amazing wellbeing benefits being part of the Boomerang Bags community.
Personal insights from rural and regional Queensland communities
The six building blocks
At Boomerang Bags we care deeply about enhancing the communities wellbeing.
We create spaces for people to connect and provide a welcoming environment where people feel they belong, are useful and uplifted physically and mentally.
How do we do this?
Encouraged by the Queensland government we follow the six building blocks for mental wellbeing. Each building block helps you respond to the range of mental tasks faced every day, in a unique and powerful way.
Get healthy
Be active, eat well and get enough sleep. Taking good care of your body is crucial to improve your mental wellbeing.
Keep Learing
Challenge your mind and seek out new things. Keep your mind engaged with new ideas and experiences.
Show Kindness
Give back, show gratitude and bring joy to others lives. Kind deeds actually deliver a bigger happiness boost.
Connect More
Develop relationships, stay connected and care for each other. Feeling connected plays an important role.
Take Notice
Be mindful. Stay in the moment. Experience the world around you. Mindfulness is a powerful tool.
Embrace Nature
Step outside, connect with the natural world and take care of the planet.
Visit qld.gov.au/mentalwellbeing to explore more ways to use the six building blocks to look after your mental wellbeing.
Get healthy
Boomerang Bags saved my life and gave me a reason to get up each day.
I am off medication since joining the community.
Beautiful homemade food, organic only, plastic free of course.
A workshop is time out and a taste of normality from a role as a full time carer.
Being involved helps us feel good about ourselves.
Boomerang Bags keeps our minds healthy and we always share a laugh over cake.
Ripping material can be the best therapy.
I’ve learnt about how to stay emotionally strong.
It’s therapeutic and I never tire of sewing bags.
Had a bad day, came home, made five bags and felt better!
Boomerang Bags gives us social connection.
Keep Learning
I’m on purpose, useful and finally learnt to thread an overlocker.
As volunteers we swap skills and willingly teach each other everything from tai chi to organic gardening.
We diversify in what we make, what we talk about and what we do to make the world better.
Boomerang Bags has opened up doors to starting book clubs, gardening clubs and yoga groups.
I haven’t sewn since home economics at school and love it!
I’ve learnt the valuable skill of sewing making bags.
Show Kindness
We share, help and look out for each other
Sewing bees are a place to share and give back.
We always look out for each other, like taking turns to pick up others who can’t drive.
I love connecting with people who care about my personal life.
I started a knitting club with the support of volunteers.
I got a job with the confidence building from other volunteers.
Bags are freely available for people who need them and a deep satisfaction is felt through the gift of giving. Also it shows kindness to the planet – hopefully less plastic gets used.
Connect More
Making a bag improves the values of one’s life.
After many years of just sewing bags at home, I was delighted at the friendships made at the sewing bees … it’s no longer a solitary hobby for me.
Value and validation to elders connecting with the younger generation to share skills.
I didn’t know anyone in my new town so started a community which has been heart warming.
Boomerang Bags was the first community activity in action following the lockdown.
In lockdown, all we needed was our sewing machines and a zoom meeting to check in and chat.
I lost my husband but gained a community of women.
Nothing better to lift your spirits than a shared lunch or morning tea filled with laughter.
I donated a doona and never left.
I get to connect with people I would otherwise probably never have met. And certainly I get to connect more intimately with them than I otherwise would have.
Take Notice
As the world changes, we change our priorities, from wildlife pouches during bushfires to masks during covid and laundry bags for the homeless.
It’s very rewarding making clothes for someone who has few.
No sewing skills doesn’t mean a no show. We make tea, iron, pin, or chat.
Having a pile of bags at the end of a session is met with claps, even if we don’t go beyond single digits from the day’s chatter.
We notice unlikely friendships develop over a common thread.
Embrace Nature
Every bag gives nature a fighting chance.
We connect with nature and sew under the trees.
We love to enjoy each others company and eat outside.
Together we take walks along the beach.
I love that I am part of tackling plastic pollution to better our environment for generations to come.
Boomerang Bags is proudly supported by the Queensland Government as a mental wellness partner. Boomerang Bags acknowledges the commitment of Queensland regional and rural communities spending time with us to share their stories and experiences.