A national gathering for community-led change, truth-telling, and bold futures.
Whadjuk Country, Walyalup/Fremantle WA
Wednesday 19 – Friday 21 November 2025
Tickets are on sale now. Read more about planning your visit here.
Program Overview
Here’s what you can expect each day. Full program details are released in November.
Day 1: Grounding and Opening (9am – 5pm)
Begin with Welcome to Country, keynote address, and a shared grounding in the themes of justice, renewal, and collaboration.
Day 2: Deep Dive & Collaboration (9am – 5pm)
Engage in workshops, learning circles, and panel discussions. Share insights and shape action together.
Day 3: Action & Futures (9am – 1pm approx)
Step into collective visioning and planning for the road ahead. The gathering closes with commitments, calls to action, and ceremony.
View last year’s 2024 program overview.
Keynote Speaker: Narelda Jacobs OAM
We are honoured to welcome Narelda Jacobs OAM as the keynote speaker for ChangeFest25. A proud Whadjuk Noongar woman from Perth, Narelda is a trailblazer in Australian media and a passionate advocate for justice, truth-telling, and equity.
As a journalist, presenter, and advocate with over two decades of experience, she is known for her powerful storytelling, cultural leadership, and fearless commentary.
Narelda will open ChangeFest25 on her home Country, setting the tone for three days of connection, truth-telling, and collective action.
Other Program Announcements
Our breakout sessions form a key part of ChangeFest programming. Read about the sessions announced so far:
Grounded in Culture – Strengthening Connection, Identity and Belonging | How can culture lead the way to healing and belonging for young people? This session, presented by Imagined Futures, shares three local initiatives that place Aboriginal culture at the centre of community care. From reconnecting children in care with family and culture, to sport-based programs and transitions guided by Country, these stories show the strength that comes from being grounded in culture. Join us to explore how communities are reshaping systems of support, healing the legacy of disconnection, and creating new pathways for belonging.
Peace-Building in Australia: Myths, Practices and Structural Change | What does it look like to create peace in Australia grounded on country and through the principles of truth, belonging, and collective leadership? This session will explore examples of approaches and hands-on practices to peace-building that work across self, communities and wider systems. We will look at examples of where this is already happening, such as through the work of the Kimberley Aboriginal Womens Council (KAWC) and their partners. The session will include an introduction to a working framework for community-led peace-building, story-sharing and group dialogue.
Strengthening Place-Based Data as an Enabler for Impact | How can communities harness data to tell their own stories and drive systems change? Join PLACE Australia, SEER Data, and the Australian Child and Youth Wellbeing Atlas for an interactive session exploring how data can empower community-led action. Discover emerging opportunities to strengthen local data ecosystems, measure impact, and build the shared evidence base for place-based approaches across Australia. Come ready to exchange ideas, test tools, and explore how data, when held and led in community, becomes a powerful enabler for transformation.
Wisdom in Uncertainty: Reframing Disaster Resilience Through a Community-Led Lens | In an era of compounding crises, DisasterWISE offers a radical shift in how we approach disaster resilience – by centering community leadership, lived experience, and relational ways of knowing and doing. This session explores how the DisasterWISE is creating a new way forward: one grounded in self-determination, dynamic governance, and trauma-informed collaboration.
Australia’s community-centred systems change Funders Practice and Learning Framework | A small group from philanthropy have been undertaking reflection and action research to deepen and articulate their role in community-centred systems change. Hear key insights and engage with practice and learning elements of the framework in this roundtable and workshop session.
Local Wisdom, Lasting Change: The Early Years Partnership in Action | The Early Years Partnership (EYP) is ‘creating a new way’ to collaborate through a 10-year partnership between WA Government Departments, the Minderoo Foundation, and four diverse partner communities. Hear how EYP is improving the well-being and school readiness of children from conception to age four, while learning what it takes to create lasting change for children across WA. These stories highlight community-led solutions driving meaningful change.
Program Story: Creating a new way
Held during Kanbarang, the Noongar season of change and renewal, this year’s theme, Creating a New Way, invites us to explore community agency in addressing the injustices of the past and imagining new futures through the strength of collaboration in the present.
This year’s gathering is about community agency in addressing the injustices of the past and imagining new futures through the strength of collaboration in the present. The ChangeFest25 Program will centre stories from communities leading change, examples of collaborative action across diverse sectors and perspectives that is changing how systems work, and opportunities to develop networks for strengthening our collective influencing and learning.
The ChangeFest25 Program will explore the cycles of time, the seasons of change that occur as we explore the intersections of past, present and future together into a shared experience. Co-created with community, elements of the program include:
- Grounding in where we’ve come from: Understanding the history and context of our communities and institutions is an important first step in collaborating together in community led systems change. We will begin by grounding ourselves in the culture and stories of Walyalup Country. Together, we’ll explore how truth-telling, storytelling, deep listening, and systems mapping can connect diverse voices, heal communities, and reimagine.
- Collaborating in the present: Communities and collaborators across Australia are already demonstrating collective action to shift systems and address root causes. The program will highlight stories of community-led peacebuilding and healing and share practical examples of how community-centred systems change is happening across Australia — including measurement and learning, sharing power and decision making, building mutual accountability and community-owned resources and capital.
- Stepping bravely into new futures: From grounding and collaborating in place we will then reimagine what futures we are co-creating for the next generations and young people of today. Here we will explore what power-shifting work is needed next – locally to nationally – to create systems that work for all people and country. This may include practices such as First Nations leadership of futures thinking, intergenerational learning and accountability, and opportunities for influencing policies, resourcing and narratives around place-based change.
Thanks to our Partners and Sponsors 2025
