Throughout 2025, Dusseldorp Forum partnered with the Centre for Public Impact to deliver the Stories and Systems Learning Circles, a four-part series exploring how storytelling helps us see, understand, and reshape the systems we live and work within.
This collaboration builds on many years of shared work between CPI and Dusseldorp Forum, including the reports Storytelling for Systems Change and Listening to Understand. Across that work, we heard again and again that people need spaces to learn together, navigate challenges, and deepen their storytelling and story-listening practice. The Learning Circles were created in response to that call.
Each session gathered people from community, government, philanthropy, and academia to reflect on how stories influence the ways we think, act, and organise for change. Together, participants explored how stories illuminate, connect, and reshape what is possible.
Session 1: How Stories Change Systems
Speakers: Gemma Pol (Common Ground), Sam Rye, Olivia Rosenman (UTS Impact Studios)
The series began with a question at the heart of this work: How do stories change systems?
Gemma shared Sacred Smoke, a short film about the role of smoke in First Nations cultures and the stories that link people, place, animals, and spirit. “Smoke itself is an example of systems thinking,” she said. “It shows how everything is in relationship.”
The discussion explored three themes: how stories shape the systems we live in, the danger of relying on a single story, and the importance of hearing stories from multiple perspectives. As Gemma reminded us, “stories can colonise and stories can heal.”
When stories are told and heard from many viewpoints, they reveal the complexity and nuance often hidden beneath dominant narratives.
Read: Centre for Public Impact Blog
Explore: Storytelling for Systems Change report
Session 2: Storytelling Traditions Can Seed Transformation
Speakers: Brent Ryan (Yoorrook Justice Commission), Michelle Bates, Ima Abdulrahim and Abdul-Rehman Malik (The Caravanserai Collective)
The second circle turned to the diverse forms and traditions of storytelling, including song, poetry, theatre, testimony, and photography. Abdul-Rehman reminded participants that “there is no story without the storyteller,” speaking to the need for agency and consent in how stories are told and used.
Brent shared the story of Mungo Man and Mungo Woman, and the power of truth-telling through ceremony and return. Michelle reflected on how storytelling can help people reclaim their narratives, breaking free from “problem stories” that define them by their deficits rather than their strengths.
The conversation highlighted how storytelling builds empathy and connection, creating conditions for healing and new possibilities. As Abdul-Rehman put it, “Stories are the vehicle through which we build deep empathy, care and concern for one another.”
Watch: Storytelling Traditions Can Seed Transformation
Read: Centre for Public Impact Blog
Explore: Listening to Understand report
Session 3: Why Data Needs a Good Story
Speakers: Skye Trudgett (Kowa), Kate McKegg (The Developmental Evaluation Institute), Gretel Evans (Fire to Flourish, Monash University), Eve Millar (PLACE Australia)
The third circle explored how storytelling can change the way we understand measurement and impact.
Kate described how linear “if–then” models of impact measurement can oversimplify the complex, relational nature of change. Skye offered a different perspective, explaining that storytelling, song, dance, and art are themselves forms of data. “It is all one and the same thing to me,” she said.
The conversation invited participants to imagine new ways of weaving stories and data together to better reflect lived experience. As Eve reflected, “It’s the combination that helps tell the full story.”
Watch: Why Data Needs a Good Story
Read: Centre for Public Impact Blog
Session 4: Brave Spaces for Storytelling and Storylistening
Speakers: Kristy Bloomfield (Oonchiumpa, Mparntwe), Benjamin Knight (The Empathy Ledger)
The final circle explored the practice of storylistening and how trust makes storytelling possible.
Kristy and Ben shared how they built a relationship of reciprocity through ongoing listening and transparency in their work together in Central Australia. Kristy spoke about the importance of consistency, explaining that reliability over time allows people to share stories safely.
Their reflections showed that listening is a practice of care. When stories are received with patience and humility, they can transform both relationships and systems.
The series concluded with a shared story circle where participants offered stories of courage, curiosity, and connection—each one adding light to a collective fire of understanding and hope.
Read: Centre for Public Impact Blog
Closing the Circle
Partnering in this series deepened our understanding of storytelling as a living practice of change. The Learning Circles created space for reflection, cross-sector connection, and collective learning.
We are grateful to the Centre for Public Impact, especially Anika Baset for holding the space, facilitating and capturing the essence of the circles in her blogs so beautifully. A heartfelt thank you to all the presenters and participants for their generosity in sharing their practice and insights. Our hope is that the lessons from these sessions continue to ripple through our work with communities across Australia.
To learn more about our storytelling for systems change work, you can explore the story-kit for changemakers here.
