Australian Resources Minister Madeleine King is opening a new live interactive play next month that explores one of the most difficult safety and culture aspects in mining, energy and resources.
Miners’ Promise has partnered with Acting Consulting Training (ACT) Australia to launch ‘The Gift’ – a theatre experience exploring the complexities of grief for those impacted by a workplace fatality in the mining industry.
Through varied encounters with three characters, the audience will experience their journey from a tragic event onsite through response, recovery, and healing.
The event will be opened with an address by King, who is a Miners’ Promise co-patron, and conclude with insights from WorkSafe WA Commissioner Sally North.
Miners’ Promise is a charity providing care, guidance, trauma-informed grief counselling, practical assistance and financial support for bereaved mining and resources families.
This new production is designed to demonstrate the importance of Miners’ Promise in ensuring grieving individuals receive the support they require throughout their healing process and beyond.
Helen Fitzroy established the not-for-profit Miners’ Promise in 2010, with co-founder Ian Fletcher, following the death of her husband in an underground mining accident.
Faced with the reality of raising three children under the age of seven alone and a sudden loss of income, Fitzroy set out to reshape mine safety standards and change the way the resources industry responds to crises.
“I saw people crying out for basic information on process, legal advice, access to support services, and often just emotional support when they had no one to talk to,” she says. “I saw people crumbling under the weight of emotional, legal, financial and bureaucratic challenges that would plague them for months after the event.”
Support extends far beyond initial tragedy
Miners’ Promise executive director Debbie Morrow tells Mining.com.au that while trauma-informed grief counselling is part of the organisation’s critical services, its support goes beyond that.
“It’s also the full wrap-around in terms of the practical and financial support,” Morrow explains.
“When we first engage with families, be that for bereavement or crisis events, a key aspect of what we do is meet with the family and spend quite a lot of time really understanding what they need, and no two cases are the same.
“We also do a significant amount of advocacy and liaison, particularly in the case of bereavement. The chaos and confusion that comes with a workplace death, whatever cause that is, is quite bespoke.”
One key role Miners’ Promise plays is as a liaison between the family and the company and there are no limitations on how much a person or family can utilise the organisation’s services.
“I think one of the other unique things is we don’t end,” Morrow says.
“We don’t have a set number of sessions, we don’t have a set budget. You go to your GP and you get a mental health plan, you get 10 sessions, we’re not like that. We walk with families, sometimes for years afterwards.”
“We walk with families, sometimes for years afterwards”
Miners’ Promise offers a Standing Together Bereavement Support Group program, which provides regular opportunities for families impacted by a workplace fatality to connect with other families going through the same experience.
The organisation also helps families navigate the challenges of fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) life and suicide through its crisis care support.
“When things go wrong, as they always do in life for all of us, being FIFO or living remotely just adds that extra complexity,” Morrow says.
Resources-focused investment house Argonaut is a current principal partner of Miners’ Promise, while the WA Mining Club is one of the organisation’s strategic partners.
Other supporters include the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, Austmine, Minerals Council of Australia and the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia.
Mining companies are also now increasingly starting to refer their employees to Miners’ Promise. MMG (HKG:1208) and MACA, a subsidiary of major mining services contractor Thiess, are among the first to sign on to the Partnership of Care program, while Mount Gibson Iron (ASX:MGX) and Norton Gold Fields have joined the Family Care Program.
“What companies do and don’t do in the immediate aftermath makes a lasting impression and impact on families,” Morrow explains.
“The more immediate care and support we can provide to families, the better.”
The Gift is written by Andy Harmsen, directed by Emily Maclean and produced by ACT Australia Managing Director Susan Fleming, the same team that delivered ‘The Slip: What Good Looks Like’ – a production about the lessons learned from the single largest mine landslide in history, occurring at Rio Tinto’s (ASX:RIO) Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah in April 2013.
“The use of theatre allows us to create a catalyst for a conversation that challenges us deeply – in a safe place,” Fleming says.
ACT Australia delivers storytelling through theatre and film performances to inspire the creation of safer working environments. The company brings actual incidents and imagined scenarios to the stage, with actors portraying workers facing high-risk situations.
The Gift is being officially launched on 18 September 2025 from 10.30am to 12.30pm at RAC Arena, Reveley Room in Perth.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Miners' Promise, iStock
