Systems Change Collective: Toolkit For Centering First Nations Storytelling

The Systems Change Collective: Toolkit for Centering First Nations Storytelling is a resource from Common Ground, created for the broader social enterprise sector. It was developed by the Systems Change Collective, a national group of First Nations practitioners working across media, education, language revitalisation, healthcare, law, arts and climate justice, brought together in early 2026 to explore how storytelling shifts structures, narratives and power.

The toolkit explains that First Nations storytelling is broader than books and film. It includes perspectives, voices and knowledge systems often shared through art, yarning and everyday relationships. It argues that every system begins with a story, and that dominant colonial narratives have shaped how Australian systems operate for over two centuries. Centring First Nations storytelling is framed not as an optional or symbolic gesture, but as a responsibility for organisations operating on Indigenous land.

Through cross-sector yarning, the collective mapped patterns of exclusion and points of leverage across systems that are usually kept separate from one another. From this work, they developed three pillars to guide the social enterprise sector: nothing about us, without us; shifting power and resources; and ways of knowing, being and doing. Each pillar sets out key themes, action areas and recommended actions.

Readers will gain a practical framework for embedding First Nations storytelling and leadership within their own organisation, along with a clearer understanding of how storytelling connects to systemic change.