Misty Farquhar OAM is the CEO of Rainbow Futures WA and a lecturer at the award-winning Curtin Centre for Human Rights Education. They also provide consultancy on issues of diversity, sexuality, and gender through the Social Change Institute. They have authored articles in academic and mainstream publications and have presented as an invited speaker at events around Australia. Locally and nationally, Misty is active in community outreach, education, and LGBTIQA+ advocacy efforts, for which they received an Order of Australia Medal. Prior to this, they spent over ten years in community and organisational development leadership positions across sectors.
I have spent most of my life on Whadjuk Noongar boodja in the colonial state of “Western Australia” where I was born as a first-generation settler on unceded land. I acknowledge the traditional custodians and their continuing connection to land, water, and culture. I pay my deepest respects to their elders, past and present. I will be forever grateful that my immigrant parents were able to settle in this beautiful place and that I have had the opportunity to learn from the world’s oldest living culture. I will act in humble solidarity as my learning journey continues.
To me, “pride” is about being visible and encouraging others to safely do the same. Seeing ourselves represented helps to shape our identity and contributes to our sense of belonging. Once we have the language to articulate who we are, we can exert personal agency and strength, embodying our authentic selves to reduce systemic barriers that come from a lack of recognition.
As an Anglo-Indian, non-binary, bisexual person, I am caught between binary understandings of culture, gender, and sexuality. The lack of visibility of people like me has driven my activism, which focuses on human rights education and community building. My work aims to disrupt the systems of power that perpetuate oppression and is grounded in the values by which I endeavour to move through the world; kindness, respect, and relationality.
