Festival of Action
With respect for Aboriginal cultural protocol and out of recognition that its campuses occupy traditional lands, Western Sydney University acknowledges the Darug, Eora, Dharawal (also referred to as Tharawal) and Wiradjuri peoples and thanks them for their support of its work in their lands (Greater Western Sydney and beyond). We pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge all First Nations Peoples. We acknowledge that sovereignty of the Land was never ceded. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land. The consequences of colonial violence and ongoing settler colonialism are the foundation of inequity and injustice, and we support all those who resist.
Festival of Action
An action-based festival experience to support the realisation of Social Justice and Climate Justice at Western Sydney University and beyond.
Welcome to the
Festival of Action
The Festival of Action is a social justice and climate action initiative for Western Sydney University's students, staff and communities. It emerged from a student-staff coalition of Future Thinkers (21C Project) and a desire to extend partnership working with important organisations such as the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC). Each Festival of Action focuses on a different priority issue such as climate crisis and food justice for example. Bringing together diverse partners, our team designs events to create a sense of belonging and community in university spaces. The event is also an attempt to get ‘back to basics’ in pandemic conditions and organise face-to-face encounters to meet each other and new people on campus and beyond.
Updates
Call for workshops, events, experiences and interactions for FOA 2023
CLIMATE JUSTICE
NOW
Fri 22nd September 2023
@ Parramatta City Campus
We believe in the transformative of
doing things together.
Ready to take action? Write to us.
About FOA- Our Story
To make our transdisciplinary curriculum more visible and create opportunities for more students across the university to discover our Minors and the localised work and activism of their partners in the Western Sydney region, the Future Thinkers team of the 21C Transforming Curriculum Project co-founded the Festival of Action (FOA) in the second half of 2022.
The Festival of Action brings together a number of partners, teams and groups from within and outside the university, making ‘oddkin’ (Haraway, 2016) or less likely collaborations in the struggles for climate and social justice. The FOA keeps our community building ongoing and active, and enables us to maintain a strong focus on equity and justice within our curriculum and the commitments we have made with our partners and towards their social and climate justice work. The event demonstrates our position on transdisciplinary curriculum making as acts of ‘everyday activism’, where we use creative activism on campus to bridge curriculum with other scholarly processes of research and engagement.
Future Thinkers Challenge
Future Thinkers Challenge is one of five challenges from a university-wide transforming curriculum initiative called the 21C Transforming Curriculum Project at Western Sydney University. For over two years (2020-2022), we co-designed two new transdisciplinary minors, one in Equitable Technologies and one in Climate Justice in partnership with students, staff and external partners. We approached our curriculum making practices as everyday activism given the ‘intersecting crises’ (Ang, 2021) shaping contemporary students' lives (Swist, Mallawa Arachchi, Condie & Hanckel, 2023).
Future Thinkers Challenge Team (2021-2022) comprised of students and staff with diverse experiences.
Future Thinkers Curriculum
Our transdisciplinary minors were launched in Autumn 2022, after a rigorous process of consultation with colleagues across the institution as well as external partner inputs on how our minors should respond to two major issues of the moment: the expansion of unethical technologies in the modern world; technologies which are difficult to escape from, technologies that often designed and governed in the interests of powerful users and groups; and the multiplying and intersecting climate and extinction crises located in the human history of colonialism, capitalism, and extractivism. Embedded within our Minors, we have supported the co-creation of four curiosity pods in 1) Social Media for Social Action (formally known as Ctrl Alt Shift Identity in 2020), 2) Digital Responsibilities, 3) Catastrophe, and 4) Ethical Issues in Information Systems.
Future Thinkers Minors
Future Thinkers C-Pods
As our roles as 21C Future Thinkers ended, we continue our action-based event activism with more students and academics calling ourselves, the Festival of Action team.
Our Festival of Action Core Team
Senior Lecturer,
Humanities and Communication Arts
Western Sydney University
Dr Alison Xinyi Guo
Western Sydney University
Senior Lecturer in Digital Society | School of Social Sciences
Research Fellow
Young and Resilient Research Centre
Western Sydney University
Dr.Benjamin Hanckel
Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Culture & Society
Western Sydney University
PhD Candidate
School of Humanities & Comm Arts
Western Sydney University
Our Festival of Action Logo
Principles
People involved with Festival of Action, organising the event, generating knowledge about it, using it as a case study for social impact etc. should be committed to these principles and practices.
Signatories of these principles express collective and individual commitment to this agenda; a community-based approach to accountability and responsibility, practising an ‘ethics of care’ across scholarship (teaching + learning and research) and activism.
These principles have been co-created in November 2022 by a team of students and staff writing together in a student-staff coalition to realise equity and justice within curriculum, research and on campus.
We gratefully affirm and cite similar efforts we have consulted in the writing process:
- Design Justice Network (2016-). “Design Justice Network Principles.”
- Amani Bell et al (2021). “A Manifesto for Student-Staff Partnerships and Equity.”
Festival of Action Principles
We commence with solemn acknowledgement that the work we undertake is carried out on stolen Aboriginal Land. This fact underlies our equitable practices and socially just agendas.
We take seriously our responsibilities to acknowledge the role of the oppressive forces of colonialism, extractivism, patriarchy and racism in creating unjust societies. We position our work as resisting these forces and fostering anti-colonial, anti-extactivist, anti-patriarchal and anti-racist futures in the present.
Before seeking new actions, we look for what is already working at the community level. We honour and uplift Indigenous, and local knowledges and practices.
We critically examine our diverse identities, actively reflecting on our divergent privileges and access. In doing so we create an inclusive and safe space for everyone to share their voices. We recognise intersectional experiences and respect everyone's voice regardless of identity or background, in doing so creating spaces and opportunities for people to participate and see themselves represented within the Festival of Action.
Together we share power, heal and build communities we care about with accountability, respect and empathy.
We proactively commit to everyday activism and knowledge sharing, and avoid hierarchical and extractive practices.
While we are a diverse community, we acknowledge that we do not speak for all communities or all in a community. This means we ensure we have the consent of the communities we engage with and always foster community-led and -controlled actions and outcomes.
We prioritise hope and creativity in response to the intersecting crises of the present. Festival of Action prioritises this creation of just futures; this work is ongoing and starts now.
We make our knowledges, practices and actions publically available but request acknowledgement and consultation where Festival of Action is discussed or cited.
Principle 1
Principle 2
Principle 3
Principle 4
Principle 5
Principle 6
Principle 7
Principle 8
Principle 9
All Projects and Events
2022
In the second half of 2022, the Future Thinkers team (core members Jenna Condie, Thilakshi Mallawa Arachchi, James Gourley) alongside other students, external partners and academic colleagues, co-produced two instances of an action-based festival experience to support the realisation of Social Justice and Climate Justice at Western Sydney University and beyond.
Festival of Action, Western Sydney University Parramatta South Library forecourt,
27th of July 2022
The Future Thinkers team led the ideation, planning and running of this event, which drew together contributors across multiple disciplines and included diverse partners (WSU Library, Student Environment Collective, Painted River Project, One Million Turtles, Australian Youth Climate Coalition [AYCC]). On the day, participants encountered a bustling library forecourt, full of colour, life and exciting experiences. The Festival of Action prioritised active experiences for participants, allowing learning alongside others, in informal contexts, and with social and climate justice as priorities. The Festival of Action launched two 21C curiosity pods, and included sign up opportunities for ongoing learning. The Festival of Action was notable for its partner contributions, including the Interdependence Booth from the Environment Collective, AYCC letter writing to MPs, Cloth Bums Western Sydney advocacy for reusable nappies, and a petition from the Plant-Based Universities movement. A significant element of the experience was the embedding of games into the festival, with participants “spinning the wheel of social media action” to critically engage with social media identities, and experimenting with gamified imaginings of the path to net zero carbon emissions, allowing a critical engagement with current discourses of response to the climate crisis. An important part of the experience was centering creative experiences and knowledges; with participants “painting the future” alongside noted Western Sydney artist Leo Robba, and creative “citizen science ‘rock art’” with the One Million Turtles program. Participant feedback was particularly strong, with acknowledgment of the significant contribution to student and staff belonging on campus and the Festival of Action’s contribution to campus activation post-COVID.
Festival of Action 2022 Flyer
Festival of Action 2022 Partners
Student Feedback
“It’s so interesting how they [the organisers] are trying to include it [climate justice] into our curriculum, which is something that I don’t think we do often enough. As students and as the future, we should be aware of all this. Like the nappies…I mean I knew it was a problem but it never really you know, it doesn’t really hit until you see it like this. And even with the turtles, it’s so sad to see that the turtles could probably just not exist anymore and it’s like all our fault. But yeah, it's nice to see Western Sydney [University] doing something about it”
Rayaca Tayabally
Undergraduate Student Member - Board of Trustees
Festival of Action 2022 Activities
PAINT THE FUTURE
WITH DR LEO ROBBA
Painted River Project
Think Art, Think Planet, Think Future
Through creativity and art, our goal is to empower people – particularly young people – to become culture participants in a much larger community conversation by providing opportunities and support for collective action towards a healthier environment.
Please join us to paint your vision of a more sustainable world by helping us to reimagine the campus of the future.
*All art materials will be provided FREE
MICHAEL, WSU DESIGN STUDENT
(STUDENT FEEDBACK)
With Dr Jenna Condie and
Dr Ben Hanckel
An interactive activity to consider who you are in digital spaces through the causes and campaigns you can (or can not) share on the social media platforms you use in everyday life. Are you in?
This activity relates the 21C Curiosity Pod 'Social Media for Social Action'.
A research-based climate crisis game. The game offers the opportunity to plot the planet’s path to net zero CO2 by 2050. Navigating business, politics, entrepreneurship and activism, players will grapple with the severity of the current crisis and learn how varying paths to net zero will manifest in the world.
After the game players will reflect upon the experience, asking what issues the game overlooked or diminished, and what issues it emphasised. Is the ‘path to net zero’ the only journey human society needs to take in a response to the climate crisis? What of the historical legacies of uneven development? Who are the decision makers driving global responses, and do they represent all on planet Earth? How might acknowledging humanity’s interrelation with the non-human world change our response to the climate crisis?
WITH DR JAMES GOURLEY
MORE INFO HERE
NET ZERO 2050 GAME
Are your nappies still
in Landfill?
Listening Booth
Listen to Thilakshi and Gauri, two young people living in Western Sydney talking about the climate crisis and how they are getting involved in climate action with and beyond digital technologies.
MORE INFO HERE
Young People's experiences of living with Climate Crises in Western Sydney
INTERDEPENDENCE BOOTH
INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY AND
THE ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTIVE
Everything relies
on Everything
to be.
How can our career choices, practices and approaches can be exercised with climate impact in mind?
Writing Letters to MPs for Climate Justice
Festival of Action, AYCC Powershift Conference, Brisbane, 23-25 September 2022
In collaboration with the DVC-Academic and PVC-Engagement portfolios, the Future Thinkers team travelled to Brisbane to present a WSU Festival of Action experience as part of the AYCC’s PowerShift conference, an event catering to 300 in-person and 100 online participants running over three days. PowerShift supports the Climate and Social Justice agendas, providing skills training, knowledge development and creative opportunities for young people as they become social and political leaders in their communities.
We have established an ongoing and substantial partnership with AYCC (Australian Youth Climate Coalition), an important national organisation who are leading in “educative movement building to foster individual and collective identity” for climate justice (Hilder & Collin, 2022, p. 795). Their work aligns with university goals for student belonging and developing a strong sense of place and community for learning and positive student experiences at Western. AYCC and the University/21C project shared goals to support students to take action in western Sydney region.
Dr. Jenna Condie conducting the Social Media for Social Action workshop
Dr. Jenna Condie and Thilakshi Mallawa Arachchi
conducting the Social Media for Social Action online workshop
1. 21C Curiosity Pod 'Social Media for Social Action'
This curiosity pod (15 hour short course) interrogates what it means to live with digital technologies and social media platforms, and considers how we can harness them for social action and climate justice.
- Open to all Power Shift attendees till the 15th of November
- Upon completion, earn a Digital Badge.
2. 21C Social Media for Climate Justice Workshop
This workshop explores how you can use social media for climate justice. You will consider how your digital identities and practices can shift for greater influence and action in the climate movement.
- All Power Shift attendees welcome.
Upon completion, receive a Digital Badge.
- Facilitators: Jenna Condie and Thilakshi Mallawa Arachchi
3. Speakers at the Conference Panels and the mini Festival of Action stall
Jenna Condie
21C Future Thinkers
Curriculum Fellow (2020-2022)
Thilakshi Mallawa Arachchi
21C SCP, Future Thinkers
Panel - Intersectional
Climate Justice
23rd Sep, Friday 12.05 p.m.
Kobi Newell
21C SCP - Sustainability Advocate
Panel - Community Built Resilience and Resistance
24th Sep, Saturday 2.45 p.m.
James Gourley
21C Future Thinkers
Curriculum Fellow (2020-2022)
Co-created in partnership with:
21C Future Thinkers
Dr. James Gourley reflecting on his experiences at Powershift 2022
Mini Festival of Action at Powershift 2022 Flyer
21C Student Curriculum Partner Kobi Newell reflecting on his experiences at Powershift 2022
Our Research
Our research examines the role of action-based events in creating and sustaining university-wide curricula in social action and climate justice. It also considers how student-staff organising around collective social issues can support students in their transitions to university life and in their learning journeys through to graduation.
We are currently carrying out an action research project funded by Badugulang, Western Sydney University's Centre for Excellence in University Teaching and Learning. The Festival of Action acts as a case study to understand how taking action (or activism) situates students’ learning in both curriculum and university communities. The FOA is also an example of new and emerging forms of belonging to, and participation within university life in a (post) pandemic world of ‘intersecting crises’ (Ang, 2021).
Swist, T., Mallawa Arachchi, T., Condie, J., & Hanckel, B. (2023). Socio-technically just pedagogies: a framework for curriculum-making in higher education. Learning, Media and Technology, 1-14.
Our Presentations
Mallawa Arachchi, T., Condie, J., Swist, T. & Hanckel, B. (2021). Student-staff coalitions and power sharing: Pushing the boundaries of curriculum making within neoliberal higher education. National Students as Partners Roundtable, 23-25 November.
Donogue, A., Condie, J., Gourley, J., Mallawa Arachchi, T., & Drum, M. (2021). Can curriculum defy business as usual practices by centring equity and justice? National Students as Partners Roundtable, 23-25 November.
Mallawa Arachchi, T., Condie, J., Gourley, J. (2022). The University as an Activist Space? Co-creating a Festival of Action to facilitate student and staff participation in climate justice. Student Voice Australia, 28 September.
Mallawa Arachchi, T., Condie, J., Gourley, J. (2022). Student-staff partnerships for Climate Action: Reflecting on the Festival of Action, and the University as an Activist Space. National Students as Partners Roundtable | University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, 22 November.
Contact Us
Dr. Jenna Condie
j.condie@westernsydney.edu.au
Thilakshi Mallawa Arachchi
t.mallawaarachchi@westernsydney.edu.au
Join the Action!
wsufestivalofaction
@wsufestofaction
