Report | Psychosocial Safety & Wellbeing Symposium

This report summarises the symposium Psychosocial Safety and Wellbeing in the GLAM Sector.

The symposium brought together more than 100 attendees and 14 speakers from across Victoria's galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM) sector to examine what recent psychosocial safety legislation means in practice.

The day opened with a keynote from Becky Jefcoate of the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge, drawing on research from Europe, the United States, and Canada. A panel of practitioners from the Museum of Old and New Art, Yalukit Marnang, the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, as well as the National Film and Sound Archive / Australian Queer Archive then examined a tension central to much of the sector: that the deep passion driving our work can create conditions where psychosocial risks are normalised, minimised, or overlooked.

The data was clear. The vast majority of attendees had directly experienced or witnessed psychosocial hazards in their workplace, often without recognising them as such, or feeling safe enough to say so. Representatives from Creative Workplaces, Support Act, and Hey Mate clarified the new laws and pointed to practical resources available to the sector.

The day closed with a keynote from Veronica Pardo, exploring repair not as a soft concept but as a structured, skills-based practice, and how organisations can move from reactive responses toward genuine listening, accountability, and change.

This report draws together the key themes, findings, and recommendations that emerged from the day.