Our Spirit Blog - 2025 - News Article

In today’s hyper-connected world, parents and teenagers often live side by side but worlds apart.

I’ve seen transformations. Lives redefined. Young men and women rediscover their inner strength. Veterans find healing. Everyday people step into a part of themselves they didn’t know existed.

We’ve normalised a “rite of passage” that too often ends in ambulances, arrests, and anxiety.

What if we changed the tradition?

The Kokoda Track isn’t just a trek—it’s a transformation.

At 17 or 18, our diggers stood shoulder to shoulder to defend our freedom. Now, our youth can walk in their footsteps—not just to honour them, but to find themselves.

Schoolies doesn’t have to mean numbing out. It can mean stepping up.

In an age where comfort is abundant and hardship can feel like a distant memory, it’s more important than ever that young Australians reconnect with the foundations of their freedom.

Australia, like many nations born of colonisation, carries a complex and painful history. And while we cannot rewrite the past, we are left with an uncomfortable question: What do we do with it?