Earlier in 2025, a constellation of voices created a celebration of respectful relationships, displayed in a walkway at Western Sydney University’s Parramatta South campus.
The International Women’s Day Art Installation Project began with a conversation. Ideas rippled from one mind to another, slowly shaping not just an artwork, but a shared vision. Witnessing its evolution was seeing creativity in its purest form: collaborative, unrushed, and intentional. Themes of resilience, identity, and voice guided every brushstroke, texture and placement. Gradually, the abstract became tangible.
The final installation didn’t simply display art. It revealed the creative spirit of all those involved: from the curious student to the patient tutor, from the football-loving guy to the avid reader.
A Language Without Words
Respectful relationships may sound simple, but they are deeply layered. What does respect look like in a world negotiating identities, boundaries and histories? How do we honour each other’s presence, pain and personhood?
On display from 30th January to 27th March, the installation featured raw, vibrant, unfinished paintings that were testaments to lived experience. They didn’t preach or impose; they invited. Brushstrokes carried pain, peace, rage and resilience.
Murals that Reflected Us
The installation was interactive, almost alive, pulsing with the energy of students and staff alike. Poetry adorned one wall like whispers from the soul. Opposite it, photographs of multiple generations, including elders and students, stood side by side in silent solidarity. As I walked between those walls, conversations sparked organically. A student who was quiet all semester picked up a brush and added one word: “Enough.” That moment still echoes with me.
Art as Collective Therapy
Ultimately, this project offered more than awareness. It offered healing. Vulnerability was welcomed. Expression didn’t need explanation. Everyone was invited to leave a piece of themselves behind.
My biggest takeaway? Healing doesn’t always begin with answers. Sometimes it begins with a question painted on a wall, a shared glance, or a poem read aloud. Sometimes it begins with simply saying, “I see you. I hear you. You matter.”
This installation should be replicated across campuses. Not only as an art initiative, but as a movement. When art meets intention, and community meets compassion, something sacred is created. Every student should have the chance to witness and participate in it. It’s not just art. It’s experience, dialogue, and in many ways, a therapeutic intervention for campus culture.
As a Student Representative Council member invested in mental wellbeing, I believe we must continue creating spaces where emotions are valid, voices are welcomed, and stories are shared.
A Brushstroke to Begin the Conversation
Art is advocacy, and when made with intention, it heals. In a world that moves too fast and often forgets to feel, this mural asked us to pause. To look. To listen. To remember that respect begins not just in words, but in actions. Sometimes, all it takes is a brushstroke to start the conversation.
