Sita Sargeant is making big waves in the Australian academia and literary worlds – and we’ve been following her work for quite a while (Read: HUGE FANS). We all have a core mission: to challenge the underrepresentation of women in public discourse – including history.
If she’s not on your radar already, Sita – a feminist, tour guide and self-professed ‘history nerd’ – is the founder of She Shapes History Walking Tours. The tours aim to go beyond the history books and onto the streets – uncovering inspiring and unexpected stories of trailblazing women who played key roles in Australian history – yet never received the recognition.
“It’s time to set the record straight,” their website reads. “Women haven’t contributed to history; they’ve shaped it. Uncover the stories that need to be heard – the ones left out of most history books, museums, and walking tours.” Impressive, right?
If that wasn’t enough, she’s adding another string to her bow – author – just casually. This year she has launched her debut book She Shapes History: Guided Walks and Stories About Great Australian Women. Missing Perspectives got the chance to catch up with Sita ahead of her appearance at the Melbourne Writer’s Festival. Here’s what she had to say.
Sita, thank you very much for speaking to Missing Perspectives. A huge congratulations on your new book, and before we delve into that – I’d love to go back to where it all started with She Shapes History a few years ago. What was it that inspired you to start the She Shapes History tours?
The pandemic saw me give up on my dream of moving overseas and return to Canberra, my hometown, to live at my parents’ place. Once I realised I wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while, I found a job in an Australian policy research space and, with a lot of spare time on my hands, began diving into Australian history for the first time in my life.
Very quickly, I found myself asking, “Where are the women in the story of Australia?” It didn’t take much digging to discover that women had played a huge role in shaping the country. Their stories just weren’t being told in a way that felt accessible or engaging to a general audience. After several months of complaining to my family, I decided to do something about it.
I initially considered starting a social media page, but after months of lockdown, what I really craved was human connection and real conversations. So, with absolutely no experience in tourism and very little in Australian history (my research background was in South Asian studies), I started running a weekly walking tour to help create more recognition and respect for women’s contributions.
It just grew from there. To be honest, I never thought I’d make any money from it. Four years on, running She Shapes History is my full-time job. I now have a team of 13 guides, and we’re about to launch tours in Sydney (late May) and Melbourne (late June), with plans to be running tours in every major Australian city by the end of 2026.
How did you decide where you wanted to go? Were there specific sites on your list that linked to women in history whose stories deserved to be told?
I didn’t set out with a list of must-see towns or cities. I wanted to visit as much of Australia as possible — the big cities, the tiny towns, the famous places, and the ones that rarely make it into travel guides — and just see what I could find. As a result, my route was messy and wildly inefficient.
I’m a little embarrassed to admit I didn’t know much about Australian history outside of Canberra and political history. But in a way, I think that actually helped. I had no expectations. I just showed up with an open mind and started looking — chatting to locals, digging through museums, libraries, and archives whenever I arrived somewhere new.
Because I was learning what Australian history even was as I travelled, I stayed open to all kinds of stories — and I think that openness really comes through in the book. There are so many stories that would never have made it into a traditional history book, but they made it into mine because I wanted to reframe what it means to shape history.
If you’re travelling and want to understand the stories that made this country, my best advice is to go in with an open mind. Australia’s history will genuinely surprise you if you do. Some of the most diverse and unexpected stories I found were in North Queensland and the Northern Territory.
As a queer woman of colour, how important has it been to you to use your platform to shine a spotlight specifically on the work of diverse women and queer people who’ve been overlooked in history?
I never considered doing it any other way. As a queer woman of colour (my mum is South Indian and my dad is Irish Australian), I didn’t grow up feeling particularly connected to Australian history or our national identity — and I don’t think that’s unusual. People like me are rarely positioned as central — or even side — characters in the story of Australia.
After years of running tours, I can confidently say that most people don’t know much about Australian history, and that disconnect has real consequences. It shapes who we view as belonging in positions of power — and also who feels like they belong, who feels proud and ready to contribute, and who feels confident speaking up and putting themselves forward.
Learning about the stories of diverse Australian women made me feel like I belonged here too — like I had a place in shaping this country’s future. It gave me a deeper understanding of Australia today and a clearer sense of how we can change it. And it made me believe I could shape history — because so many women like me already had. Women like me helped make this country what it is.
That’s what I wanted this book to offer: the chance for readers from all walks of life to find someone who resonates with them. Because if we want people to care — about history, about this country, about making it better — they need to feel connected to its story. And that means acknowledging that Australia has always been shaped by a wide range of people.
I made sure to include women of colour, queer women, and First Nations women — not to tick a box, but because they genuinely helped build this country. Their contributions have always been there. They just weren’t the ones telling the story — and the people who were telling it didn’t always think those contributions were worth elevating.
The stories we tell shape who we believe matters. They influence our perceptions of who deserves respect and visibility. By showing that women of colour and queer people have always been part of the story, we can start to shift our collective understanding of who shapes history — and who will shape what comes next.
What have been some of your personal highlights so far, in terms of where you’ve travelled and what discoveries you’ve made about women in history?
There are over 250 places and women in the book, and I write about 31 towns and cities across the country, so it’s hard to pick a highlight. But I have to give a special shoutout to Coober Pedy — that town in South Australia where everyone lives underground because of how hot it is.
It was the last place I expected to find a standout example of feminist historical storytelling. I wasn’t even planning to go there until a few people at campgrounds near Adelaide told me I would be surprised by how many women had shaped history there.
For the first time on my trip, I didn’t have to dig to find women’s stories. They were just there — clippings on mine walls, museum displays about the first women who moved to town, even a video imagining what it felt like for the wives and mothers left behind during the opal rush. One timeline casually mentioned that Coober Pedy only exists today because an Aboriginal woman, Tottie Bryant, found opal in the 1940s and kickstarted a whole new mining boom.
It’s still very much a mining town, and yes, men dominate the narrative in a lot of ways. But whenever there was an opportunity to highlight women’s contributions, the town took it. Most women moved there for love, not to mine — so they had to invent new roles. They built the town from the ground up: running the general store, the post office, the radio station, and later, the tourism industry. They were often the ones financially supporting the miners through tough times. And because they were also the ones running the tourism industry, they made sure the story being told about the town was a fuller one — one that acknowledged and recognised everyone’s contributions.
Were there any challenges you also faced while creating the women’s history travel guide, and how did you navigate those hurdles?
The biggest challenge was deciding who to include — and who to leave out. I submitted a manuscript with over 500 women, but about half were cut during the editorial process. I justified it to myself by remembering that the book was always meant to be a starting point — a gateway — and hopefully it will inspire people to keep digging and finding more stories themselves. I also left all the writing until after the trip, which was definitely a choice I came to regret. My publisher enforced the submission deadline, so I ended up writing the whole book in the space of a few months while also running a business. It was a lot.
I read that more than 8,000 people have attended the tours. What do you believe has driven the demand for this? What does this tell us about the appetite to learn more about and engage with women’s history?
I think people are craving stories that actually reflect the world they live in. For so long, the version of history we were taught left so many people out. We always say we’re not historians — we’re guides. Our job is to be the bridge between all the incredible research that’s been done and everyday life.
There’s no shortage of stories — they’ve always been there. They’re just rarely told in a way that feels accessible, engaging, and relevant. People want to hear about our country in ways that reflect their own experiences — and they want to rethink what history means.
We like to think of ourselves as a gateway. We’re showing that women have always shaped history — their stories just haven’t been centred. But once you start looking, you’ll find them everywhere.
With your commitment to helping make history relevant and accessible, what advice would you have for other young women and changemakers hoping to reframe history through a more inclusive lens?
You don’t need to write a book or run a business to make a difference. Just pick one woman from Australian history whose story resonates with you. Learn more about her — then tell people. Mention her at work, in your classroom, at the dinner table, or at the pub. I’ve shared women’s stories on first dates and in job interviews — and I promise, no one gets mad at you for telling a great story.
Women’s stories are everywhere. Once you start looking, you won’t be able to stop seeing them. I’ve seen firsthand how powerful a simple conversation can be in creating change.
This is how we shape history: one story, one voice, one bold beginning at a time.
So just start. Be audacious. Be a little bit delusional. See a problem — and solve it. That’s what women have always done. History has been shaped by women who refused to wait for permission. You don’t have to either.
You’re now releasing a book! How does it feel? Did you ever think a book would be on the horizon when you started She Shapes History?
Oh my gosh. Not at all! When I ran that first tour, I wasn’t even sure if anyone would grow up. I never imagined it would grow into a book.
When Megan, the publisher, first emailed our generic business inbox, I genuinely thought she was trying to scam me. It just sounded too good to be true.
I ignored the email for a few days, then curiosity got the better of me. I googled “Hardie Grant Explore” — and to my genuine surprise, it was a real publisher. I wrote back immediately and said I would love to meet. On Zoom, Megan pitched the idea: what if we took what I was doing in Canberra and turned it into a national book — a series of walking tours through towns and cities across Australia. Without really thinking twice about what that meant (or how much work it would be), I said yes.
By October 2023, I had quit my museum job, used the advance to buy a Subaru Forester and a rooftop tent, and hit the road. Those six months on the road changed my life — and completely changed how I see this country.
Now that the book is here, it feels like the most natural next step. The stories were always bigger than one city or one tour. The trip — and the book — have also made us think much bigger about how we scale and grow She Shapes History.
Could you describe the process of transferring your experiences to a written format for this book?
I wanted the book to feel like our tours: engaging, personal, and fun. Obviously, you can’t tailor a book to each reader, but I wrote it to feel like you’ve got a guide in your pocket — like you’re walking around with me.
This isn’t your standard travel guide. It’s part history book, part travel guide, part feminist scrapbook — the guide to Australian women’s history you didn’t know you were missing.
Inside, you’ll find stories from 31 towns and cities across the country, and over 250 places where women helped shape history. Some names might ring a bell, but most won’t — and that’s exactly the point.
And if you ever get the chance, I’d still recommend coming on a tour. There’s something really powerful about hearing these stories out loud, right where history happened.
What did you learn about yourself while writing this book?
That I really love this country — and for all its faults (and there are many), I want to help make it better. I want to help shape history here. Before the trip, I used to dream about living overseas. But travelling around Australia changed that. It gave me a sense of grounding and purpose. It made me realise this is the place I want to pour my energy into. Now, I see myself as part of a long line of women who’ve helped shape what Australia is today. And the thing about Australia is: it’s small enough that anyone can shape history here if they’re bold and audacious enough. You can’t say that about many places.
Finally, how do you hope that people’s perspectives about women’s history – and the world around us – shifts after reading this book?
I hope it makes people pause and look around. I hope they start asking, “Whose stories have I been missing?” and “Who do I want to celebrate?” I want it to shift what we notice, what we value, and who we talk about at the dinner table.
And I hope it sparks pride — not just in the women who came before us, but in ourselves.
When you include women’s stories, the history of this country becomes bigger, more connected, and so much more interesting. This isn’t just about filling in the gaps — it’s about seeing the whole picture. Because without a full understanding of the past, we can’t fully understand the present or shape a better future.
Women have always shaped history. Once we recognise that, we make more space — for all kinds of women — to keep shaping what comes next. History isn’t fixed. It’s something we’re all shaping, every day, through the stories we choose to tell.
Sita Sargeant will be appearing at two events during Melbourne Writers Festival – Badass Women of Melbourne Walking Tours on Saturday, May 10 and Sunday, May 11, as well as ‘The Past is a Foreign Country’ on Saturday, May 10. More details are available here.
Top photo source: Supplied
