In a whirlwind six-month journey across Australia, tour guide and activist Sita Sargeant set out with a bold mission: to uncover and amplify the stories of the women mainstream history has long left behind. What began as a weekly walking tour in Canberrahas now become a national movement in the form of both walking tours in three cities (with more to come!) and now a book.
Sita is the co-founder of She Shapes History, a growing network of walking tours designed to spotlight the hidden histories of Australia’s most overlooked communities. With over 500 tours under her belt alone and the recent release of her debut book, She Shapes History: Guided Walks and Stories About Great Australian Women (Hardie Grant Explore), Sita is helping to reframe not only how we understand the past but how we engage with the present.
“History helps us understand who we really are and how we got here,” Sita shared in an interview with STUN magazine. “But for too long, the stories of women, First Nations people, queer people, people of colour and disabled folk have been erased or ignored. The stories are there and you don’t have to look too far to find them, they’re just not being positioned as central stories.”
That’s where She Shapes History steps in. More than a tourist attraction or cultural activity, these tours are activist storytelling in motion. Currently running in Canberra, Sydney, and newly launched in Melbourne, the tours encourage participants to reimagine familiar streets and monuments. Each step is an invitation to ask: Who are we remembering, and who are we leaving out?
“The idea is simple,” said Sita. “To make history accessible, engaging, and inclusive by meeting people where they’re at. These are the stories every Australian should know, but most of us were never taught. I like to say we’re the guide to history you didn’t know you needed.”
The newly published book, which shares the stories of over 250 women across 31 towns and cities in Australia, is part travel guide, part crash course in Australian history, part political reckoning. It continues the mission on the page. For Sita, the decision to write She Shapes History came from both frustration and hope. “I realised how little respect was given to the women who built this country, and I knew I couldn’t just leave it like that.”
And she has. Sita’s work doesn’t shy away from hard truths. “The story of Australia, for anyone who is not a very wealthy white man, is filled with some pretty shitty moments,” she said bluntly. “But it’s also full of resistance, joy, and power. We don’t just inherit history, we shape it every single day.”
That message recently reached the highest levels of leadership. In an unexpected turn of events, Sita was invited to Government House for a private conversation with Australia’s Governor-General, Sam Mostyn. Mostyn had seen that Sita’s book was coming out online and wanted to talk about its implications for how the nation remembers and records its past.
“I was surprised at how seriously she took it,” Sita recalled. “It really hit me how much of an impact the book could have. We can reach so many more people than just the tours. People like the Governor-General shape how our country remembers itself.”
The presence of Mostyn’s speechwriter at the meeting underscored the gravity of the moment. “If someone with that many resources and that much power is turning to my book to make sense of Australia’s history… bloody oath, what does that mean for the rest of us?”
What it says, Sita believes, is that shaping history is not just for historians or politicians, it’s a responsibility we all share. “For a long time, women and queer people haven’t been given credit for shaping history, so we’ve had to find our own ways in. Often outside the systems that excluded us.”
Walking Queer History Into the Mainstream
One of the most powerful things about She Shapes History is its accessibility. The team is committed to meeting people where they’re at and becoming a gateway into history. The tours are designed for ages 13 and up, welcome dogs, are wheelchair- and pram-accessible, and move at a relaxed pace with time for sitting, chatting, and reflection. They’re also partnering with museums and galleries to bring women’s stories to life through their collections, and creating digital content on social media to reach even more people. The goal? To make women’s history mainstream. More than 8,500 people have already taken part.
Each tour is rooted in place and packed with untold stories, from civil rights heroes to artists, engineers, rebels, and community organisers. In Canberra, visitors can choose from routes like Badass Women of Canberra and Spies of the Capital, where tour guides create space for long-ignored stories to breathe. In Sydney, a new tour, Badass Women of Sydney, walks from Macquarie Street to The Rocks, weaving tales of Gadigal resistance, feminist protest, and architectural pioneers who fought (and often won) for space in a patriarchal world.
There’s so much to each city that rarely gets shared. One of Sita’s favourite stories is from Canberra and comes from the movement to decriminalise homosexuality in the ACT. In 1969, the Homosexual Law Reform Society of the ACT began quietly lobbying for change. “This was a time when homosexuality was illegal, and police actively hunted queer people,” Sita said. “But here was this coalition of allies, people from across industries and communities, pushing for dignity and legal recognition.” The story reminds us that for our LGBTQIA+ community allyship matters and has always been integral in making space for queer existences (and resistance).
Meanwhile, in Melbourne, the newest tours dive into the lives of women who built hospitals, launched activist movements, and transformed culture, usually without receiving any credit. These stories touch on race, class, disability, gender, colonisation, and queerness, always centering intersectional experiences of resistance and survival.
As a queer woman of colour herself, Sita understands the emotional weight of walking through places that have historically excluded people like her. She says, “We’ve always been here. We’re still here. And we’re not going anywhere.”
Beyond the Walk
What started as a local project in Canberra has rapidly evolved. She Shapes History now offers private bookings, partners with major museums and cultural institutions to activate women’s history, and is expanding its reach through social media, storytelling content, a podcast, and special one-off events — like their recent collaboration with TEDx Canberra and the National Portrait Gallery. More than just a tour company, it is becoming one of Australia’s most forward-thinking cultural platforms.
And it is not slowing down.
Sita dreams of an Australia where the experiences and contributions of marginalised communities are brought to the forefront. She envisions local guides and storytellers reclaiming their own communities’ narratives with pride and visibility.
That future feels a little closer, thanks to her work. For the thousands who have walked, listened, learned, and shared their own stories on tour, it is already changing how history feels. It is no longer just a list of dates and names. It is a living, breathing story we are all still writing.
“History is the story we choose to tell about the past, and the way we tell it shapes what we believe is possible,” Sita said. “When we tell history with honesty, care, and inclusivity, we make space for new ways of being and better ways of understanding each other.”
That is what Sita wants people to take away. History is not finished. It is still happening, and we all get to shape it.
Find out more about the tours at https://sheshapeshistory.com.au/
Find out more about the book at https://sheshapeshistory.com.au/she-shapes-history-guided-walks-and-stories-about-great-australian-women/
