Sydney School of Education and Social Work – while still a faculty in 2012 – initiated a three-year collaboration with Sydney Writers' Festival (SWF) to celebrate the works of Indigenous Australian writers and explore the role of culturally authentic literature in inspiring literacy in contemporary Aboriginal communities.

Called "Turning the Tide", the inaugural panel discussion was held in the University's Great Hall, was chaired by Peter Minter and featured Lionel Fogarty, Ali Cobby Eckermann and Larissa Behrendt.

The 2013 event was held in the SWF precinct at Walsh Bay and again featured Lionel Fogarty, this time alongside Jeanine Leane and Melissa Lucashenko. Ali Cobby Eckermann, who was Artist in Residence at the faculty at the time, returned to the "Turning the Tide" panel in 2014.