This digital module will introduce you to stories from Australian history that centre women. The conversation is structured around discussion prompts that will encourage you to think about your perception of Australian history, how you can find your way into historical research, what the National Library’s collection holds, and what voices and stories may be missing from the collection. The resources we have provided will build on this discussion and help you to explore your National collection.

Questions to consider

1. When you were growing up, what did ‘Australian History’ look like in your head?
2. Whose story from your own life, family or community isn’t in any official record but you think should be?
3. What history do you want to go searching for now? How might you go about it?

About Sita Sargeant

Sita Sargeant is a social entrepreneur, author, and one of Australia's leading voices in women's history. In 2021, she founded She Shapes History, a company making women's history accessible and engaging through walking tours, digital content, and partnerships with historic sites and cultural institutions. She Shapes History currently operates in four cities: Canberra, Sydney, Wollongong and Melbourne with plans to be in eight by the end of 2027. She published a book by the same name in 2025 sharing the stories of over 250 women who helped shape 31 towns and cities across Australia. In 2026, she was named the ACT Young Australian of the Year.

About the speakers

Santilla Chingaipe is a Zambian-born filmmaker, historian and author whose work excavates the stories of Black and African-descended people in Australian history. Her book Black Convicts, which traces nearly 500 people of African descent transported to Australia as convicts, was shortlisted for the 2025 Stella Prize and the Queensland Literary Awards. Her SBS documentary Our African Roots was the first time an African-Australian journalist interrogated the nation's colonial history on Australian television.

Jacinta Mackay is a Wiradjuri woman, nurse, researcher and oral historian at the National Library of Australia, currently completing her PhD. As a 2024 National Library Scholar, she used the Library's Bringing Them Home oral history recordings to explore how understanding the history of the Stolen Generations can inform more culturally safe nursing care for Aboriginal communities. Her research centres the conviction that listening to Indigenous voices, in archives and on country, is essential to meaningful change.

Harini Rangarajan is a Chennai-born, Canberra-raised storyteller, archivist and musician whose work makes South Indian history, linguistics and culture accessible to contemporary audiences. Drawing on sociology, oral and folk tradition and archival research, she critically decolonises voyeuristic approaches to anthropology while spotlighting hyper-local Dravidian traditions overlooked by systemic injustice. In under a year, her Instagram Reels have regularly reached 200,000 views, drawing audiences to ancient languages, oral traditions and cultural history through accessible, research-backed storytelling.