Diversity Fest 2020

A Cuppa with Aunty Olga & Somansh

Get yourself a cuppa and listen to a yarn that connects author and businesswoman Aunty Olga Collis-McAnespie with UNSW staff member Somansh Agrawal.

Olga Collis-McAnespie is a Muruwari Guwamu/Kooma author and businesswoman who has has shared her personal history in three books. 

Somansh Agrawal is a part of the award winning Digital team in the Education Portfolio at UNSW Business School, where he is championing the evolution of higher education in the digital domain. He has a Masters of Engineering degree from UNSW and has experience working in Educational Technology and IT. Born in London, UK, brought up Gurgaon, near New Delhi in India, and in 2017 he  moved to Australia after graduating in engineering  from VIT University in Vellore, a bustling town near Chennai in India. Somansh’s love for food and chai comes from his cultural background. He enjoys many different sorts of cuisines, which he believes is one of the easiest ways to bring people together.

Weaving Together

An online space to come together to weave with nature based materials, share stories and un-weave our cultural misconceptions.

Weaving Together is a shared workshop hosted by creative artist Dr Sarah Jane Moore and scientist Luke Steller. Sarah Jane will join us from her home studio in Tasmania and weave with nature based materials whilst Luke with join from UNSW and bring his own materials harvested from fieldwork and beyond. Moving away from the original mindset of weaving just to make a finished product, here in this workshop you can sit with Sarah Jane and Luke to learn how the process of weaving can un-weave capitalist / self-centered / goal oriented learnings that we have all picked up in our lives.

Bring foraged materials, wool, plastic, tape, string and your imaginations to join together and weave for well being, weave for inclusion and weave together in a friendly, safe and community minded digital space where sharing is key. 

Applying Equity and Diversity in your Career

In this Industry Connections session, meet employers to learn how you can apply equity, diversity and inclusion when choosing your career.

Henna Art Class

Learn the principles of the temporary body art used in and around the Arabian Peninsula, Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and areas in Africa.

Environmental Intersectionality

A history of the frontline environmental justice movements that have called for the fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens.

Black Lives Matter in Australia

Let's talk about racism and the Black Lives Matter movement in an Australian context. Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.

For Sama

A screening of the 2019 documentary film that focuses on Waad Al-Kateab's experience as a journalist and rebel during the Syrian uprising.

Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves

Meet Cheryl Penrith and Debra Beale, two Aboriginal business owners who are making waves in the worlds of art and fashion.

Fostering Connections: International Student Experience

Connecting with communities is hugely important for everyone, but it can be particularly significant and powerful for international students.

Connecting with communities is hugely important for everyone, but it can be particularly significant and powerful for the international students. At UNSW, we run strong initiatives that support community connections, many of which have been nominated for the Study NSW International Student Community Engagement awards in 2019 and 2020. In this event, you will hear from the program leads and the student participants themselves, who will share the highlights, lessons learnt and insights on how these initiatives have impacted their experience at UNSW and in Sydney.

Speakers will include program leads and student participants from Cultural Mentors & Live Chat Mentors Programs, PELE (Personalised English Language Enhancement), HEROES, Australian Business Essentials and the Professional Development Program.

Disability Confident Training

Providing you with the knowledge, skills and tools to be able to confidently welcome people with disability in the classroom setting or workplace.

Student Minds: You Can't Ask That!

Unlearn common misconceptions about how different cultural groups approach mental health, and expand your thinking around forms of mental health care.

Student Minds will be screening 'You Can't Ask That!,' a short film featuring UNSW students responding to anonymously submitted questions about cultural stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination, and the misconceptions around different cultural approaches and perceptions of mental health. Candid and heartfelt, the project will cut through the mystery and awkwardness to provide watchers the chance to expand their thinking of what mental health care can look like within different cultures.

A Deadly Evening with Mi-kaisha

A special performance and conversation with Sydney R&B Soul artist Mi-kaisha.

R&B Soul artist, Mi-kaisha, grew up on the streets of Sydney’s music scene. The soundtrack of her childhood included soulful tunes from the 90s and island tunes from her father’s Koori Radio Hip-Hop show ‘Island Hopping’.

She describes herself as a ‘city girl through and through’ and represents a beautifully melted dichotomy of sweet and deadly. Her voice is phenomenally soulful and sugary, and yet her lyrics represent hard-hitting often political messages about being a young blak woman in Australia.  She draws inspiration from the strong resilient women in her community.

Mi-kaisha was named National NAIDOC Week Youth of the Year in 2019.

Arc Diversity Week

We have partnered with the UNSW student union to produce their own Diversity Week program. Events by students, for students.

Arc - UNSW Student Life is run by students, for students. Throughout Diversity Fest, Arc is organising workshops, game nights, panel discussions, film screenings and social get togethers.

Keep an eye on their Facebook page in the coming weeks for more information and to register for these free events.

Be a Better Human

A joint initiative of Arc and UNSW to encourage everyone to do more when it comes to understanding, preventing and responding to disrespectful behaviours.

Indigenous Business Month @ UNSW

Courageous women doing business differently, a revolution in the making, sisters doing it for themselves, and a cuppa and a yarn.

Indigenous Business Month is an initiative that sees business as a way of providing positive role models for young Indigenous Australians. This year's theme is 'Invigorate, Build, Maintain to keep our sector strong'. It is a practical call to arms – acknowledging that businesses across all sectors are met by challenging times in 2020, and acknowledging we all have a role to play in keeping the Indigenous business sector strong. 

Mental Health Month

Talking about the tough stuff. Make mental health your priority this October. 21 events organised for students and staff throughout the month.

This October, UNSW is marking Mental Health Month with lots of online and on-campus events to help you with the tough stuff!

Mental Health Month is a co-created event brought to you by Health Promotions Unit, Arc, and Safety & Wellbeing.

Mr Emancipation

Mr Emancipation is the story of Walter L Perry’s determination to put on a celebration that would transcend divisions of race and class, in spite of racism. He staged an Emancipation Day festival that was where everyone wanted to be. Jesse Owens, Dr. William Borders, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and so many others all headed there because, as civil rights activist Dick Gregory said, "The largest Juneteenth celebration was not in America, it was in Windsor, Canada".

The award-winning documentary took five years to produce, but MR EMANCIPATION: The Walter Perry Story is the result of 20 years of research.

Director Preston Chase is a seventh generation African Canadian and a descendant of William Parker. Parker escaped slavery in Maryland, and went on to play a key role in the Christiana Riots in Pennsylvania. It was his friend, the great Fredrick Douglass who convinced Parker to take refuge in Canada. Born to a single mother in the Black community of downtown Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Preston Chase went on to become a high school teacher. He is also the family historian and a passionate advocate for greater awareness of a historic Black community, time has forgotten.

Wide Angle Film Festival

The 12th edition of the film festival, which reflects the lived experience of people with disability, is now an online experience! Open captioned and audio described versions are available.

The Wide Angle Film Festival brings together compelling films that reflect the lived experience of people with disability. For its 12th edition, it presents a curated selection of diverse, exceptional, international short films that reflect unique perspectives.

Picture a Scientist

This "quietly devastating" documentary chronicles the groundswell of researchers who are writing a new chapter for women scientists.

Biologist Nancy Hopkins, chemist Raychelle Burks, and geologist Jane Willenbring lead viewers on a journey deep into their own experiences in the sciences, ranging from brutal harassment to years of subtle slights. Along the way, from cramped laboratories to spectacular field stations, we encounter scientific luminaries - including social scientists, neuroscientists, and psychologists - who provide new perspectives on how to make science itself more diverse, equitable, and open to all.

The view from here: Women artists in the UNSW Art Collection

A celebration of the many extraordinary works by women artists in the University’s collection.

The view from here: Women artists in the UNSW Art Collection celebrates the many extraordinary works by women artists in the university’s collection. Featuring twenty works from the 1990s to the present day, it includes some of Australia’s best-known contemporary artists including Janet Laurence and Nonggirrnga Marawili, as well as those such as Hayley Millar-Baker and Louise Zhang who are just beginning to make their mark. Ranging from bark paintings to textiles, photography to sculpture, the selected works are diverse in expression, style and concerns and reflect the rich heritage and ongoing impact of women in the visual arts.

This online exhibition is a collaborative project between the UNSW Art Collection and UNSW Library.

Through My Eyes

A participant-led photographic project which reveals fresh perspectives on disability to challenge pervasive negative attitudes and limiting assumptions.

Women with disability face participation barriers based on long-held attitudes around their identity that adversely affect their health, income levels, and access to education and employment. It is through a reductive, narrow view of disability identity that disabling assumptions arise and discriminatory barriers are reinforced.

To challenge these assumptions, six female photographers with physical impairment shared their personal experiences and stories through the medium of photography. Over a period of three months, they conceived and constructed visual responses to four feminist topics: the politics of appearance, sexuality, exclusion/inclusion and power imbalances.

Worlding with Oysters

A dialogue between art and science that opens up a space to embrace Indigenous knowledges, understandings and wisdoms.

In this exhibition Dr Sarah Jane Moore asks us to listen to the Bandangi – the Sydney Rock Oyster. The poetics, songs and artworks presented are a result of Sarah Jane observing and interpreting the research of Dr Laura Parker, Indigenous Scientia Fellow in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, who aims to ‘future-proof’ natural oyster populations through building resilience to ocean warming and acidification. This dialogue between art and science opens up a space to embrace Indigenous knowledges, understandings and wisdoms, where the revitalisation of cultural practices is a call to arms to care for Sea Country.

This exhibition is presented as part of the UNSW Library Exhibitions Program.

Friendship as a Way of Life

An exploration of queer kinship that offers perspectives on LGBTQI+ partnerships, collaboration, visibility, sex, intimacy and knowledge.

‘Friendship as a Way of Life’ brings together more than 20 artists and collaborative groups to explore queer kinship and forms of being together. The exhibition centres around three ideas that offer perspectives on LGBTQI+ partnerships, collaboration, visibility, sex, intimacy and knowledge: ‘Public Relations’ (the public expression of private lives and forms of communicating identities); ‘Living Arrangements’ (spaces and approaches to living/being with ‘chosen families’); and ‘Intergenerational Kinship’ (learning, sharing and support across generations). Presented across the entire gallery and online, this major project seeks to foreground the way LGBTQI+ communities create alternative networks of support through various creative and resourceful means.

UNSW Staff Survey

UNSW staff (salaried or casual) are invited to participate in a survey about work quality and discrimination, satisfaction with life and psychological distress.