Our Stories, Parramatta

Saturday 28 November 2026, 10am to 5pm. PHIVE, 5 Parramatta Square. Free. Lunch provided.

Everyone has a story about belonging. The street you grew up on, or the one you arrived on last year. The job that finally recognised what you could do, or still hasn’t. The moment a place started to feel like yours, or the reason it doesn’t yet. You don’t need to live here to belong here. If you work, study or spend time in Parramatta, or have visited or come to an event here, this day is for you too.

On Saturday 28 November, we open the doors with our event partners at PHIVE for a day of real stories, told by the people who live them. The experts on this city are the people who live and work in it, and for one day they have the floor.

The day runs as three sessions

Book one, two or the whole day.

Hear

10am to 12pm

Begin as an audience. The day opens with a Welcome to Country, a performance and locals in conversation about what it takes to belong here. Then it is your table’s turn to talk. No preparation needed, no pressure to speak.

Create

12.45pm to 2.45pm

A working session in two rooms. In one, a storytelling workshop for adults: how to take something that happened to you and tell it in three minutes so that someone who hasn’t lived it understands. In the other, young people aged 15 to 25 write and perform short pieces with an experienced facilitator.

You decide what you tell. Nobody is asked to share anything they don’t want to. The craft is yours to keep, for work, for advocacy, for the next time someone needs to understand.

Share

3pm to 5pm

The heart of the day. Small circles of six to eight people, a trained host at each table, and up to five minutes each to tell a story, or simply to listen. Each circle then agrees on one message: what should the people who run this city understand from what we heard today?

Leaders from SydWest and the City of Parramatta will be in the room to answer. Coming just to listen is taking part.

What happens to your story

Your story stays yours. Nothing in the circles is recorded or filmed.

What the day produces is a set of themes and messages, gathered without names, that will be shared with SydWest, the City of Parramatta and the NSW Government. Everyone who takes part will receive a short report on what was heard and the commitments made on the day, then an update in the new year on what has happened since.

Good to know

• Free entry.

• Lunch is served at 12pm and everyone attending any session is welcome at it.

• Doors open 30 minutes before each session, with a welcome desk running all day.

• Please let us know of any accessibility requirements when you register.

• A quiet room is open all day.

• PHIVE is wheelchair accessible and two minutes from Parramatta station.

• Under 18s are welcome in the youth session with guardian consent; the session is supervised and facilitators hold Working With Children Checks.

Our Stories, Parramatta is an initiative of SydWest Multicultural Services and the City of Parramatta, funded by the NSW Government through the NSW Social Cohesion Grants for Local Government program.