She Shapes History

01/08/2024

It was an absolute privilege to MC the launch and unveiling of Lis Johnson’s fabulous sculpture of Senator Susan Ryan.

It was such a special event to be part of and I am so grateful to the wonderful team at ArtsACT for asking me to MC it (even though making eye regular eye contact with Dame Quentin Bryce and Anne Summers who were both sitting in the front row was DEEPLY intimidating 😅).

On this day, forty years ago, the 1984 S*x Discrimination Act was passed. Susan Ryan was the driving force behind the Act.

I’m a big believer that Australian history has been shaped by lots of small moments that have added up. But then occasionally, you get a big moment, like the S*x Discrimination Act, that completely changes the course of Australian history.

I don’t think enough people realise just how much the Act and the work of Susan Ryan have shaped their experience in the workplace.

I genuinely could not think of a more deserving person to be immortalised in bronze, and our whole team looks forward to sharing inspiring Susan’s story on many future tours to come ❤️

P.s. For those of you who don’t know much about Susan Ryan, don’t stress, as I’m going to make a reel (soonish) sharing why she’s such a badass.

26/07/2024

Eleri’s badass tour from this morning 💕✨

There’s still time to book if you want to join us on a tour this weekend 🫶🏽

While there are no spots left for Saturday 🥲, there are a few left for both tours running on Sunday🕵🏽‍♀️

18/07/2024

Zev spent most today recording the first of ‘Queers Past’, our soon to be released q***r history of Canberra podcast! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

To be honest, it has been a JOURNEY to get here and at one point we thought the entire podcast was cursed.

So we are feeling extremely grateful to have finally begun the process of recording 🙏🏽😅😂

P.s. We’re running our Pride in the Capital: Canberra’s LGBTQIA+ History tour this weekend if you’re keen to get a sneak peak of some of the stories we’re going to share (+ quite a few we won’t share!) 😉

17/07/2024

Technically it is true that she did not shape history on a random light pole in Canberra’s inner north 😂😅

For some context, our team + tour guests have placed these stickers all around Canberra 🕵🏽‍♀️🕺🏻

If you ever spot one around, please please please let us know! 💖

Huge shout-out to Tash for spotting this one 👀🫡

P.S. Can we have more unintentionally funny counter messages written in sharpie on poles and fewer misogynistic emails, please? 🙏🏽

15/07/2024

Super excited to announce that I've been selected as a 2024 Tomorrow Maker!

I almost didn't put in an application because I was in the middle of my research trip around Australia and had extremely limited access to service (I ended up quite manically writing and submitting it from a roadhouse on the Nullarbor).

I am currently feeling very grateful I took the time out of my trip to do so because, oh my goodness, I feel so incredibly privileged to have the opportunity to learn with and from such an amazing group of people.

I am genuinely so excited to be part of the program and to use it to scale She Shapes History 💗✨

xx
Sita

What better way to start your week than with the story of Sita Sargeant, our 2024 Tomorrow Maker!

Sita's social enterprise offers engaging walking tours in Canberra that share the stories of women and q***r people who have shaped history. Her aim is for guests to leave with a better understanding of the past, thereby engaging more thoughtfully with the present.

After spending seven months traveling around Australia writing a women's history travel guide, Sita now aims to expand her tours to every Australian capital city and run educational programs, making history relevant, accessible, and unforgettable for all Australians.

Learn more about She Shapes History 👉 https://www.sheshapeshistory.com.au/

👉 Keep an eye out for another inspiring 2024 Tomorrow Maker story tomorrow!

13/07/2024

If you’ve been wondering why we’ve been a bit quieter on social media this is why! 💗

A 26-year-old Canberra woman has just returned from an epic, solo driving trip (with her dog) around Australia, collecting stories about forgotten women

12/07/2024

Eleri took the absolutely wonderful learning team at Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House on a private Badass Women of Canberra tour this afternoon!

If this is something you'd like to organise for your team or friends, please do send us a message! It's genuinely SO EASY to arrange a private tour (and we absolutely love running them).

All you need to do is pick a time/date (we can usually make whatever date/time you pick as long as you give us at least two weeks' notice work), and then we'll either send you an invoice for the whole group or provide a link for people to book individually.

Shoot us a DM or email if this is something you're interested in ❤️

04/07/2024

Last week, I made a video about Captain Charles Fremantle, and within 48 hours, the mayor of Fremantle slid into my DMs.

Today, I had the absolute pleasure of spending two and a half hours with Hannah and her hilarious and incredibly smart 13-year-old daughter. We grabbed a coffee and then wandered around Old Parliament House, where I shared some of my favourite stories about the women who had shaped history in that building.

I was really impressed & flattered that Hannah took time out of her absolutely packed trip to Canberra to meet with me.

Hannah wanted to learn more about why I started She Shapes History, why I was looking into Fremantle’s history [I’m writing a women’s history travel guide to Australia], and how Fremantle could better highlight its incredible women’s history [watch this space!].

We spoke about why we should be having a national conversation about the names of places across the country and the message it sends when men like Charles Fremantle get cities named after them, especially when violence against women is only getting worse.

We also discussed why this process of renaming is harder and longer than we’d sometimes like.

When I posted that video, I never expected it would lead to spending two and a half hours hanging out with the extremely lovely and down-to-earth mayor of Fremantle.

I never expected to hear that Hannah was showing my video to others in the council to see if they knew about who their city was named after.

It’s a great reminder that sometimes it just takes one person to articulate the problem and raise their voice to inspire others to do the same.

I really hope the conversation Fremantle is having about its name will inspire other towns and cities in Australia, many of which are also named after some pretty questionable men, to do the same.

And to help get the conversation going, I’m happy to keep making reels sharing the stories of the questionable people these towns are named after!

23/06/2024

For everyone who’s recently discovered us through one of our reels, this is a quick post to say that we do more than just create content 🤯.

We run walking tours in Canberra, sharing how women and q***r people have shaped history 😎.

We run public tours on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and private tours whenever works for you ✌🏽

Hopefully, we’ll catch you IRL on one soon (we save all our best stories for the tour 😇). And until then, please enjoy our semi-regular, lightly unhinged historical content 🫡.

P.S. If you let us know where you’re from, we’ll drop a reel sharing some hidden women’s history from there sometime in the nearish future 🌚

20/05/2024

Found this while doing some research for our Spies in the Capital: Women in Espionage tour and thought it was too good not to share.

This is a Canberra Times article from Saturday, July 7, 1984, reporting on ASIO's extensive surveillance during the Cold War, detailing how they kept files on over 200,000 Australians, including prominent figures, and how many of these records are now available. It's estimated that today around 500,000 Australians have an ASIO file so the fact that so many are from ASIO's first four years of operation is honestly a bit insane.

Some parts that jumped out to me:

“The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) had files on more than 200,000 Australians by 1953, only four years after it was established. The card index containing these names, though not necessarily the accompanying material amplifying cryptic but often adverse comments on the cards, has now been lodged at the Australian Archives and is available for public inspection.”

“A number of journalists of the time are on record, chiefly because of their publication of leaked sensitive material, although one now-retired Canberra journalist is recorded simply because he subscribed to the Communist newspaper Tribune while in Darwin during the war.” [!!!!]

“Among other organizations on whom the security services had some record were the Australian American Association, the Australia New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science, the Australian Aborigines League, and the Aborigines Progressive Association, as well as most trade unions and student organizations.”

“The 200,000 individual files are based on system cards, about 1,200 to a box, alphabetically sorted. Each card records a name and lists documents held by the organization on them, without necessarily making clear the nature or content of ASIO information or assessments.”

17/05/2024

So, you might have noticed that we’ve been a lot less active on social media lately. That’s mostly because the sheer amount of really hateful comments, DMs, and emails was starting to get to me. 😮‍💨

To be super frank, not being on social media has been pretty terrible for our booking numbers. Despite knowing this, it’s taken me a few weeks to build back up my will to post again (and this is something I used to love doing).

I’m going to try to be more regular with posting, but if I vanish again, it’s not because we aren’t running tours; it’s because I’ve hit my (very high) limit, completely cracked it, and deleted the app. So please keep coming on tours even if I’m not posting regularly! 😅

And I guess the silver lining to getting these kinds of messages DAILY is that I am reminded every single day why what we do matters, and it makes me feel driven to scale what we’re doing and to do more of it.

Also, I don’t usually respond to these kinds of DMs and comments, but this person took the time to go to our website and submit an inquiry, so I thought I’d take the time to respond. I also wanted to give a little insight into the kinds of comments, DMs, and emails we get and how I would ideally like to respond to all of them (if I wasn’t getting so many).

xx
Sita

P.S. Our bookings (unsurprisingly) have taken a hit because I spent a month not posting anything—so if you’ve been meaning to book but haven’t, now is a great time to book or purchase a gift card! 🫶🏽💗

23/04/2024

This Saturday is the last time we'll be running our Love in the Capital: The Love Stories that Shaped the Nation tour, and there are only 6 spots left!

We've had an absolute blast running this tour as part of the ACT Heritage Festival and have received some pretty amazing feedback from those who've joined us.

But alas, like many of Canberra’s iconic political partnerships, this too must come to an end. Hopefully, we'll catch you on it before it does! You can book in to do the tour via our website.

17/04/2024

Can you share this incredible free event with a young person who might be considering a career in history?

Tash, one of our fabulous guides (and the person pictured!), works with Libraries ACT in her day job. As part of the ACT Heritage Festival, Tash has organised a panel discussion with young leaders in the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) sector. The panel aims to show young people that there are viable careers in history! It will be held on April 23rd from 4-6pm.

Tash is struggling a bit with spreading the word, so if you know any young people who might benefit from this engaging panel, please encourage them to register.

I personally believe that historical tourism is the greatest field one could enter—how many jobs let you say that you see people on the best day of their week? And I honestly would be there in a heartbeat if I wasn't traveling.

I'm really hoping that with your help, we'll be able to fill every seat at the event. You can register for free and find out more here:

13/04/2024

Applications for 2024-25 ACT Heritage Grants close on Sunday the 21st of April (so next week!). We were lucky enough to receive funding in the 2022-23 round to develop our Spies in the Capital: Women in Espionage tour. Today it's our most popular tour and we have well over 100 guests on it each month. We would not have been able to develop the tour without the grant – so are eternally grateful for ACT Heritage!

If you have any questions re: our experience with the grant, feel free to leave a comment and we'll do our best to answer it!

🚨 Applications for 2024-25 Heritage Grants are closing soon!

If you're working on a project that celebrates or conserves the ACT’s vibrant history, you could be eligible for ACT Government funding. 💵

She Shapes History used their 2022-23 Heritage Grant to produce the ‘Spies in the Capital: Women in Espionage’ walking tour. 🕵️ Don't miss this opportunity to bring your own project to life! 🙌

➡️ Submit your application before 21 April at www.environment.act.gov.au/heritage/heritage-and-the-community/heritage_grants_program

03/04/2024

Thank you The Riotact for such a fantastic write up of our brand new tour!

Sita Sargeant has gathered a lot of gossip over the years. Juicy, political stories that she's heard from people on…

03/04/2024

To be completely honest, I always get so nervous whenever someone submits private feedback after a tour—I'm always bracing myself for the worst 😅. But more often than not, it turns out to be like this one (swipe to read).

Thank you, Millie, for being such an incredible part of our team and consistently going above and beyond (just like everyone else on our team tbh) ❤️

And regarding their point about the one thing they would change about the experience—we're working on it! 💪🏽😉

02/04/2024

This evening, Eleri took Tash & Eliza on a practice run of our brand new Love in the Capital tour!

Eleri has been the driving force behind bringing this tour to life. She’s done an absolutely amazing job and I’m so grateful to have her on the team.

The tour we’ve developed is pretty incredible and I'm more than a little sad I won't be there myself to witness it in action, but I am so ridiculously proud that we're able to launch a brand new tour while I'm away. It really shows me how much She Shapes History has grown, and I couldn't be prouder.

If you're keen to witness the magic that is this tour, we’re running it every Saturday in April as part of the Heritage Festival from 3pm to 5pm. It’s like nothing we’ve ever done before! You can book tickets via our website 💗

31/03/2024

I have some massive news everyone.

This is our last month running tours under the name of She Shapes History.

After a thorough analysis of our current financial situation and in light of the recent discussions surrounding the gender pay gap, we’ve concluded that rebranding could increase our revenue by at least 12%.

Consequently, we're shifting our focus to sharing how men have shaped history. Going forward, we will only feature women's stories when they are directly relevant to men's.

In line with our new direction, we will be letting all our guides go (sorry if you’re on the team and finding out this way) and will be looking for MALE guides to lead the tours.

If you know someone who would make a great guide, please tell them to send us an email at [email protected]. And in the spirit of full transparency, we will be adjusting our compensation scale, offering a 12% salary increase for new hires. It’s the right thing to do.

I’ll also be standing down as Director and will instead work as Deputy Director. I will continue doing the same work, just for less money and recognition.

We appreciate your understanding and support as we embark on this new chapter. It’s for the best.

I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about this change in direction in the comments.

29/03/2024

Despite a LOT of advocacy on our part, we still don’t have a commitment from the government that the Centenary of Women’s Suffrage Fountain is going to be updated any time soon (if at all!).

So, being the problem-solving, proactive folks that we are, we’ve decided to take matters into our own hands and start using the tour as an opportunity to update the fountain ourselves.

Until the fountain is fixed, when you join us on a tour, you’ll be given a piece of chalk and, when we reach the fountain, you’ll have the opportunity to add the names of the women and moments you think should be there.

26/03/2024

There are lots of new faces around here (and we just turned three?!), so I thought it’d be a good time to reintroduce myself and give a recap of our journey so far.

My name is Sita (she/her), and I run She Shapes History (SSH). While I have an amazing team of guides, currently it’s just me doing all the behind the scenes operations and marketing work.

These last three years running SSH have honestly been the hardest in my life. Starting and then scaling a business truly pushes you to your limits. Yet, for some insane reason I can’t imagine doing anything else.

In 2021, frustrated by the lack of accessible and engaging women’s history in Canberra, a friend and I started SSH. As problem-solving extroverts fresh out of a year-long lockdown, we decided to start running a weekly walking tour sharing Canberra’s women’s history.

Neither of us had any experience in tourism, Australian history, or running a business. We just saw a problem and decided to do something about it.

In 2022, my co-founder left, and two weeks later, my dad unexpectedly passed away (such terrible timing). I felt like the ground was pulled out from beneath my feet. It still feels that way sometimes.

I nearly didn’t return to running tours. The only reason I did was that I had just bought out my former business partner and felt I had no choice to try making it work.

In 2023, I started working full-time at my favourite museum. But to no one’s surprise, juggling an interesting but challenging job while also running a fast growing business wasn’t sustainable. I was doing 60+ hour weeks and was exhausted, burnt out, and was not in a good place mentally. I left that job later that year to focus full time on SSH.

It’s now 2024, and I’m traveling around Australia researching and writing a women’s history travel guide for a major Australian publisher. I am managing a team of 8 amazing guides remotely and am working to sustainably scale SSH. It’s only really been in the last 6 months that I’ve started to focus seriously on growing SSH.

Thank you to everyone who’s joined me on this journey. I hope it’s going to be a long one ❤️.

The first image is of me from a few days ago, on my journey traveling around Australia researching and writing this book. I'm at the end of a 15km hike, and it was taken on our actual 3-year anniversary. The second is from one of the first tours I ran after my dad passed away in 2022. And the third shows our very first tour group back in 2021.

21/03/2024

We are so excited to announce that we’ll be running an extremely limited edition tour as part of the 2024 Heritage Festival! 🌹✨

Uncover the scandals that rocked the city, the power couples that inspired a nation, and the everyday love stories that flourished despite government policies trying to stifle them.

You will absolutely LOVE this tour if you're into any of the following:

📚🎥 Romance novels + movies
🤫 Gossip
🇦🇺 Uncovering a *very* different side of Australian politics
😉 Our tours

Don't miss out on this really unique and rare opportunity to learn about love in the capital. 💖

Book your ticket here: https://www.sheshapeshistory.com.au/love-tour. Spots are extremely limited and this tour will likely sell out, so book in ASAP if you're interested in uncovering a hidden side of Canberra.

19/03/2024

Meet Margeaux (she/they) 👋🏼💖, our most recent addition to the She Shapes History team 🤗.

You’ll have the chance to meet them IRL every Sunday (plus some Saturdays) on our 'Spies in the Capital: Women in Espionage' tour.

Margeaux is a true townie, having grown up in Canberra. This means she’s a veteran spy spotter, so I wouldn’t bother trying to get anything past her. 🥸

Margeaux loves a good book (and talking about a good book) and knows how to make the perfect mug of tea (thanks to LOTS of practice).

They're a big fan of the performing arts, are a regular at the Canberra Theatre, and love a good movie night in (musicals are their favourite genre) 🎭.

We’re so incredibly excited to welcome Margeaux to the team!

You can book a tour here: www.sheshapeshistory.com.au/spytour 🕵🏼‍♀️.

18/03/2024

Some beautiful reviews from the week that was 💗

Looking forward to seeing you (maybe again!) on a tour soon 🥰

01/03/2024

I think a lot about the saying that the better the conversation, the better the nation.

What does it say, though, when the conversation we’re having is only informed by half our nation’s history?

If you ask me, it doesn’t seem like it would lead to a great conversation.

28/02/2024

Thank you to Australian Government Department of Education Pride Network for inviting us to be part of your Pride Week 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Zev delivered a (fantastic!) presentation on how hidden q***r histories influence the present and shape the future.

After Zev’s talk, they ran a special LGBTQIA+ history tour for members of the Pride Network 💗

This is also the second time the Department of Education has organised a tour for their Pride Network, and as a result, they are, hands down, our favourite pride network in Canberra 🫶🏽

If you want to be as cool as the Department of Education and have us come speak and/or give a tour, send us an email at [email protected] 🌚

22/02/2024

Eleri spoke to WIN News Canberra yesterday about why we need to update the fountain!

Sign the petition here: https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN5895

21/02/2024

So pleased that we’re able to support such an important award for a second year in a row 💗

We are delighted to announce that the MARION Book Awards are now open for entries!

The annual MARION Book Awards highlight and celebrate the excellence and talent of writers in and around the ACT region.

The MARION Book Awards are open to books published in 2023. Entries are received under the categories of children’s books, fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Submissions are welcome for both self-published and traditionally published works.

Submissions are due Monday 18 March. You can find out more on our website: https://marion.ink/marion-book-awards-2024

She Shapes History CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE National Triangle
Harry Hartog Bookseller Pulp BookCafe

21/02/2024

Big shout out to Eleri, who, in the last 48 hours, has taken part in three media interviews on behalf of She Shapes History (something I doubt she ever expected she’d be doing when she signed up to be a guide!).

📺 Last night, she was on ABC Canberra News at 7:30 PM, passionately defending Canberra’s honour against comments made by Queensland’s Premier that Canberra is an “awful place”.

☀️ This morning, she spoke to WIN News Canberra about the importance of fixing and updating the Centenary of Women’s Suffrage (we’ll let you know when it’s going to air!).

🇬🇧 And this afternoon, she took a visiting journalist from a major UK newspaper on an exclusive tour.

P.S. I want to apologise in advance because once the article from the major UK newspaper is released, it will be the only thing I will be talking about for a week straight 🙈😅

20/02/2024

Since the fountain is “temporarily closed” for repairs, now seems like a great time to also update it.

As we keep saying, it’s not enough to just build more statues of women when you haven’t taken the time to update and maintain the ones you already have. Updating the fountain would go a long way to significantly diversifying what is currently quite a racially unrepresentative space.

It would also be way cheaper than building a new statue [we’re not saying don’t do this btw] and would show that it’s not just white women who have contributed to shaping history through federal politics.

Aboriginal women, q***r women, and women of colour all deserve to have their achievements remembered and commemorated too.