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Pete: Meet Pete — Pete’s Seven-Year Journey Through Homelessness, Work and Community in Hobart
For the past seven years, Pete has volunteered alongside me through countless small projects. Not famous projects.Not polished projects.Just real ones. The kind built around survival, friendship, loyalty, and the slow work of rebuilding a life. Pete first came into the world around Food Not Bombs Hobart during a difficult season of homelessness. Like many…
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Priscilla
One of the key volunteers. Not everyone dreams of “escaping” suburbia.Not everyone wants a big career, status, or attention. Priscilla wants something increasingly rare in modern Australia — a quiet life centred around home, family, faith, and raising her daughter well. She talks often about wanting stability. Safety. Routine. A peaceful house. A garden. Time…
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Notes From the Field: Newsletter No.13 – Week Ending Sunday 10th May 2026
This week felt like one of those weeks where many small projects quietly connected together. Across Hobart, online spaces, workshops, music, woodcraft, and community support — there were constant reminders that meaningful work is often built through relationships, repetition, and showing up again. Woodcraft Adventures This week we continued creating pieces that carry story and…
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Notes in the Field: Newsletter No.12 Week Ending 3rd May 2026
Small moments of momentum shaped this week across ChristiaanMcCann.com, Woodcraft Adventures, FNB Hobart, and Sing With Me. From growing community interest and collaboration opportunities, to wood dust floating through late-night carving videos, to shared tables feeding people across Hobart — the work continues to grow through relationship and participation. The week’s most powerful moment came…
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Sing With Me — where it’s at right now
I’ve been spending time in a choir space where disability is part of the environment—not something to work around, just something that’s there, like everything else.
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The Table That Keeps Extending
Start small with a table and watch it naturally grow, offering more than just a meal but a place to belong.
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Pete at the Night Shelter
Pete’s simple act of offering food to those waiting outside the shelter created a moment of connection and shared humanity. His presence and kindness shifted the atmosphere from waiting to togetherness.
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Community Housing Block
Real-world snapshots of life in community housing—what works, what doesn’t, and the small, practical projects that help bridge the gap between being housed and actually living well.
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A Doctor’s Idea for Giving
This week, a local doctor approached us with his own idea for contributing—and backed it up in a big way. He supplied the full set of ingredients for a shared meal at our co-hosted event with Pets in the Park. Thoughtfully, the menu didn’t just cater for people—it included something for their dogs too. That…
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Notes From The Field: Newsletters No.11 Week Ending Sunday, 26th April 2026
A week that tested the edges—and clarified them. At FNB Hobart, we faced a direct challenge over control of the Shared Table. It didn’t stick. The work isn’t owned, and it won’t be taken. We held the line, and the space remains what it was built to be: open, consistent, and for the people who…
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Notes from the Field: No.11 – Week ending Sunday 19th April 2026
This week carried both momentum and weight — the kind of stretch where meaningful work keeps unfolding, but the pace demands careful attention to energy and rest.
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Weekly Newsletter No.10— Week Ending Sunday 12th April 2026
This week we launched a new small project — Broke-Ass Brunch — and it came together with surprising momentum. Eamonn took the lead, engaging three media outlets, lining up musicians, sourcing an artist workshop, recruiting cooks, and working with a group leader to coordinate the event. Plans shifted, some helpers pulled out, but the project…
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Pete’s First Weekend in the Night Shelter — A Reality Check
Pete’s first night in the shelter didn’t go as expected. He called me in an emergency, needing food for “two or three days” — but mostly he needed support. On his second night, while sleeping on the couches, another resident approached and seduced him. The next morning she locked herself in her room and held…
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The Mad Scientist & The Hurricane: The Story of Eamonn and the Broke-Ass Brunch
If you didn’t know him, you might think: eccentric. If you knew him longer, you’d say: brilliant. If you’ve worked with him — you’d probably say: hurricane.
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Broke-Ass Brunch: When Talent Meets Purpose
Eamonn has known confusion, setbacks, and being down and out — but when his extraordinary abilities align with this funny world, he brings people together in powerful ways. In just days, he’s helped organise Broke-Ass Brunch (April 18, 10am–2pm), a free meal for the poor by the poor, uniting chefs, community kitchens, and supporters around…
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Sing With Me – Start Here
Sing With Me is one of the three main ways you can step into what I do. This is where connection happens through singing—simple, human, and shared. Here we share posts to get you warmed up.
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Woodcraft Adventures — Where Story, Timber, and Handcraft Meet
Woodcraft Adventures is where story, timber, and handcraft meet. Each piece begins with salvaged or rare Tasmanian timber and is shaped by hand into something both simple and meaningful. The grain, imperfections, and natural character are not hidden — they’re part of the story. This isn’t mass production. It’s slow craft. Each carving, sign, or…
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Tonight’s Conversation with Pete — A Door Approached, But Not Entered
Tonight Pete came close to stepping inside. After years of homelessness, he sat at the entry point of a night shelter for the first time, watching, listening, and talking with those already inside the system. It was an eye-opener. “Everyone stays there,” he told me quietly, describing a place filled with people carrying heavy stories…
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Newsletter No.9 5th April 2026: Notes from the field – Small Breakthroughs, Growing Momentum
Small breakthroughs. Growing momentum. This week felt less like a single big moment, and more like a series of small steps beginning to connect. Conversations turned into plans, ideas turned into action, and relationships deepened through simple, practical collaboration. What once felt scattered is starting to form a pattern. There’s still uncertainty, but movement is…
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Woodcraft Adventures
Handcrafted in Tasmania, each Woodcraft Adventures piece is shaped by hand, guided by the natural beauty of timber, and created through the shared rhythm of Priscilla and Christiaan’s work.
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Coping in the In-Between: A Day with Eamonn
Eamonn lives in short-term accommodation, where life narrows to survival, resourcefulness, and fleeting connection. In a world split between “inside” and “outside,” intimacy becomes temporary, support feels distant, and coping becomes a way of life.
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Newsletter No.8 Sunday, 29th March 2026: Notes From The Field – The newsletter where intentions meets reality.
Notes from the field this week: We often think we know what people need. This week proved otherwise—through a pair of boots, a small room, and stories that don’t fit neatly on the surface.
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Chapter XX – The Big 6
6 KEYSTONE INITIATIVES My six charitable initiatives demonstrate a commitment to social impact, community building, and individual empowerment. FOOD NOT BOMBS HOBART Nourishing Community, One Meal at a Time Join us at Food Not Bombs, a volunteer-powered soup kitchen dedicated to serving up delicious, nutritious meals to those in need. Our mission is simple: to…
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Chapter 50: Woodcraft Adventures. A business start-up for people with a disability.
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Chapter 30: Building a social enterprise.
“Business is the salt of life” Voltaire, French Writer, Historian and Philosopher “Salt heals” Christiaan McCann, Microenterprise Builder What I Do Welcome to Microenterprise Builder. This is about my project building microenterprises for people locked out of the system. I’m excited to introduce a new initiative that combines my passion for arts and crafts, business…