On Friday 28th August, locals across the Greater Shepparton, Moira and Strathbogie Shire areas wore wore purple and showed their pride to celebrate Wear It Purple Day 2026 with the theme ‘Colours of Courage’. This year’s theme highlighted that, just as individual colours come together to form a rainbow, communities are strengthened when people work collectively to support, include and empower LGBTIQA+ young people.
We felt this on that Friday, did you feel it too?
Through shared learning, visible allyship and meaningful collaboration, the region helped strengthen communities as LGBTIQA+ young people were reminded that many spaces value them, want them to feel connected and be celebrated. Supported by the Diversity Project through our ‘Colours of Courage’ Initiative, local workplaces, community centres and libraries took pride to the people, with fifteen spaces across the region ‘leaning in’ to create a pride display, show up for rainbow youth, and remind them of that messaging.
Displays included art pieces from LGBTIQA+ young people in the Diversity Youth Group, pride flags, information, posters, pride books and more, with each site and space utilising their own resources and considering the best way to celebrate and participate in the day. For the week leading up to Wear It Purple, the displays encouraged conversations, created passive engagement, showed vital signs of hope and were present in locations including Euroa, Cobram, Nathalia and Shepparton and more. The spaces are where local community gather, and this initiative helped highlight that inclusion, especially in some more rural spaces near to Greater Shepparton is as important as the pride we might see in the city of Shepparton itself.
From year-to-year, community have seen the collective impact of what it means to wear purple and understand why. We know that connection and depth of days like this still matter, especially for queer young people. One stakeholder shared “Our experience of this collaboration was extremely positive … our organisation is happy to embrace this opportunity and to share the commitment to strengthening visibility, inclusion and support across Greater Shepparton and look forward to continuing this important work.”
As the Diversity Project continues to create safer, healthier and more equitable spaces for LGBTIQA+ young people through these types of initiatives, we know that it increases the reach and localised connection deepens across communities and regional space. We can’t wait to see what happens as we continue to support smaller regional spaces around us to ensure pride is where you are – our LGBTIQA+ young people and community.
Written by: The Diversity Project, Uniting Shepparton
