Fun Run 4 Mutual Aid seeks artist donations for 1 February market supporting Sudan, Gaza and First Nations resistance in Footscray Park.
Fun Run 4 Mutual Aid hits Footscray Park on 1 February, aiming to raise $150,000 for communities in crisis.
Fun Run 4 Mutual Aid launches its inaugural event after organisers spent months looking for ways to support friends in precarious positions through mutual aid organising.
Organisation began in October 2025 and launched in November, the event targets three recipients: Bakri fundraising for communities in Sudan escaping UAE-backed RSF violence, Osama raising funds to evacuate his family from Gaza, and Senior Googatha Elder Aunty Sue Haseldine protecting Country from Southern Launch missile and rocket testing threatening ecosystems and sacred sites. Each initiative aims for $50,000.
Artists can donate work to sell at the mutual aid market, with all proceeds split between the three initiatives. Prints, handmade ceramics, jewellery, tattoo vouchers, artworks – anything sellable on the day or suitable for online auction works.
Contact Mutual Aid Market Naarm to organise drop-off or bring pieces along on 1 February. Mutual Aid Market handles the stall and will run an auction for higher-value items.
Fun Run 4 Mutual Aid – Footscray Park
- Where: Footscray Park
- When: Sunday 1 February, 9am
- Distance options: 2.5km, 5km, 10km walk, run, skate or ride
- Goal: $150,000 ($50,000 per recipient)
- Registration: here
- Artist donations: Contact @mutualaidmarketnaarm
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Not running? Come browse stalls and spend money supporting First Nations, Palestinian and Sudanese mutual aid initiatives. Food by We Eatin’ Good, the Mutual Aid Market Naarm stall, bake sale, massages and bodywork, The Coffee Corner and The Zine Squatte Shoppe all operate on the day. This transforms the event beyond athletic participation into a full community gathering where multiple entry points exist for support, so go check it out!
Just three main organisers run Fun Run 4 Mutual Aid, proving what small groups can achieve with community backing. Over 400 runners have already signed up, each pledging to fundraise between $500 and $1000 toward the collective goal. The cause has already raised just over $82,000.
This will be our first Fun Run 4 Mutual Aid – but we plan to make this an annual event!
Mutual aid operates as a practice of meeting survival needs within communities rather than waiting for political advocacy or non-profit sector support. This includes wealth redistribution, cooking meals, sharing skills and resources, supporting with admin or daily needs – practices as old as human societies themselves, particularly prominent in Indigenous, precolonial and disabled communities. Fun Run 4 Mutual Aid emerged from this framework, asking why charities should monopolise fundraising formats when communities can organise directly.
Maribyrnong Trail provides wheelchair accessible routes for the 2.5km, 5km and 10km options. You don’t need to run; walking, skating or riding all count. Check-in points host the range of market stalls alongside food vendors, coffee, raffle and speeches.
Can’t make the day? Sign up anyway and complete your distance at whatever time, location and pace suits while still raising funds.
Communities have been converting gigs, markets and parties into mutual aid opportunities for years, particularly among First Nations groups and intensifying over the last couple of years responding to the genocide in Gaza.
Support extends beyond running and donating art: contribute financially, ask friends and family to donate, share social media posts, download and distribute flyers, or offer skills toward the event. Every person with different abilities can contribute regardless of strengths.
Organisers plan to release all materials used after the event finishes so others can replicate the model. Mutual aid functions on the principle that everyone has capacity to create similar initiatives – you don’t need special credentials, just alignment between actions and values plus trust in your ability to make a difference.
For more information, head here.
