What is courage?

Finding Courage sets out to explore that question through stories told in two voices - by someone who witnesses another’s courage, and by the person who lives it. Together they reveal what courage looks like from the outside, and what it feels like from the inside. As you read, you may start to recognise the quiet courage you already carry.

Stories

Beyond Rage

What happens when anger can no longer sustain the fight?

Zianna Fuad walked away from the confidence and rage that had fuelled her activism, finding in death and grief a path back to life. Claire Dunn knows from experience the courage it takes to carve your own path.

Facing Your Demons

Ready to take an honest look at yourself?

Judy Matten has watched Scott Seccombe become the local go-to bloke for veterans — ringing ministers, storming Parliament, refusing to back down. What Judy sees as one man’s fight for people who have no voice, Scott experiences as an ongoing battle with the anger and demons he’s spent a lifetime learning to face.

Choosing the Beautiful Stuff

Can you choose joy — even when life makes it hard?

Anita Tang has known Carolyn Campbell McLean since she was a social work student on placement — sunny, determined, and impossible not to admire. Living with a progressive disability since childhood, Carolyn has faced challenges that might have left others bitter. What Anita sees as extraordinary courage, Carolyn experiences as a daily choice to focus on the beautiful stuff.

Following Your Inner Compass

Does the path you’re on no longer feel like yours?

Susie Russell has watched Claire Dunn walk away from certainty more than once — leaving activism, living wild for a year and reshaping her work and family life. What Susie saw as reinvention, Claire experienced as simply following her inner compass.

Caring at the Limit

What happens when devotion outruns your capacity?

Martha Druery has spent 30 years running toward catastrophe, giving everything to families in their darkest moments. When her colleague Carolyn Betts nominated her for Finding Courage, Martha was grappling with a harder challenge — learning to care for herself.

Chasing dreams, Courage born of Passion

Is there a dream you haven’t dared to chase?

When the marine sanctuary where Tiga Cross had worked since she left school went into receivership, Rotarian Bob Carle watched her do something that astounded him — buy a failing zoo with a six-month-old baby and no business experience. She simply couldn’t walk away from the animals.

Walking Away (The Courage to Quit)

Feeling deep down that you’re on the wrong path?

Mentor Melissa Richardson watched Nadene Anderson pour years into a thriving family business — and quietly lose herself in the process. She doubted Nadene would ever leave. But Nadene surprised her – choosing herself over security.

Leading Social Change

Felt called to do something bigger than you think you can carry?

Pip Gordon has watched young Jawoyn man Lazarus Manbulloo drive for hours alone into remote communities, carrying his own grief, to talk to men about the hardest things — suicide, disconnection, despair. Lazarus just knew someone had to go find the men.

DISCOVER STORIES OF COURAGE

Why search for courage?

I’m Stephanie—and I believe courage is what we need most right now.

Not headline courage, but the quiet, everyday kind that shows up in real lives, often unnoticed.

Finding Courage is my ongoing inquiry into what courage really is - where it comes from, what it costs, and what becomes possible when we act on it.

Find out more about this project

Know someone whose courage has moved you?

Courage is contagious. When someone acts bravely, it reminds the rest of us what’s possible.

If someone’s courage has moved you, I’d love to hear about them.

Nominating someone is simple. And their story could be the spark someone else needs.

Nominate someone today!