Choose Kind: What an IWD Lunch and a Remarkable Noongar Woman Reminded Me About Why I Do What I Do

A reflection on connection, culture, and the heart behind the work

Last week I found myself sitting in a room full of incredible women at the JBA International Women’s Day Lunch, held at the Ocean Reef Sea Sports Club. There were conversations, connections, champagne, and the kind of energy that only happens when you bring a group of determined, generous women together.

And then Sharon Wood-Kenney took the floor, and the room shifted.

A Voice That Stays With You

Sharon is a proud Noongar Yamatji Yorga — a woman with deep ties across Western Australia, born right here in Boorloo (Perth). She is an Executive Cultural Navigation Consultant, community leader, artist, keynote speaker, and so much more. But titles don’t quite capture what happens when she speaks.

I’ve had the privilege of hearing Sharon speak before, and even though the crowd was different and the message had shifted to suit the occasion, I felt exactly the same way I did the first time — moved, grounded, and quietly proud.

She spoke about our ancestors walking these lands — that the country beneath our feet in Perth, in Joondalup, in every suburb we rush through on our way to our next meeting, is ancient and alive with story. That Aboriginal culture is not something frozen in the past. It is here, now, in all of us who call this place home.

She reminded us that no matter where our own ancestors began their journey — whether it was on this continent thousands of years ago or on a boat from somewhere far away — we are all part of this place now. We are all one. And the question is not where we came from, but what kind of person we choose to be here.

Choose Kind

Two words. But they landed like a whole philosophy.

Choose kind. Not just feel kind, or think kind thoughts when it suits you — but actively, deliberately choose it. In how you show up. In how you treat the person next to you. In the small interactions that make up an ordinary Tuesday.

Sharon asked us: we are all worth celebrating — but what can we do to make the place we live in better? How can we celebrate each other?

I’ve been sitting with that question ever since.