Festival of Action
Climate justice, community care and everyday action at Western Sydney University
Festival of Action is a student-staff-community coalition that brings learning, research, engagement and everyday activism together. We create practical, creative and welcoming spaces for collective action through reuse, repair, resource sharing, making, food and conversation.
Clothes and Resources Swap
Our free, non-monetary campus swap brings students, staff and community members together in response to cost-of-living pressures, while grounding climate justice in reuse, repair, creative practice and mutual aid. Each campus swap attracts around 250 participants and rehomes approximately 300–400 kg of clothing, books, household items, plants and other useful resources. More than an exchange of goods, it is a joyful and welcoming space for belonging, collective care and practice-based learning on campus, with hands-on workshops, creative activities, shared food, conversations and participatory research. Key swap partners include City of Parramatta Council, Clothing Exchange, Parents for Climate, practitioners Wanyika Mshila, Dr Holly Kaye-Smith and Rachel Power, and Western Sydney University’s Environment Collective, Library, Inclusive Communities and Wellbeing teams.
Our story and impact
Festival of Action grew from Western Sydney University’s 21C Future Thinkers initiative, a university-wide transdisciplinary curriculum development project that brought students and staff together to design new approaches to learning for complex social, technological and environmental challenges. Since 2022, it has developed from an event-based learning initiative into an ongoing student–staff–community coalition connecting curriculum, research, public engagement and practical climate action.
Our work has contributed to the University’s sustainability reporting, including an SDG 13 Climate Action case study submitted as evidence for the 2022 THE Impact Rankings and an SDG 4 Quality Education case study featured in the 2023 sustainability report. We are now building on this foundation through recurring campus swaps, participatory research, community partnerships and longer-term reuse and repair infrastructure.
Explore
- Browse the WSU Climate Justice Collection co-curated by students, staff and partners
- Visit our external Festival of Action website for past events, publications and other updates
- Find upcoming Festival of Action events on Humanitix
- Visit our LinkedIn page
Join the team
Help shape the next Festival of Action. Join the organising team, volunteer at a swap, facilitate an activity or become a partner. We are creating a caring community that matters! Email festivalofaction@westernsydney.edu.au or follow @wsufestivalofaction on Instagram.
Acknowledgement of Country
Festival of Action acknowledges the Darug, Eora, Dharawal (also referred to as Tharawal) and Wiradjuri peoples, on whose lands Western Sydney University campuses stand. We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded. This always was and always will be Aboriginal Land.