On the 22nd of September, 1998, Bodhi entered the world in a super-fast 20-minute homebirth. She opened her eyes for the first time to see her new family and the cottage they had just built in the heart of Mapleton Forest. A day of much laughter inspired her middle name 'Kinta'- meaning laughter in an Aboriginal dialect.

She was a very much loved child by her parents, Tara and Kris, and her older sister, Amala, who narrowly saved her from drowning when she was four years old. The two sisters were destined to be lifelong best friends- always eager to share every part of their lives and consistently support one another through good times and bad.

Bodhi’s love of art and drawing surfaced young. She would often fill a whole scrapbook with drawings in a week before she resorted to drawing in her sisters’ books. Visual arts were always deeply healing and therapeutic for Bodhi, who would get happily lost in the process for hours on end. Her stepfather, Garry Lawler, recognised and encouraged her creative gifts and sensitive nature early on.

In her senior years of high school, she was most fond of her visual art, history and study of religion classes, where she found a true passion for the arts and humanities. During these times, her love of music strengthened as she drew inspiration from her good friend, Nicole, and began to sing. Bodhi had a soft and beautiful voice. Around this time, she also developed a keen interest in photography and videography. She and another close high school friend, Shelby, would often film and edit together mini-movies and comedy skits.

After graduating, she travelled to Bali with Kris, who quickly became a full-time photographer for the aspiring model. At the age of seventeen, she moved to Melbourne to study graphic design at RMIT. Halfway through her degree, she decided to follow her boyfriend to the Philippines to pursue music and modelling. She admits this period was one of her biggest struggles in life. Naturally, she encountered hardship in a developing country, yet gained the strength to create music, model professionally and even sing in Manila's biggest nightclub- but the real silver lining, for Bodhi, was a profound inner-growth that surfaced from such an uncertain period.

The on-and-off struggles with her boyfriend in Manila, among other adversities, brought her home to Melbourne where she began a year of therapy with a psychiatrist. This, on top of her life experiences, paved the way to a deep and wise understanding of herself and relationships well beyond her age of 21. Therapy had such a positive impact on her life that she began actively advocating for others to seek professional mental help, and even pass along what she learned about trauma, toxic relationships and healthy boundaries, to name a few. During this time she identified her relationship with her boyfriend as toxic without any hate or blame, just compassion.

In March, 2021 she wrote a very telling self-reflection. The last four paragraphs show how mature, optimistic and wise she was:

“I regret nothing. I’m grateful for it all, because without all of that pain, I would be the same shallow, naive person I was 4 years ago. It had to get bad enough that I could realise just how bad it was to begin with, and realise all the pain and dysfunction that was already there, just hiding below the surface. I’m so grateful that I met him, because he is the reason I met myself.

And now I know, I deserve to be loved. I deserve to be surrounded by energy that doesn’t drain me but sustains me. I am the only person capable of knowing what’s best for me. I trust my instincts, my gut feelings, and the wisdom of my body to let me know when my limits have been breached. I am not a victim of my circumstances, nothing happened to me, everything happened for me.

I am on this earth with a unique and divine purpose, which I am guided towards in my own perfect timing. I am the creator of my reality, and I’m so grateful to be alive, on this earth, on this timeline, I’m so grateful to be me.

I’m grateful for the past, I’m enjoying the present, and all the beautiful energy I’m blessed to have in my life, and I’m very much looking forward to whatever that is to come, and whatever it is with that, that I will create.”

After this brief empowered and wonderful stage of her short life, in April this year, she began to feel increasingly isolated, vulnerable and lacking a sense of direction. Seeking refuge in familiarity and companionship, she quietly began spending more and more time with her ex-boyfriend. One night her boyfriend gave her ketamine, which propelled her into a state of psychosis and she quickly fell back into the relationship previously identified as toxic. Exacerbated even further by continued drug use, she was almost completely unable to take care of herself. Unfortunately, the boyfriend did not alert family or health experts of Bodhi's psychosis- instead, he sent messages on her behalf, reassuring the family that she was happy and well. By the time her family became aware, she was in acute and prolonged psychosis- not eating, drinking or sleeping properly for 6 or 7 weeks. Kris flew down to see her in Melbourne immediately. It took multiple hospital visits and several weeks of anti-psychotic medications to finally stabilise her. Sadly, in her hospitalised and fragile state, family and friends were unable to see her for weeks due to COVID lockdowns. After her final discharge from hospital, she showed signs of hopefulness and recovery but tended towards deep depression, a sense of failure and loss of identity.

Even coming back to her mother's home on the Sunshine Coast away from the city and lockdowns, and with a myriad of natural therapies, she just sank deeper into depression and finally ended her life at 23 years old by jumping from Mapleton Falls on Tuesday 30th of November.

Bodhi was a truly gentle, kind and beautiful soul- full of compassion and wisdom. As someone with an empathic personality, she was highly sensitive to others’ emotional states. In her own words, this trait was both a superpower and a huge obstacle at times. She would easily absorb stress, fear and negativity from people around her and frequently struggled in social situations, which led to keeping her close circle very small. She cherished the people around her with good humour, creativity and positivity. When she was well enough to help others, she would wholeheartedly go above her call of duty to support and guide those close to her. She always had aspirations to do something greater- to leave a positive impact that could have a ripple effect across the world.

In her final two months, she became very close with her friend Jaya who, just like an angel in human form, found ways to bring laughter, smiles and happiness to her when no one else could. I would like to leave these last words of tribute from Jaya, also wise and compassionate beyond his years-

“I miss her so much, it breaks my heart to know she was suffering to the degree she was to take her own life and the sheer hopelessness she must have seen before her.

But this pain is mediated because I simply know I did my best, I couldn't ask for any greater reward than that small comfort, if I did my best, and others around me did their best, and we still couldn't pull Bodhi from where she was... perhaps she knew something we didn't, and decided to get out the only way she could.

I am spiritual, but I rarely have full faith in anything. For some reason I fully believe that our Bodhi is happy somewhere, I believe she is free and smiling her beautiful smile, finally free from the nightmare she was living every day.

I miss her Kris, I miss her so much and I can hardly believe she's gone. I've been feeling a lot, and I'm sure you have been too, but she'd want us to carry on, so we must.”