The Rainbow Group Continues Our 2025 Theme- Queer Joy 

Hello One and All And To All Who Are Their Most Natural Selves,

Welcome to our Spring/Summer update – please scroll down for all the news;

2025 Forum – The Rainbow Flag Flew Wild and Proud

The OHA Rainbow Group would like to highlight the labour involved in creating this representation. We meet monthly to discuss the cultural representation and forum related information (such as Rainbow flags and signs of ‘safety’ and also providing forum presenters information on how to demonstrate inclusive and non-heternormative language); educational workshops (to promote safer practice with the LGBTIQA+ community and especially with our young people); keynote representation through the compassionate and lived experience care and education shared by Emily Krystelle; promoting this forum as truly LGBTIQA+ informed;  providing rituals to mourn and celebrate within the forum program and much more.

From inception to the delivery of these representations within the forum there were emotional, intellectual, practical resources being exchanged within the OHA Rainbow Group. The Rainbow Community were also invited to have our own villa during the forum by the organisers which was important on many levels. As a result of this we were able to enjoy so much more of what these incredibly enriching forums have to offer for us and to all attendees.

‘We can’t be what you can’t see’.

The Rainbow Community were also invited to have our own villa during the forum by the organisers which was important on many levels. As a result of this we were able to enjoy so much more of what these incredibly enriching forums have to offer for us and to all attendees. ‘We can’t be what you can’t see’.

We would like to celebrate the below from the forum. 

Keynote – Emily Krystelle 

You can get in contact with Emily via the [email protected].   

Patrick Kay Educational Workshop – Exploring Trans and Gender Expansiove Experiences in Outdoor Health

Patrick (he/him), a foundational and core member of the OHA Rainbow Group deeply considered what process and content would be important in his workshop that would offer value and protection for trans and gender expansive folk who are in bush adventure therapy programs. This workshop was attended by many who are eager to learn and unlearn. We needed a lot more time to process! (https://www.outdoorhealthforum.com.au/team/patrick-kay) 

Allyship Appreciation Acknowledgement – Kate Gilson

The OHA Rainbow Group would not experience as much structural support nor emotional confidence in advocating and discussing these critical discussions on OHA and the field  if it was not for the endless careful attunement and checking in and ‘Bridge Work’ that Kate Gilson (she/her) has offered to our group.

Kate, please know how invaluable this has been to us all and we would recommend anyone who wants to reflect on allyship with the LGBTIQA+ community within the OHA field to be guided by Kate’s care and dedication to a social justice realignment. 

LGBTIQASB+ Remembrance Vigil 

For the second year we offered ritual and ceremony to remember those that were taken and harmed from within our community due to the impact of colonialist, heteropatriarchal and anti-nature abuse and we also created a place to emanate light and celebration. Thank you to all that gathered on a cold, dark and rainy morning in the forest, by the warmth of a fire to be held and guided in ceremony by Rainbow core member Rell (she/ her). We have decided to always start our vigil with the Pattie Gonia song ‘’We Made it Through the Night. (https://www.outdoorhealthforum.com.au/team/oha-rainbow-group) 

Pattie begins the music video for “Made it Through the Night” by saying, “Scientists agree that birds sing to each other in the morning to tell each other that they made it through the night. I think that queer people do the same. Pride is our birdsong, we are here, we made it through our night.” The music video furthers the inspirational meaning of the songs, as it features a montage of Pattie themselves, significant moments in queer history, and birds. They have worked very hard in environmental spaces, specifically to include queer people in these spaces. Pattie’s passion for these elements makes the song and video all the more moving and important for our OHA Rainbow community.

Image: OHA RAINBOW GROUP VIGIL 2025 Bundjalung Country. Rain and Fire. By Mellie.

True colours

‘Hi, I’m me — Mel — I was honoured, and truly lucky, to be the first recipient of the Rainbow

Welcome Scholarship.

That Friday morning, as I left my home in Meanjin, I carried no clear expectations — only a swirling constellation of emotions that rippled through me like tides. Each kilometre toward Bundjalung Country drew me closer to something unseen yet deeply familiar: my first OHA forum, a gathering that already hummed with unseen energy. 

My first greeting came not from people, but from Country itself — the beautiful, shimmering, potent Tea Tree Lake. I softly asked permission to walk on the land of the Bunjalung peoples.

The experiences I had during this forum feel almost beyond words — as if language can only reach the edges of what was felt. 

But what I can say is that I was moved by the inclusiveness, the openness, the way people’s hearts seemed to unfold toward one another.

At one moment, I found myself imagining — what if the whole world was like this? Guided by the Traditional Custodians of the land,

where country is recognised as ancestor, teacher, and healer. 

A world where deep listening is not an act, but a way of being —

where land, human, and more-than-human move in quiet, sacred conversation.

I felt it — that place I wanted to belong to,
not as an observer, but as part of its living weave.
There was so much wisdom shared, so many stories offered.
It was impossible not to feel held —
I could be fully myself —
wounds bared, queer, neurospicy —
each part of me welcomed by earth and sky.

At times I trembled;
old pain rose to meet the day,
turning its face toward the sun, the storm,
bathed in salt water’s gentle medicine.

In the circle, we stood —
a vigil of memory and love,
for those taken, those lost
to a world not yet soft enough.

Still, the elements gathered —
fire and rain,
transforming sorrow into song,
igniting heart and spirit,
as we held both the ghosts
and the living pulse of now.

So very grateful and touched for life by this experience. Thank-you for choosing me.’

Welcoming and Reflections From Erena on Their Forum Experience

‘Hello all, I am Erena (They/Them) Maori settler residing on Turrbal and Yagurra country in Magandjin/BNE. I was fortunate enough to participate in the OHA Forum because of the generosity of its members by receiving a general scholarship. It was beyond anything I could expect to be received so openly and graciously by everyone at the OHA forum particularly its Rainbow group members.

As someone who had arrived hoping to solidify the idea in my heart of becoming a practitioner, I was wonderfully shown the breadth and heights of the work that has been achieved, and the possibilities ever present in the fields of nature and nurturing. I could see the spaces and people flowing around each other and how many crackling conversations were sparked, enthusiastic planning spun together and joyous remarks over common ground found and shared. OHA showed me the dreams that I had thought were singular, were in fact long sown multitudes of thought and materialized work, felt by many for a significantly long time. Where I had thought of myself alone on the fringes, I was instead a drop in an ocean, spread out in neighbourhoods like moss, growing even in the harshest conditions and unforgiving environments. 

The phenomenal OHA team, its Rainbow Group, the workshop facilitators and the keynote programs, all spoke of work hard won and graciously shared, fueling the idea that here is a foundation to add to and structures to help build upon. Here is a community that honours Country as the source of balanced partnership with healing, nurturing and protection at its core. It was obvious how queer and trans this space is and can be and to help place another rung or strap in another support structure, count me in.’

Looking Towards 2026

Want to join the OHA Rainbow Group? (All allies are welcome)

We enter into the third year as the first OHA Rainbow Group. As a group we are passionate and believe in the practice and field of outdoor and nature based therapy and the critical role and care needed to include nature’s expressions of gender and sexuality within all areas of OHA reaching its mission and objectives. We welcome you to join and share ideas and hopes and also to meet the team as we collaboratively discuss hopes and goals and care for each other. We also acknowledge that many organisations and individuals are doing a lot at these points of intersections. If ever we can collaborate and hear stories we would love this. 

(Contact [email protected] to be added to our Whatsapp and email list to remain in the loop)

Grants and Funding 

We have a range of projects that we would like to resource. The group members are all voluntary (as is the entire OHA committee) and we have no shortage of ideas that we believe will have an impact on building upon safer practice approaches in the training, program and research space. Please get into contact with us regarding opportunities to fund projects.

OHA Website Rainbow Portal – Information to Share 

We are proud to launch the new OHA Rainbow Group logo. We are also going to be creating a RainbowGroup Portal on the OHA website that will highlight OHA Rainbow Group Approved recommendations around national and international programs  and organisations; research; events and links to training and consultants. We will also be hoping to develop online training that will be facilitated from the OHA Rainbow Group that will be tailored for practitioner and managers professional development. More details to come in 2026.

We will be creating both portal on the OHA website where we will provide OHA Rainbow Team reviewed resources to support participant, practitioner, organisational and field safety. 

Upcoming online meeting dates:

• December 8th – End of year reflection and queer joy celebration
• January – purposeful pause
• February 9th 2026

Contact [email protected] if you would like to receive the online meeting zoom link, be added to Whatsapp group or any additional information. 

In the spirit of Care,

OHA Rainbow Group