In an industry that so often asks 'What can we gain?' we're more interested in asking a different question:
'What can we create; together?'
How can we realise a financial system that measures its success not in what it can accumulate, but in what it can cultivate?
In thriving communities, protected Country, and the possibility of a safe and plentiful future for the generations that will follow.
Once again, we are so excited to share a glimpse of what success looked like for us in 2024; a celebration through stories from our community.
Stories of first homes and fresh starts. Of purposeful intentions and unexpected connections.
Of people choosing to believe that their financial decisions matter far beyond their own four walls and of the remarkable people and organisations doing the vital work of rebuilding connections. Connections between people, to Country, and to a future that will truly belong to us all.
As you read, we hope you'll see yourself reflected here. Because in so many ways, these stories are all of ours – each connected through a shared belief that the financial decisions we make, be they big or small, have the power to shape the world we want to see.
And as we reflect on another year, we again find ourselves both deeply inspired by, and grateful for, all the people who are choosing to reimagine success alongside us – those who understand the invaluable nature of community and who recognise that true prosperity is something we create with, and for, each other.
FINANCE / Jacqui
- Everline Studios
- Photography & Dance Studio
- Awabakal Country - Belmont, NSW
When life threw professional dancer Jacqui an unexpected career curveball, she found a unique way to connect the art form she loves with another lifelong passion. All she needed was the perfect space to bring her vision to life…
FOR GOOD / Dhuluny
“We have been waiting for 200 years to tell our side of the story, it’s a hidden history that many people still do not know and understand. Dhuluny is about truth-telling…”
Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation (WTOCWAC)
Based on Wiradyuri Country in the Bathurst region, Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation (WTOCWAC) are working tirelessly to provide cultural education, mentoring and support while protecting Ngurambang (Country). In 2024, they embarked on an especially significant project: Dhuluny, a week-long series of events commemorating the 200-year anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law on Wiradyuri Country.
Named after a Wiradyuri word meaning "truth," "rightness," or "gospel," Dhuluny featured an extensive program centered on the preservation of culture, truth-telling, and the resilience of the Wiradyuri Nation.
Through art exhibitions and discussions with artists, film screenings, theatre performances, workshops, a Corroboree, a conference and an Aboriginal art market, the event created space for both the celebration of Wiradyuri survival and the reflection on our shared histories.
Two hundred years after the first use of martial law against Aboriginal people in New South Wales, Dhuluny stands as a powerful testament to the endurance of Wiradyuri culture and the ongoing importance of truth-telling in the journey toward genuine restoration. By marking these shared histories and allowing attendees to reflect on the legacies and consequences for both Wiradyuri people and colonial settlers, WTOCWAC demonstrates how confronting our past can help us build a more just future together.
FINANCE / Stephen + Hayden
- Apartment, built 2014
- 2 bed, 2 bath, 1 car
- Gadigal Land - Erskineville, NSW
When your work life is spent on the road, having the perfect place to call home becomes everything. For creative couple Stephen and Hayden, that perfect place was hiding in plain sight - just two floors above their current apartment…
FOR GOOD / ReLove
“We want to give people this really joyous experience… and allow them the opportunity to picture a new life the way they want it.”
Renuka Fernando - Co-founder, Relove
For those rebuilding their lives after crisis, the journey to create a safe, nurturing home can be overwhelming - both emotionally and financially. Meanwhile, countless pieces of quality furniture are needlessly ending up in landfill each year, supercharging our emissions and deepening the climate crisis. ReLove is an organisation whose approach delivers both social and environmental impact - showing the interconnected nature of many of our biggest challenges but also, how a deep commitment to addressing one, can often help solve another.
This Sydney/Gadigal based charity rescues quality furniture destined for landfill and redistributes it directly to women and families impacted by domestic violence, people experiencing homelessness, and people seeking asylum – all for free. Importantly, ReLove also provides a safe, dignified space for people in crisis to choose items that will help make their new house feel like home, while also providing free delivery and installation. This helps to remove additional, often costly, barriers for people already facing significant challenges, while ensuring that perfectly good items find a new life in homes where they're needed.
In the past year alone, ReLove has helped 784 families furnish their homes while preventing 1,228 tonnes of furniture from reaching landfill.
With unused furniture from Australian households estimated to weigh more than four times the Sydney Harbour Bridge annually, ReLove’s work is a brilliant example of how addressing environmental challenges can also be an opportunity to create profound social impact.
FINANCE / Brendan
- Apartment, built 1960s
- 1 bed, 1 bath
- Gadigal Land - Sydney CBD, NSW
After 15 years of working and living across the globe as a freelance creative, landing a more permanent gig back home opened the door to Brendan securing his own little slice of Sydney...
FOR GOOD / Rising Tide
“The science is clear: we cannot have new fossil fuel projects and ensure a safe future on this planet… We are the rising tide of ordinary people, called by extraordinary times.”
Rising Tide
In Newcastle, home to the world's largest coal port, a grassroots movement is proving that ordinary people can create extraordinary change. Rising Tide, reformed in 2023, uses peaceful civil resistance to challenge the fossil fuel industry and advocate for climate action.
Their recent "People's Blockade" brought together 7,000 participants for a ten-day "prostestival" (protest festival) that successfully blocked coal-exporting ships for 50 hours – their longest action yet. Through community building, creative activism, and peaceful civil disobedience, Rising Tide is showing how collective action can disrupt business as usual and push for the systemic changes our planet desperately needs.
With the approval of 28 new coal and gas projects under the current government, Rising Tide's work is more crucial than ever. Their successful actions have helped spotlight how major fossil fuel companies often pay less tax than income tax paid by teachers, while their community-building approach demonstrates how bringing people together in creative resistance can build the momentum needed for real climate action.
FINANCE / Carmen + Sam
- Apartment, built 1990s
- 2 bed, 2 bath, 2 car
- Wurundjeri Land - Collingwood, VIC
After a dramatic dash over the NSW/VIC border in the midst of COVID lockdowns, Carmen and Sam found themselves making an unexpectedly permanent move back to Melbourne — and buying their first home, sight unseen, along the way.
FOR GOOD / Wilya Janta
“No one has ever built a house like this on traditional lands. It’s for Wumparrani* people in the Wumparrani way.”
Norman Frank Jupurrurla - Warumungu Elder & Wilya Janta Founder
*Wumparrani means ‘Indigenous’ in Warumungu
In Jurkkurakurr/Tennant Creek, where climate data predicts dramatic increases in days above 40 degrees, Wilya Janta ("Standing Strong") is revolutionising housing in remote communities by providing homes designed by Aboriginal people, for Aboriginal people. Through innovative cultural consultancy, they're demonstrating how homes can be both culturally appropriate and climate resilient.
Working with Warumungu elders and community members, Wilya Janta are developing houses that combine traditional knowledge with modern sustainability features – from using locally sourced, regenerative materials like anthill, spinifex and solar power, to ensuring that cultural considerations form an integral part of the design process.
This groundbreaking project addresses multiple challenges facing remote communities, where current housing often reflects ongoing failures in design, poor thermal performance, and lack of cultural consideration. As residents increasingly face difficult choices between paying expensive electricity bills for air conditioning and meeting basic needs like medication and food, Wilya Janta's work shows how centering community knowledge and cultural practices can create housing solutions that are more sustainable and restore agency to communities in determining their own housing futures.
We are, once again, so grateful to have been part of so many important milestones for our community members this year. And in doing so, to be in a position to support some truly inspirational people and organisations that are working tirelessly to make the world a better place - for all of us.
And while this year has been a particularly difficult one for so many, if you’re able to and are looking to offer your own support to some important work happening this holiday season, the organisations listed above, and on the Pure Community website, are great places to start.