Big Hill & Oyster

09/03/2026

I’m thrilled and so grateful to have been awarded a Brisbane City Council Women in Business Grant.

I’m really looking forward to the learning and connection opportunities offered by the 2026 Women in Business Program… spending time with other women business owners, sharing ideas, learning from one another, and lifting each other up.

Big Hill & Oyster is founded on, and has grown through, conversation, relationship, and collective wisdom. I’m excited to see what new insights, collaborations, and possibilities might emerge through this community. They’ve already started, at tonight’s Award Celebration.

Thank you to BCC for supporting women-led businesses and creating spaces where women can connect, learn, and be inspired.

Thank you to Jolene Kawak, fellow Indigenous businesswoman and Women in Business Grant alumni for the encouragement! It’s going to be a great year.

05/03/2026

Yesterday at The Gathering in Brisbane's Queen Street Mall, we grew something special.

People shared small stories of care from their lives:
• a Big Issue seller who sat beside someone crying and listened
• appreciation for that random “just checking in” text message
• a son asking, each evening: “How was your day, Mum”?
• a stranger offering a basket of mangoes to someone sitting on the street in tears.

As these shared stories of compassion were woven together, they reminded me of something important: *Compassion is not rare*. It is all around us, in every day acts happening across our city. Sometimes we just need to pause long enough to notice it and appreciate it.

02/03/2026

Brisbane friends,

This Wednesday (4 March 2026), Big Hill & Oyster will be at The Gathering in Queen Street Mall, and I’d love you to join us for some lunchtime moments of story, care, and connection.

We’ll be growing a little compassion together, through shared reflections, living community stories, and some native seeds to take home.

If you’re in the city, come say hello 🌿

Event details:

Gathering presents Leanne Levinge. Leanne Levinge (Kombumerri and Ngugi) is a narrative therapist, counsellor, and facilitator based in Magandjin (Brisbane). Through her practice, Big Hill & Oyster, she designs reflective experiences that nurture compassion, connection, and reconciliation, weaving t...

09/06/2024

❤️ Compassion ❤️

What is it?
How does it feel when we offer it to ourselves?
What impact might it have when we offer it to others?
How open are we to receiving it?
What does it look like in action - at personal, social, and structural levels?
Why is it important at each of those levels?
How can we enable it?
How can we reduce the barriers to it?
How can we create compassionate communities?
What small actions might we personally take right now, to contribute to a more compassionate experience - within ourselves and across the globe?

So many questions… and for the past week I have contemplated on them and engaged in discussions about them with 150 scientists, researchers, monastics, authors, practitioners, community leaders, and compassionate souls from around the world.

This was a transformative gathering, hosted by the Mind & Life Institute at its 2024 Summer Research Institute (SRI), at the Garrison Institute in upstate New York.

What a gift to experience this residential with inspiring, warm-hearted, passionate, and truly incredible individuals who brought and offered their whole selves to having open conversations about creating and co-creating more sustainable, generative ways of being in the world and with each other.

Thank you Mind and Life! I am eternally grateful for being accepted into this program. I am changed because of it. I commit to continuing my compassion work (not only in my work as a narrative therapist but as a human being), and to expanding my actions and impact further.

30/05/2024

Now more than ever, it seems there’s a significant shift in education… in the broad embedding of First Nations’ perspectives and pedagogies via the national curriculum and its place-based focus for implementation.

It was an honour to moderate the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority’s (QCAA’s) panel discussion of respected education experts (The Murri School; Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Foundation; West Moreton Anglican College; First Nations Strategy and Partnerships, Qld Dept of Education) at its inaugural Reconciliation Week event yesterday at Brisbane City Hall.

The insightful session was packed with themes of:
* hope AND action
* doing things differently (if we want a different outcome)
* we’re in this together…who do we want to be, as Australians???
* the value of professional AND personal reflection to reconciliation
* building community relationships as the foundation of progress (schools, please make time for your educators to make these connections and do this community engagement work AND please remunerate those community connections and contributions appropriately).

About 30 primary school kids performed an Aboriginal dance 🖤💛❤️ AND a Torres Strait Islands dance 💙 💚 🤍, and a young Traditional Custodian offered who Welcomed us to Country - in Yugara/Yuggera language! Wow 🤩

28/05/2024

Great to be amongst the portofbrisbane’s Operations team yesterday morning and experience the soulful Welcome to Country from Turrbal songwoman, Baringa Barambah.
Reconciliation Week bringing people together. 🖤💛❤️

27/05/2024

After Reconciliation Queensland's Annual Gala Dinner - the first since last year’s ’No’ vote - and after opening to the wisdom, hope, and compassion of the panel discussion members - I’m even more excited about what’s ahead and the contribution I can make.

After spending Reconciliation Week this week in Meanjin (Brisbane), I'll be continuing a journey of contemplating reconciliation at the week-long immersion program: Awakening Compassion in Times of Division: Breaking and Coming Together, hosted by the Mind & Life Institute in upstate New York.

I have personally experienced, and witnessed through my work as a counsellor (Big Hill & Oyster), this 'Breaking' and 'Coming Together' happening at EVERY LEVEL... within ourselves, in our close relationships, across our communities, and across cultures.

Now is time to ‘Awaken Compassion’. Please come and explore how we might be able to do that - TOGETHER - at the BrisWest Centre’s Sunday Brunch (Paddington, Brisbane) on 21 July.
Info and tix are available at https://events.humanitix.com/insights-wisdoms-and-learnings-from-a-global-compassion-community

Get Tickets on Humanitix - Sunday Brunch - Insights, Wisdoms & Learnings from a Global Compassion Community hosted by The BrisWest Centre. BrisWest Centre, 132 Latrobe Terrace, Paddington QLD 4064, Australia. Sunday 21st July 2024. Find event information.

17/09/2023

Yes! So much love and compassion today! So many young Australians supporting a better future. That made me smile. ❤️ Where, or in what, or from who, did you experience love today?

13/09/2023

At some point during the past decade, I started seeing with eyes of love. Now I can’t stop. I see love and beauty in everything, everywhere, and in everyone. What made it possible, I think, is that I started seeing myself in more loving and more compassionate ways. That makes me smile ❤️. In what ways do you love and honour yourself? (Image is one I took recently during a walk with friends through the Yarra Valley. This graffiti was on the outside of a public toilet block).