are not always spoken, but felt. Some are stories of joy, mateship, exploration, adventure. Some are about places that hold stories, remember people, service and sacrifice. Then there are the stories with so much gravity, they are rarely spoken at all. These are the stories that silently carry pain, despair, betrayal, denial and loss.

Every story deserves to be spoken, to be felt, to be shared. Every storyholder deserve to be heard, and held, by the Australian community.

More than Pottery

This project will travel across Victoria, hosting workshops where veterans can come together to make pinch pots in welcoming, open and meaningful spaces. Each pot will become part of a growing collection that reflects the diversity of Australia’s veteran community, and offers each veteran a chance to tell their story through clay.

The collection will ultimately comprise of 5,889 vessels - one for every submission made to the recent Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran suicide. It’s unfinished business for the veteran community. While there are many voices that spoke up for this Royal Commission, they sit alongside a brutal silence of those who couldn’t. The Australian community has a responsibility to continue caring for those who have served and carry the impact of that service. To unite in support for our service personnel who commit themselves to protective their communities, often at significant personal cost. Whatever our political views, we can recognise their dedication, sacrifice and humanity.

You don’t have to agree with every decision made by a government to recognise the humanity of supporting those who chose service in the military.

This project is not about politics. It’s about people. The storyholders, the storytellers. The stories within.

It’s also about the community that holds us all, the binding together to create a nation that we are all proud to be part of.

Along the way, I’ll be documenting the journey through photography, film and a podcast, capturing not only the finished artwork but the people and conversations that make this project so special. The vision is to create a lasting collection that honours service by celebrating the people behind it.

Follow the Journey

This blog will become my journal. I’ll share stories from workshops, introduce the people helping bring this project to life, celebrate milestones, and provide behind-the-scenes glimpses into the making of the documentary, podcast and exhibition.

Some posts will make you smile. Some may make you pause.

All of them remind us that service is not one story - it is thousands.

I’m looking forward to sharing the journey with you, one conversation, one vessel and one story at a time.

Every vessel has a story. Thank you for helping me discover the stories within.